With all the negative messages we are bombarded with on a daily basis, it can be difficult to keep a positive mindset. Everywhere you look on the news, on social media, in newspapers and magazine, on billboards and simply walking down the street, there are negative people dragging you down. How can you rise above the noise? Here are four ways to stay positive, despite your surroundings.
Don’t Give Away Your Power
First, you must understand that nobody can take away your joy without your permission. You might not be fully able to control all of the circumstances around you, and you cannot control anyone else’s reactions to the difficulties in their own lives. But you can certainly take control of your own thoughts, feelings and actions. How you respond to negativity around you is fully in your hands.
Minimize Interactions with Negative People
One of the first things you should do is to spend less time around negative people. You know who they are, right? They might be family and friends who you love very much, but they suck the life out of you like a vampire sucking on a jugular. These psychic vampires usually don’t even realize that they are doing it, but their effect has nothing to do with their intentions. You only have so much juice to go around, so if you want to keep them from draining you, then you need to stop giving them so much of your attention.
Fill Your Day with Positive Input
While blocking out the negative influences around you, the next step is to simultaneously feed on positivity. While you might have negative people all around you, the truth is that you also are surrounded by positivity. You just have to look for it. And you can also actively seek out positive food for your soul in the form of positive podcasts, videos, personal development books and interactions with people who lift your spirit.
While you’re at it, why not spread the love a little and pass that positivity onto others around you? It’s interesting that as you pour your own positivity into others, rather than it emptying you, it actually energizes you and fills you with even more positivity.
Embrace Gratitude
One of the easiest ways to stay positive is to stay grateful. Start your day by counting your blessings and recognizing how lucky you are to be alive in today’s world. Rather than get angry that you have to wait a long time for a flight, count yourself lucky that you can travel across the country in less than a day. People a hundred years ago could only dream of such convenience.
It’s unfortunate that there are a lot of negative people and influences out there, but you can resist that vibe and keep your chin up by refusing to give away your personal power and joy, by spending less time around negative people and negative messages in the media and by actively seeking out positive people and positive messages.