Practice positive affirmations
Shame unfortunately convinces many that they are unworthy or unlovable. Take time to praise and love yourself; for example, write down three things you like about yourself every day.
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Focus on Positivity
Small moments of positivity can make a big difference for your mental health. Try activities and tools to focus on positivity in your daily life.
Showing 1–8 of 10 results for “Sadness" and "Focus on Positivity”
Picture yourself at the top of your game
Be like Mike. He credits tapping in to the power of his mind—visualizing himself winning—to helping him become a master of basketball. And it’s is something you can try too. What’s the equivalent to making a basket, or winning a championship trophy in your life? If you picture yourself achieving this in your mind, your brain actually does the work to create a new neural pathway. In non-science speak, this means when you visualize something vividly, and repeatedly, the brain feels like you’ve actually done the thing you’ve imagined. So when the situation arises in real life, you can be calm in the moment and worry a little less about how to do the thing because you’ve already experienced it your mind.
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Think of the last time you felt a lot of joy
Visualization can have a powerful impact on your wellness or psyche. If you're in a funk or not feeling particularly inspired, try taking moment to think back on the last time you felt truly joyful. What sparked it? Is it a person, a place, a situation? Is there something you can do for yourself today that will maybe inspire that same emotion? Investing in your own personal joy is always worth it.
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Reward your achievements
Do something nice for yourself after you complete a task or have a win—big or small. This might be taking a break, talking to a friend, or getting outside for a bit.
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Seek out things that make you happy
Look for ways to give your mind a break and find moments of happiness, including keeping up with hobbies and interests or exploring new ones. As an added bonus, participating in fun and engaging activities helps us develop resiliency and healthy coping mechanisms, and may even increase how long you live, according to The National Institute on Aging.
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Acknowledge and avoid negative self-talk
Stress or worry might lead you to interpret situations negatively, be overly self-critical, or doubt you ability to deal with stressors. To reframe negative thoughts, avoid thinking of them as facts and consider other possibilities. Doing this over time can help reduce the negative emotional response to stress. The world is hard enough, you don't need to be hard on yourself, too.
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Create an upbeat playlist
Aside from just sounding good, research shows that listening to music actually increases blood flow to regions in your brain that generate and control emotions. And studies show that faster music (usually performed at a tempo between 140 and 150 beats per minute) tends to generate more positive emotions than slower music. Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” (at 156 BPM) is just one example of a song that might give you some positive emotions—it's the first of 10 in a research-backed playlist. But don't let us stop you from making your own playlist of songs that feel good to you.
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Write down a few things you're grateful for
When you're struggling, it can understandably be challenging to find the silver linings in the world around you. Our brains don't help us by being designed to notice the negative and the danger. But taking the time to physically write down the things in your life you feel grateful for—even things as simple as the food you eat and bed you sleep in—can have tangible health benefits. You can do this at the end of the day, noting the good things about your day as well. When you're able to channel energy towards things you're grateful for, it can make the things you're struggling with not feel as overwhelming. It is not toxic positivity, and telling you to ignore the hard things, it is just helping you to notice the good in the sea of bad.
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