How to Cultivate a Positive Mindset

Having a positive mindset allows you to lead a more fulfilled, healthier and happier life. It enables you to be the person everyone wants to be around because you emanate such a positive energy. When alone, you feel at peace and accomplished and can enjoy being in the moment. In our lives, though, it is not common to achieve and maintain that state, because we learn to focus on the negative by example. So, how can we cultivate a positive mindset?

The first thing that is important to note is this: when you meet a person that exudes positivity, you can probably assume it wasn’t a characteristic they were born with. Having a positive mindset it not like being born left handed: it is a quality we learn and develop.

Cultivating the Garden of Positivity

Just like a farmer with his crop, you need to cultivate the energy in your mind to give you a good crop. You must weed the bad out, and water the good. When you tend to your plantation or garden everyday and make sure only what you want to see thriving there gets a chance, you will get the results you want. So it is with your mind and positive thoughts.

If you have constant negative thoughts, and do nothing to shift that pattern, it will breed more negative thoughts and feelings. When you make a decision to change this cycle, however, and guide your mind to an improved state of being, you will notice a shift in your energy, thoughts and feelings to more positive ones.

How to Shift our Mindset

In our stressful day to day routines, when every event seems designed to elevate our blood pressure, it is hard to see how to achieve this. Everywhere we turn to, there’s a new responsibility, a new conflict, a new problem to deal with, a new aggravation. How can we cultivate a positive mindset?

There are techniques I will list here. It is not impossible, but it does take you deciding it is something you want to do; as it may be challenging breaking familiar patterns in the beginning.

Implement the steps below, one or multiple at a time. They will allow you to achieve shift you were not aware you were capable of.

If you want an additional tool, I recommend watching this Bob Proctor’s video that explains what is getting in your way and how to overcome it. (Please note this is an affiliate link).

Surround Yourself With Positivity

You are probably familiar with the expression “you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with”. This was an idea originally spread by motivational speaker Jim Rohn. This applies to the environment you create around you as well. Selecting the people you surround yourself with is just a part of it. Your environment also has an effect on the quality of thoughts that reside your mind.

Of course you should reassess if that colleague whose favorite sport is to complain nonstop is worth your time. But remember that the programs you watch, books you read, podcasts you listen to, affirmations you surround yourself with, courses you take (workshops, seminars, lectures), also should be selected with this end goal in mind. Are they inspiring you to be better? Are they focusing on your personal growth? Are they aimed at a higher good?

Meditate

The benefits of meditation have been extensively documented, however, improving your mindset was probably not one you have heard about. Remember one of the characteristics of meditation is to observe your thoughts, without judgement. By doing so, you are able to remove the negative associations you would ordinarily assign to them. When you look at an event objectively, you may find it easier to find what was the good that came from it.

Practice Gratitude

You will find that the practice of gratitude is a constant in this website. This is just because it is such a powerful tool to raise your energy, and so easy to practice. All it takes is some dedication to turn it into a habit. Taking time daily to feel gratitude for the good that there is, is one of the easiest and most effective ways to cultivate a positive mindset.

When we bring our attention to the things that make us feel grateful, the effects are immediate. We promote the production of feel good hormones, feel happier, lower our blood pressure and stress hormones. When that includes other people we are saying thanks to, it spreads even more positivity. Think of someone today you can say thank you to. It will brighten up their day (and yours, too).

Tackle your Negative Beliefs

Negative beliefs live in our heads because we allowed them to come in, then to settle. When you think things such as “I’m not likeable”, or “I can’t cook”, these are negative (or limiting) beliefs. They start off after one bad experience and burrow themselves into our brains as soon as we find “evidence” they might be true. Maybe you burnt rice twice. Now you believe there is no salvation to your cooking. Who’s to say?

Identify them. Question them. Find evidence of the opposite. Money can grow on trees.

Celebrate Small Wins

Our mind has a tendency to attach to negative thoughts for much longer than to positive ones. When you intentionally focus on feeling good even about your smaller wins, you train your mind to do better. You create new neural pathways.

Set smaller goals across the way to your bigger goals and celebrate them, too. Take some time to recognize the results of your efforts. Reward yourself. Self reinforcement helps establish new patterns, making you repeat the behavior and trigger positive thoughts and feelings every time you get a small win. And that’s a big win.

Conclusion

Finding peace, happiness and achieving a positive mindset don’t need to wait until the weekend, the vacation, or retirement. It can be done here, now, today. It can be done in the middle of chaos and life’s ups and downs. It can be done in the middle of the road you’re on. It should be part of your present. Don’t wait for the conditions to be perfect… they will never be. Cultivating a positive mindset happens like that: when you decide it to.