How To Stay Positive In A Negative Environment

I know how hard things are right now. We’ve had a rough year and it’s not going to magically improve just because the calendar changed. There is so much potential for 2021, but it all comes back to what you are focused on getting out of the year. You have the power to use a positive mindset to bring affluence into your life.

Does Positive Thinking Even Matter These Days?

YES! 100% yes! Positivity is hugely important right now and will make all the difference.

“Fear energy” will drain our power. If we are operating from a place of fear, then we are only reacting to perceptions and not creating opportunities. When we are looking for the negative side of things, we will find it! If we look for the positive aspects in situations and focus on creating our reality, then we will have a different perspective.

I talk about this quite a bit in my book Remembering Wholeness. I wrote this book 20 years ago and it’s more important now than EVER. In fact, we are giving it a revamp because the world needs this book right now. If you haven’t read it, I’d highly encourage you to grab a copy. I just read through it recently for the first time in years and can’t believe how crucial some of the information is for what we are going through right now.

It can be so hard to keep a positive mindset when you are facing negative situations, like:

• Difficult divorce or break-up
• Furlough or layoff
• Sick loved ones
• Pain or health issues
• Past abuse and trauma
• Tough personal criticisms
• Contentment issues fueled by social media
• Anger and irritation at current events
• Fear of what the future could hold
• Debt and spending issues
• Negative People

…and those are just a few of the many things that can get in the way of living a positive life! But, what I want to you understand is that you can still choose joy in every situation. And, don’t get me wrong—I’m not talking about always keeping a smile on your face or never feeling a sad emotion. I’m talking about keeping a positive mindset. That is within your power and will propel you forward into a life well-lived.

But, how do you stay positive when things get hard?

It’s a good question (so glad you asked!), and that’s exactly what I’m going to cover in this blog!

How to Stay Positive in a Negative Environment Using Affirmations

In order to really start creating your future and not reacting out of fear, you need to change how you think. Those knee-jerk reactions to your assumptions, concerns and frustrations will just keep knocking you back into a place of fear.

You need to have intentional thoughts that you practice until they become a natural way of thinking. Positive affirmations will often push you gently outside of your comfort zone, which can help you catch problematic thinking that leads to negative energy.

Can You Retrain Your Mind?

One thing you are typically taught in therapy is how to challenge your thinking and retrain your mind. If you are acting from that place of natural thought, then you are going to base your thoughts on past experiences.

When I was a child, the men in my family didn’t listen to me at all and I truly believed it was because I had nothing that was very important to say. As an adult, my knee-jerk reaction was to feel like I had nothing to add to the conversation and I was easily shut down. If someone criticized a thought, I would immediately assume they didn’t value my perspective. But, this was because I let me natural experiences dictate my thought!

I had to change my way of thinking, challenging those assumptions and responses.

I had to teach myself to believe in my value. I learned how to move past feelings of inadequacy and contribute to the conversation! After a while, it becomes automatic and you start to really think these positive thoughts that yield true self-confidence.

Ask Yourself Questions: When you feel a negative thought or emotion bubble up, ask why? As you start to identify what is causing it, ask why again. Get to the heart of it. What is your fear and what is causing those emotions? Then, ask if it’s justified. In my case, I was projecting issues I had with my father, brothers and uncles onto my friends, husband and coworkers. I was afraid to give them a chance and I didn’t feel I was worth sticking up for. That had to change!

Slow Life Down! When you are living life in the fast lane, it’s extremely hard to catch these knee-jerk reactions. Slow down. Our culture today pushes a busy lifestyle, but it is killing our introspection and mindfulness. Stress and anxiety are often caused by overstretching yourself. Focus on wellness and your mental health by purposefully slowing down.

Start Practicing Affirmations: A great way to slow down and practice mindfulness is through affirmations. These will help you retrain your mind and start thinking in positive, empowering ways. Keep practicing until they are an automatic part of daily life.

What are Affirmations?

Affirmations are creation statements that declare what you want. Often, they will start with “I am.” They declare things as if they have already happened (because you know they will!), like “I am powerful and what I say is valuable for others to consider.”

Affirmations start moving the energy into motion and making your inspiration become reality.

They serve as a kind of reprogramming for the mind and are very helpful to pull out on bad days. Affirmations will train you into thinking differently in challenging situations. Affirmations could be based on your individual situation, your personal history or positive things you want to start training your mind to turn to in general.

In order to practice your affirmations, you should:

• Memorize affirmations and spend time repeating them during a mindfulness session.
• Write them down and post them throughout the house where you can see them regularly.
• Record yourself reading the affirmations and play them as you drive or prepare to sleep.

Best Affirmations Tool: Carol Tuttle’s Affirmation Cards

I have been practicing affirmations for 26 years and they are incredibly helpful. I’ve gotten to the point where an affirmation pops into my mind naturally when a difficult situation pops up. It’s become a reprogramming of my thoughts and helps me be intentional with how I approach the world.

A lot of us struggle with the same kinds of things! I took some of my favorite affirmations and created affirmation cards! They are a simple design that will inspire you to think in new ways. Each card can be used to help combat reactive, negative thoughts.

Find my affirmation cards for healing right here!

Or try my weight loss affirmation cards here.

Affirmations don’t eliminate the challenges we face! Challenges have a purpose in our lives, strengthening us and giving us a different perspective. Affirmations help us take control of the situation and keep a positive attitude. This will help you remain constructive during difficult times and not make things worse with self-doubt or self-hate.

Affirmations often help us gain the perspective faster and change reality moving forward. But, this is not an overnight fix. It will take practice and dedication to use affirmations to evoke change.

What are You Choosing to do with Your Mind?

In all things, self-sabotage is possible.

But, the opposite is true as well. In all things, self-actualization is possible.

What you think of yourself and the world around you, will impact how you choose to act. Staying positive helps you take on a more balanced and thoughtful position. Start with affirmations for one of the most effective ways to shift your perspective towards one of creation, power, inner peace and joy.

Join my healing center to learn more about how to heal from your past and build your future.