How To Be Positive & Have An Awesome Day!!
So you wake up to the sound of an annoying alarm, you’re dead tired, and you just feel out of sorts.
Sounds like you?
How do you get up and start your day – or even get out of bed if you feel like this, especially in the winter months?
The good news is that just because you wake up in a bad or low mood (or fall into one later) doesn’t mean you need to stay there. There are mental and physical techniques you can use to shift your mood.
One such technique is the practice of positive thinking. How Can You Do This? Use Body-Mind Methods
Leanne and Fitness Tips Say:
Breathe Deliberately
Practice grateful thoughts and deep diaphragmatic breathing.
Use Body Scanning
When you wake up, get in the habit of scanning your body. Is there any tension in your body? Feeling out of sorts is negative energy held in the body. Recognize the tension as negative energy and start to know exactly the intensity of this by scoring it on a scale of 1–10 (with 1 being very low negative energy and 10 being major negative energy).
Having established where you are on the scale, do the following:
Remember a time when you were at your best (on a positive energy scale of 1–10, choose a time when you would give a high score of at least an 8), and visualize it, feeling warm and peaceful. Notice your breathing, changing your breathing rate is very powerful, as this changes the tension in the body, and start to inhale for 6 counts and exhale on 6. Do this for the time that it takes you to get out of the bathroom and get dressed.
Smile and look up with your eyes to the ceiling and keep them there with the smile for at least 30 seconds. Sounds crazy – try it once, try it every day!
Meditate
Meditation helps shift negative focus to a positive one. Meditate by drawing attention to your breath, taking in positive energy with each inhalation and releasing negative energy with each exhalation. Sometimes, doing this for 5 minutes is all it takes. If not, picture a drawer, wardrobe and window in your mind. Imagine putting small issues in the drawer, larger issues in the wardrobe and things that are out of your control out the window, closing each in turn as you leave problems to be dealt with either at a more appropriate time or by a higher power (those things you have no control over). Imagine light pouring into the top of your head and down through your body, filling you with light that radiates out to the people you meet each day. Remember that exercise brings out bad feelings as you move your body to music that has meaning to you.
Get Out of Bed – Again
If you step out of bed in a bad mood, try again. Get back into the bed and lie for a moment or two to shift your perception. Then repeat your movement of getting out of bed a different way e.g. On the other side of the bed, from the bottom edge of the bed or from the same spot as before, but hopping, jumping or sliding to the floor.
Shift Negative Thoughts to Neutral or Positive Ones. Even though it does require some effort to get out of a bad mood, it can be done.
Every time a negative thought comes into your head, you need to literally tell yourself to ‘stop thinking that thought’ and then replace it with something neutral and, preferably, positive. Removing negative thoughts is the only sure-fire way to get yourself into a better mood.
Do a Drop-Your-Energy Exercise.
Try this:
Notice where your energy is. Is it up on your shoulders and inside your head, feeding all those thoughts that are running along like an overworked machine? Immediately take a deep breath, inhale through the nose, exhale through the lips and focus on feeling your energy dropping to just below your belly button. Now hold a little tension, thereby pulling the belly button in toward your spine. Repeat three times, each time extending the time of your inhalation, then exhale until you can manage 10 seconds inhale and 10 seconds exhale. Lengthen your leg muscles, and imagine them stretching all the way to a spot just below your belly button. Visualize you are rooted to the ground and your roots (like a big tree) are growing and spreading deep and wide down into the earth. This will immediately make you feel more grounded and centered; this is the posture that brings your mind back to the present.
Sing or Dance to Music
Turn on some music to change your thoughts in a positive direction.
Turn Your Focus Away From You
Turn your thoughts towards people you have helped, focus on what other people are doing to help the community – get involved.
Smile
Actual smiling can also help you kick your negative mood. Research has shown that simply smiling can change your facial expression, alter your thoughts and change your body’s physiology. It is hard to be in a foul mood when you are smiling.
For a Consistent Positive Mood
Being able to shake off a bad mood at the moment is a positive tool. However, you can also proactively work to shift things in your life so that your bad moods occur less often.
Change What’s Bugging You
The only way you can change your mood is to make active attempts to do so. Instead of dwelling on dark or angry feelings, decide to focus your thoughts on coming up with solutions. For example, if the sound of your alarm clock makes you feel like smashing it to bits, don’t continuously think about how much you hate your alarm clock. Instead, shift your thinking to what type of sound you would like to hear or the manner in which you would like to be awakened in the mornings. Then make a plan to get a new alarm clock or wake-up device.
Create a Good Morning
To help ensure that you don’t wake up on the wrong side of the bed, consider your morning routine – make sure that you are including things that will get your day off to a pleasant start, not just going through the motions. Think of something that you really enjoy doing in the morning, and figure out a way to incorporate it.
Eat Well
If you don’t drink enough water or ignore your daily nutritional needs, you may find yourself in a bad mood more often than you want.
Increase Your Patience
Developing greater patience leads to a more positive attitude. How can we be positive if we are always in a hurry? We need patience with ourselves and everyone around us.
