Today I will be talking you through how to develop a positive mindset.

Being positive can sometimes feel like a daunting challenge, especially when you are stuck in a negative rut. At the same time, however, it’s not always as difficult as you may think.

When you are stuck in a negative rut, it can seem incredibly difficult to focus on anything that is good, but once you finally do, you will then truly see how easy it is to be more positive.

I was in a negative frame of mind for a long time, about 5 years in fact. My life was a mess and I could not think about anything positive.

It didn’t really help that I was simply too tired to focus on my thoughts, let alone anything positive.

Once I finally started to make a conscious effort to change my thinking, only then was I able to start focusing on more positive thoughts.

As I became conscious of the thoughts that I was thinking, the difference was night and day.

In a short period of time, I had been able to overcome my negative thoughts and found more positive ones to replace them with.

Being positive is easier than you think! It’s just that in the heat of the moment, it can feel next to impossible.

With just a few small mindset changes, you can be happier and be more positive regardless of your current situation.

I want to share some things with you that have helped me, and I truly believe that if you put these into practice, they will help you achieve a positive mindset.

This is an easy to follow guide of tips and advice on how to develop a positive mindset.

How to Develop a Positive Mindset – Ultimate Guide!

Your thoughts shape your life

One of the very first things I learned from my own personal development journey is that everything starts with a sentence.

Everything you do in life, your achievements, failures, and others are shaped by sentences – thoughts in your mind.

A thought is a sentence you repeat over and over again in your mind until it becomes your belief.

Are you with me?

The equation goes a little something like this:

Thoughts → Feelings → Actions → Results

Everything starts with a thought; I mean think about it…

If you’re not happy about the results you have in your life, you have the power to change everything by simply changing your thoughts.

When you change your thoughts, your feelings and the way you take action follows.

It’s all tied together. Trace your results back to your thoughts and make adjustments that feel good to YOU.

Put this is into practice and it’s a massive step towards achieving a positive mindset.

Identify your negative beliefs, thoughts and actions

You really need to identify why you are in a negative mindset. What thoughts do you have when you identify something as bad instead of neutral or good?

Do you have certain beliefs in yourself? Are there things you do in your daily life that make you think negative about life?

This might take some time to find out, but as soon as you have the core problems you can start changing them into positive thoughts, actions and beliefs.

Change the bad things out for good ones. This will be a constant training to be positive, but it gets easier really fast.

Turn your negatives into a positive

Consciously choose to find the positive in bad times and don’t allow negativity to define your happiness.

This forms life-long habits of happiness and positive thinking.

It’s one of the ways to get through ANYTHING, no matter how terrible. It’s not “I’ll be happy when” it’s “I am happy now. I choose happiness and I choose to SHIFT the focus on the positive in my life.“⠀

Affirmations

I’m sometimes a bit reluctant to mention affirmations as I think you generally either love them or hate them – but as cheesy as they can be, reciting an affirmation can be really helpful for creating a more positive mindset.

I always prefer to write my own ones based on what I’m struggling with kind of reversed.

At the moment I have an affirmation that is ‘I am happy and positive even when I can’t control the situation or outcome’.

Think about where the negativity is and see if you can flip it into a positive statement.

I was stressing out over a situation I couldn’t control, so my affirmation is really helpful to remind me that even when I can’t be in control, I can still be happy and positive.

Just saying it to myself when I wake up, or when I’m having a bit of a wobble can help.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is another practice that benefits the mind. To simply put it, mindfulness is an act of intentional living.

Intentional Living in the sense that it requires you to bring consciously bring your attention to the now and focus with all of your senses on all that is occurring at the present moment.

This state of mind can be easily achieved through the practice of constant mindfulness living and meditation.

For example, when you are completing a simple task such as washing up, give your 100% attention to it and do not let you mind take over. Every time your mind starts thinking thoughts, revert back to the task in hand with 100% attention.

When you are living in the present moment, the gap in consciousness becomes longer and the thoughts and illusions of the mind quiet down with it.

The more you practice the more at peace you become.

