Positivity is a mindset. We all have the ability to turn on positive feelings. To do so, takes honesty and an authentic look at your present state of mind to allow yourself to find the good. If you tap into what’s right about your current circumstance or what’s wrong with it, you’ll elicit opposite emotions and behaviours. Positive emotions will expand your ideas about possible action, unlike negative emotions that will narrow your ideas about your behaviour and reactions. This dependency of thinking about the positives is what makes positivity so fragile.

After ten years of research, Barbara Frederickson, a pioneer of positivity, outlined the following emotions that help elicit a state of positivity: Joy, Gratitude, Serenity, Interest, Hope, Pride, Amusement, Inspiration, Awe, and Love. Notice that happiness is not among this list, that’s because happiness is a judgment about life. Happiness is the overall outcome of many positive moments. Instead, if you focus on your day-to-day feelings, you will end up building a resource and becoming the best version of yourself. In the long-term you’ll be happier with life. Rather than staring down happiness as your goal and asking yourself “How do I get there?” think about how to create positive emotions in the moment.

12 WAYS TO BECOME MORE POSITIVE:

1. Be Open- Temporarily rid your mind of expectations and judgments. Often these cloud our ability to be open. Give yourself permission and time to experience the present moment. No matter what you encounter in your day, experiment with awareness and acceptance.

2. Create Quality Connections- Notice how different you feel compared with when you’re gossiping with or oblivious to others.

3. Cultivate Kindness- Give yourself a goal of performing 5 new acts of kindness each day. Aim for actions that make a difference and come to some cost to you, such as donating blood.

4. Develop Distractions- Distractions are important for breaking the cycle of rumination and redirecting needless negativity. The goal is to get your mind off your worries. The best distractions demand your full attention, so that when you emerge your cleansed of your negativity.

5. Dispute Negative Thinking- When a negative thought arises, dispute the thoughts with facts.

6. Find Nature- Get outside and find a few places you can get to that will connect you to trees, water or the sky. These have been researched to boost positivity.

7. Learn and Apply your Strengths- Take a free online survey from www.AuthenticHappiness.com that ranks your top 24 strengths. Allow yourself plenty of time to complete the 240 item measure. Once you have learned your strengths apply them to redesign your job and life, so that you can use them daily.

8. Mediate Mindfully- Find a quit place where you can sit comfortably without distraction. Take a few deep breathes and notice where you feel your breath. Always bring yourself back to yourself when your mind wanders. Observe your mind in action and practice being where you are now. Attending to your breathe is a vehicle for strengthen your ability to stay present.

9. Mediate with Guided Imagery- Start by focusing on your breath. Once your grounded, reflect on a person for whom you already feel warm and compassionate towards. Visualize how being with that person makes you feel. Thereafter, extent that warm feeling towards yourself. These feelings of love and compassionate will create positivity in you.

10. Savor Positivity- Remember a past moment of positivity and allow yourself time to visualize this moment. The goal is to savor these valuable good feelings in your mind.

11. Visualize your Future- Imagine yourself 10 years from now, after everything has gone as well as it possibility could. You have worked hard on your goals and succeeded. Visualize where and how you would be if all your current dreams came true. From these dreams, draw out what purpose you want to drive you?

12. Experience the 10 Positive Emotions- Think of the 10 positive emotions and when you felt each of these emotions. Rearrange your daily routine to capture these emotions.

*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA