Three Best tips for positive change
What are the 3 best tips for positive change? Let’s face it while you might have the best intention of making positive changes by getting up before the sun rises to head out for a run, doing yoga, or meditating, if you don’t do it there is no amount of thinking that will equal to the change made if that action is done.
We all know that thoughts do not always lead to action. However, there is good news, that positive change does not have to be hard. Doing small tasks can retrain your little brain, the amygdala, where your unconscious thoughts live, to be more responsive, making positive change easier. By doing three small actions you can change defeating thoughts, increase happiness, productivity, mindfulness, and overall optimism, which of course will in turn get you closer to all the awesome goals you set.
Here are the three best tips that take little effort for positive change:
1. Build a Routine
Develop a practice of acknowledging gratitude every day. This can be done in the morning before you place your feet on the ground, helping to set the intention for you day. Or, it can be done in the evening before you close your eyes to sleep. You can employ this task as a mind activity or by writing in a gratitude journal. This daily practice helps to have a longer, more restful sleep and higher levels of positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, and energy (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).
If you have children don’t forget this practice can be done as regular bedtime routine, along with the great fun things you will hear them be grateful for it will help them develop a skill that can protect them from any hardships they may experience throughout their life.
2. Use your Words
When you are expressing yourself make sure to speak with positive words. Say “please” and “thank-you” to others and mind how you talk to yourself. Make sure you are using supporting and encouraging word when you speak. This practice will reverse the negative impressions that have been imprinted in your unconscious throughout your life. This will boost your self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth and increase your motivation to keep going.
3. Don’t Gossip and Limit Your Intake of Negative News
Part of being happy is spreading happiness. Practice the art of ignoring and dis-engaging in the awful chatter that encircles talking negatively about another person. If you feel the need to say something to someone that may be hurtful, think of a way to tell them personally in a positive way. Natural laws of what you give comes back to you will and does apply. So, if you have nothing good to say about someone it is best to say nothing at all.
In this same regard don’t saturate your thoughts with negative news. Most news keeps you engaged by providing shocking, awful depressing stories stirring and storing your negative emotions. Your mind is a muscle with memory if you fill it with sadness, anger, anxiety, or depression, awful is what will replay in your thoughts and actions. If you fill it with happiness, joyful inspiration, and supportive motivation, happiness, joyful inspiration, and supportive motivation is what will be replayed as well.
These small tasks will retrain your brain, and develop a habit of life satisfaction, and overall well-being. This will also increase your ability to see the positive in situations which not only lowers your blood pressure, improves your immune function, promotes happiness, and spur acts of helpfulness, generosity, and cooperation it also reduces lifetime risk for depression, anxiety, and substance abuse disorders (Emmons & Stern, 2013).
References:
Emmons, Robert A. and Stern, Robin. (2013). Gratitude as a Psychotherapeutic Intervention. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 69, 846– 855.
Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: Experimental studies of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 377–389.
