Having A Positive Mind
What does it mean to have a positive mind? People who maintain a positive mind are not necessarily people who have not gone through any hardship. It is the opposite. People who maintain a positive mind do so in the face of adversity. Having a positive mind means a lot of things. Having a positive mind for one person may mean welcoming challenges and using those challenges as an opportunity for growth and change. Having a positive mind for another person can mean accepting a difficult situation, learning from that situation, and bettering themselves because of it. Having a positive mind does not mean overthinking and having negative thought spirals. Having a positive mind does not mean shifting responsibility to another person or circumstance. We can only truly have a positive mind when we accept responsibility for what is in our control. Refusal to accept responsibility for our lives can lead to reckless behavior and having a negative view of life. So often people end up in unfortunate circumstances which are not of their own doing. People lose jobs, they may have a cheating partner, people fall ill. Even in these terribly difficult circumstances all of us are still responsible for our own healing, happiness, and wellbeing. Nobody else can achieve these things for us. Having a positive mind does not mean being happy constantly. In fact, having a positive mind means giving yourself space to feel whatever emotions that you are feeling. These emotions can range from anger, jealousy, sadness, and disappointment. The key to having a positive mind is allowing yourself to feel these negative emotions and releasing them. Once you feel these negative emotions and release them, you are now able to better yourself and create a better future. Bettering yourself may mean upgrading your education to increase your employment opportunities. Creating a better life may mean not repeating past relationships mistakes such as ignoring red flags. Creating a positive outcome from illness can also mean lifestyle changes and healthy choices. This is what it means to have a positive mind. There is a harmful misconception that having a positive mind means not experiencing negative emotions. Refusal to experience negative emotions will only prolong one’s suffering. Suppressing negative emotions instead of processing those emotions and letting them go will only harm you. This is indeed toxic positivity. Healthy positivity means giving yourself the time and space to grief and then moving on to a better situation. When something unfortunate happens, it is going to get worse before it gets better. It is necessary to allow yourself time to grieve. Afterwards you can positively frame what happened as an opportunity for growth. It is only once we do this can we live a happy life and have a positive mind.
Toxic Positivity
Toxic positivity is society’s tendency to promote positivity constantly and discourage negative feelings. To discourage negative feelings is to deny your own humanity. Having both positive and negative feelings is what makes us human. The difference between being a negative person and having a positive mind is our ability to experience our negative emotions and create a better outcome. There are some who refuse to experience negative emotions which only keep them stuck and unable to process their feelings. There are others who do process their negative feelings but remain in a perpetual state of rumination. The key after emotional processing is moving on to create a better outcome.
Positivity and accountability
Having a positive mind means being accountable for creating better outcomes in your life. This means taking the necessary steps to advance in your career, developing better relationships, and living a healthier lifestyle. Positive thinking is less effective when you are not taking any steps to improve your life. Having a positive mind means utilizing the proper avenues and keeping an open mind as to how you will achieve your goals. If something does not work out one way, then you can explore other options on how to make it happen another way. It is okay to take a step back, give space and time to your feelings to recover from anger, sadness, and disappointment. After you have done this, you can plan to create better outcomes and strategize to achieve your goals. This can only happen by implementing your plan.
Positivity and stress management
Everybody knows when we are under stress, we are not ourselves anymore. Perpetual stress can cause a wide range of health problems as well as change a person’s personality. We can all become pessimistic and negative when we are under perpetual stress and do not know how to cope. It is only once we are free from stress, we can be our authentic and happy selves. It is important to take steps to reduce stress, one way this can be done is through integrating relaxing, healthy massages into your lifestyle. This activity can be integrated with having the correct emotional responses, the proper mental framework and living a healthy lifestyle.
