What does “embracing the positive” mean?

Have you ever noticed that failures seem to stay in our minds much longer than successes? In her TED Talk, Alison Ledgerwood talks about why our minds tend to focus on the bad and how we can train them to focus on the good. Ledgerwood found through a series of experiments that once we think of something as a loss, we tend to keep thinking that way even when we try to change it. But if we choose to focus on the good things, we can retrain our minds to see the bright side, thus embracing the positive.

To live a full life, we need to start each day with happiness and positivity, and it all starts with wanting to feel happy. Negative thoughts and feelings are often caused by thinking too much about the past or the present. Taking time away from stressors and focusing on positive thoughts can retrain the mind. By giving positive thoughts a lot of importance and time, negative thoughts and feelings that keep coming back can be changed.

This can be done by doing things like answering positive questions three times a day and picturing oneself as they would like to be. Learning to hope for the best and taking steps toward goals that can be reached can also help you feel better and do better.

Worrying and stressing out can hurt both the mind and the body, so it's important to stay in the moment and not let bad thoughts take over. When you have a problem, you can find solutions by getting the right information and trusting your gut.

Lastly, it can be hard to deal with heartache and loss, but getting back to normal activities and trying not to think about the bad things can help you move on and heal. Overall, making a conscious effort to change your thoughts and embrace the positives in life can give you more personal power and happiness.

So, what can we do to make ourselves feel better?

Well to start, here a 8 ways to become a more positive person right away. These tips are simple, but they work and help you become more optimistic about life!

1. Smile! Even though it seems like a small thing, smiling can give you more energy and make you seem happier right away. Pay attention to what your face is saying and try to smile and relax a little.

2. Think about what you like instead of what you don't. Think about three things you like about your job, your family, or even something hard. Focusing on the good things can make you feel better right away.

3. Think about what you have instead of what you don't have. Adopt a mind-set of abundance and focus on what you do have instead of what you don't.

4. Tell people the good things that happen in your life instead of complaining about your problems.

5. Don't think about what you can't do; think about what you can. Accept what you can't do and focus on what you can. By doing this, you can put yourself in a position to help people and make money at the same time.

6. Practice gratitude. Take a moment to enjoy what you have right now without doing anything to change it. You can have a positive view of your life if you think about what you're truly grateful for. Write down three things you’re thankful for everyday.

7. Make improvements on purpose. Think about what you could do to make your life better in the next hour. By doing these things, you can make small but important changes that will make you a happier person.

8. Put more attention on the good things in our communities. One small act of kindness can start a chain reaction that spreads happiness and lifts everyone's mood.
Keep in mind that these tips are simple but very useful. You can learn to see that the glass is a little more full than you first thought if you work hard to change your mind and focus on the good.

In addition to those 8 tips, we’ve highlighted 3 more in depth ways and practices to embrace the positive and become more optimistic.

Prayer
This is a powerful prayer for positivity. This prayer was written with the intention of lifting up anyone who hears it. All that is asked is for you to join in agreement as we come before God. This prayer is not limited to a specific religion or belief system, but instead, is open to anyone who desires spiritual positivity. We encourage you to meditate on this prayer, say it daily, or listen to it repeatedly, allowing God's word to penetrate deep into your spirit. Let’s say a prayer:

God,

I give up any anger, bad feelings, resentment, or other wrong attitude before You right now. I give it to You, and I let go of and forgive the people who have hurt me.

There is no distance in the spirit, and I ask you for a prayer for positive thoughts. You have given me the power to decide what I think about. I might not always be able to control what thoughts come into my mind, but I can decide if those thoughts stay there.

I'm grateful for Your kindness and forgiveness. Please allow me to quickly and easily forgive myself for getting stuck in low-level thoughts about all the things I lack or am not good at right now.

I ask you to help me take charge of my life and what I think about, no longer giving negative thoughts a place to live in my head. When bad thoughts come, help me to push them away and replace them with good thoughts and positivity. I am not a failure; with you, I am a success. I haven't lost; in fact, You who give me strength, and make me more than a winner.

I thank You for all the good things that people here on earth can enjoy. It's amazing! Help me to keep those things in mind.
Help me to think about what is true, worthy of respect, and good. Help me to embrace positivity and light.

Amen

Reprogramming your mind
We’ve already touched a little bit on retraining your mind, but let’s dive deeper. The good news is that you don't always have to re-program. Instead, it's more about setting up our minds for the first time, which means understanding how our past experiences shape our thoughts and actions.

Our minds have two ways to think: one is automatic and out of our control, and the other is conscious and planned. To get rid of negative thoughts and feelings that keep coming back, we must learn to control our minds and change the way we think.

The framework of relative weight of importance and duration (WID) is used to explain how our thoughts become strong, automatic patterns. People keep having negative thoughts and feelings because they give them a lot of importance and time. But if we give positive thoughts a lot of importance and time, we can turn away from negative thoughts and stop them from sticking around.

Here is a practical idea for reprogramming our minds. Make a sheet with five positive questions to answer three times a day. Also on this sheet add three words to describe our ideal self. This exercise helps us retrain our minds and change the way we think about things to be more positive.

Even if you suffer from mental health troubles, you can change the way your mind works if you try and pay attention to how you feel. By doing this, we can give ourselves more power and build a brighter, more satisfying future. So, let's put in the work to retrain our minds and start looking for the good in every situation. With practice, we can learn to focus on the good and live happier, more satisfying lives.

Meditation
Here is a short meditation practice to welcome more positivity into your life:

Close your eyes and take a moment to sit down and get comfortable. Start by telling God how thankful you are for the good things in your life. When you are finished, begin to relax. Starting with your face, slowly release all the tension from your muscles in your body, moving down to your shoulders, and then toes, until finally your whole body is relaxed.

Watch your breath and let it move on its own. Don't worry if you have thoughts. Just notice them and let them pass like clouds.
Try picturing good energy coming in when you breathe in and bad energy going out when you breathe out.

Take a couple of minutes to say encouraging things to yourself. Be positive, not critical, and breathe in the encouragement while letting go of the negativity.

Remember that you can use these tools at any time to relax your body, get more energy, and clear your mind. Take a deep breath, open your eyes, and be grateful and optimistic about the world around you. Namaste.

Why positivity?

In the end, to embrace the positive means to turn our attention away from bad thoughts and feelings and toward the good things in life. It takes work to change the way we think and retrain our minds to look on the bright side. Positive and happy thoughts at the beginning of each day can set the tone for a more fulfilling life. We can do this by taking time away from things that stress us out, practicing gratitude, and putting our attention on what we have rather than what we don't have. We can also change the way our minds work by giving positive thoughts more time and importance than negative ones. Lastly, we can do meditation every day to help us relax, clear our minds, and let more good things into our lives. Let's promise to look for the good in things and live happier, more satisfying lives. Try out the tips and ideas we've given, and start taking steps today to become a more positive person.

Other related articles:

How to Create Positive Energy in Your Daily Routine
The Power of Daily Affirmations
The Power of Positive Psychology
Toxic Positivity is Hurting Your Wellbeing

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Posted 
Mar 21, 2023
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