The Mayo Clinic lists 5 ways to increase your positivity:
- Check yourself for negativity often
- Be open to humor
- Live a healthy lifestyle
- Keep the company of positive people
- Practice positive self-talk
Emphasize the things that you can do rather than the things you can’t do. I just read about a quadruple amputee who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro- each of us can achieve our goals if we try.
A big belly laugh stimulates endorphins, mobilizes the stomach and releases negative energy. As we get older, many of us move less, our attitudes harden, our abdominal areas become more swampy. Humor allows us to transform these in several ways.
The basics of a healthy lifestyle emphasize proper sleep, diet and attitude with connection to the natural world around you. Take time out every day to reflect on your place in the natural order of life, go outside and open yourself to the natural world.
Positive people support you, laugh with you, listen to you and share. Look around and find those people in your life who offer you these atributes- thank them for their positive presence in your life and be that person to others.
Each of us talks to ourselves. Be kind to yourself.
“Desiderata” (Latin: desired things) by Max Ehrmann 1927
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all it sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
The oft-repeated words of Max Ehrmann remind us that we have a right to be happy and envision a positive world for ourselves. If you are not as positive as you think you should be, keep a copy of this Desiderata with you. Your work and personal life will benefit from your enhanced positivity.