Enjoy the process while working toward goals

I try to live in the present moment as much as possible in my life, but how do you focus on the present while you’re busy working toward your goals for the future?

It’s an interesting paradox that I struggled with for a while.

Over time, I realised that you can set goals for the future, but you have to be present and focused while you’re working to accomplish them.

I used to always rush through projects just to get them over with, but I realised that’s not a good way to live my life.

Instead, I told myself to enjoy the process a little bit more.

When you’re always rushing through things in order to move on to the next project, you miss opportunities to be creative and produce your best work.

These days, I try to be more present when I’m working on something.

Reflection is important, so I’ve started doing weekly and monthly check-ins with myself to stop myself from charging ahead into the future.

Practice being grateful

Take the time each day to write down some of the things that you are most grateful for.

Whether it is sunny days, a good night spent with your family or friends, a job that you love going to, or even just the gift of life, write down some of the things that make you happy and that you are grateful for.

Practicing gratitude is one of the best things that you can do to immediately shift your perspective. It’s why I recommend keeping a daily gratitude journal, and it’s why I do keep one.

It’s a great way to help remind you of all of life’s blessings and will help to keep them at the forefront of your mind.

Gratitude journals are a great way to bring some self-care into your daily routine and they only take about 10-15 minutes out of your day.

Try adding them either into your morning routine or right before bed.

Either way, they are a great way to reflect on positives in your life and remind you that no matter how you feel there are positives to be thankful for.

Plus, they are easily affordable! This one is only £6, bargain! Or, you can also just use any notebook you have and write the date and 1-5 things you are grateful for that day.

Learn to accept the situations in your life

Learn to accept what is out of your control. Doing this will help reduce stress & save you countlessly asking yourself “Why me? Why now?”.

Instead of resisting a situation that you can’t control or trying to control it, accept it.

Then, you can shift your focus on how you will cope and walk through the curveball life threw at you and come out better on the other side.

This mindset shift will enable you to start building STRENGTH & RESILIENCE, and be able to always get up no matter how many times you fall down.⠀

Listen to what your body is telling you

It’s very easy to let your negative feelings spiral out of control when you’re running low on fuel or sleep.

Make sure that you eat regularly, and grab a healthy snack if you start to feel hungry between meals – also, as much as you can manage, try to get enough sleep.

If you’re really tired, it’s surprising how much taking a quick nap will improve your perspective on a situation.

Remove toxic people and situations from your life

There are always things that you think about too much. Most of the time situations that are from the past and that you can’t change anything about.

Leave them behind and look forward, maybe talk about it with someone or even a person involved in the problem if it helps you to leave it behind.

Also cut negative and toxic people out of your life – you don’t need them.

Nobody that is making you feel bad is your friend, stop running after people who only drain your energy or manipulate you.

This will make the biggest difference in your life.

Believe in yourself

Lastly, how do you switch your negative thoughts to positive? The answer is, by believing in yourself.

You will be amazed by the power you possess, once you start believing that there’s literally nothing you can’t do.

The best way to overcome self-doubt and start believing in yourself is through asking yourself a simple question ‘why do you doubt your abilities?’

when you uncover the answer you will realise how your mind made a huge deal out of something so petty, like worrying about what other people thought of you in a certain situation.

It’s time you stop worrying about what other people think and put yourself first and make your decisions with you in mind, no one else.

How to Develop a Positive Mindset – Final thoughts

Life is not always easy. In fact, there are times where it is incredibly difficult to make any headway. However, it is our own perspective that ultimately determines what we do in life and the things that we accomplish.

You aren’t always going to have control of every situation, but you will always have control of your perception.

Keep your head high, put one foot in front of the other, and focus on seeing the good in every situation. That’s how you are going to be more positive of a person.

I would love to hear your thoughts on what you are doing to change your life in the coming days and years!

If you have any questions please reach out to me via adam@adam-lawrence.org. I would love to hear from you!

I really hope you found inspiration in this article.

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Adam

Hello! My name is Adam and welcome to my space on the internet. Here you can find me writing about subjects such as spiritual growth, self-discovery, wellbeing, addiction recovery and mental health. Please connect with me on my journey and join the community!