How to Cultivate a Positive Mindset

by Julio Gerardo Cardona Guillen, content writer at Porch.com

Some people seem to be born with a positive mindset. They are often enjoyable to be around because they inspire others with their innate sense of happiness and vibes of well-being. We all have a friend like this, and we tend to wish that we could be more like them. The fantastic thing is that you can learn to be more like them.

The process of thinking positively is a skill that we can all cultivate, even if it doesn’t come to us naturally. Like other good habits, the more we practice them, the better we can become. By maintaining a positive mindset even in the face of tremendous obstacles at work or home, helps our odds to be likely to achieve success; positive thinking triggers both constructive and creative thinking. Positive thinking allows you to recognize opportunities to deal with current problems and to thrive in less-than-ideal circumstances.

We will talk a bit about becoming aware of limiting thoughts and empowering thoughts. A few ideas about how to start to nurture a positive mindset and the advantages of doing so: as you develop a positive outlook on life, one result you can look forward to seeing is that positivity attracts more positivity to your life. Positivity also attracts happiness and other rewards that can enhance your day and fuel further positive thinking.

Positive Thoughts, Negative Thoughts: What Exactly Are Thoughts?

An article published by the University Of Minnesota states that our ideas, opinions, and beliefs about ourselves and the surrounding world make up our thoughts. Thoughts include our perceptions, positive and negative (or even neutral), that we bring to our experiences or develop as a result of our experiences. These perceptions shape our point of view as well as our attitudes about countless topics.

Unfortunately, many of our experiences and perceptions are harmful because they have been affected by negative emotions like fear, anger, and guilt. For instance, we may have had a bad experience with specific school subjects like math and developed a negative attitude about it. Most of us have heard people exclaim, “I’m bad at math.” These thoughts can become limiting beliefs when they stop us from progressing and viewing topics with a more positive and limitless outlook. Someone with a positive outlook and that is practicing empowering thoughts would say, “I’m working to improve my math skills.”

Our Thoughts and Self-Esteem

The math example is only one limiting belief. There are countless types of limiting beliefs. If we tend to adopt limiting beliefs, they will begin to sabotage our progress, self-esteem, and happiness. Self-esteem relates to how we think about ourselves—our qualities, our lives progress, and our position. Speaking very frankly, thinking negatively can tinge on other thoughts, and they will tend to grow negativity instead of positively. Negative thoughts about ourselves and our lives can fester and prevent us from growing and attracting the opportunities that often accompany positive mindsets. If we begin to see ourselves through the lens of greater self-esteem, we can foster a sense of happiness as positivity grows to abundance. Empowering thoughts about ourselves will help us improve the concept of ourselves.

What Is the Law of Attraction and How Does It Relate to Positivity?

We’ve mentioned that positivity attracts more positivity. You might think, how does this work? You can practically think about this. Take a moment and think about when you passed someone, and they smiled at you; did you smile back? Their positivity was contagious. Negativity can be that way too, but we don’t want to reap more negativity; we want to attract more positivity into our lives.

If you have some notion of gravity, you can easily understand the law of attraction. Simply stated, the law of attraction acts like a gravitational or magnetic pull; whatever you focus on, you will attract. If you focus on the negative, you will attract the negative. If you focus on the positive, you will attract the positive. Therefore, using these quantum physics principles as they relate to our cognitive functions, we can shape a more positive life experience through positive thinking—and live the lives we want to live!

Positive Attitude and Positive Concepts

A positive attitude is a way of maintaining your positivity even in challenging situations. A positive mindset allows you to think optimistically about conditions or circumstances. When you confront problems with a positive attitude, you’re already poised to see the best in the situation and find opportunities to improve them. There are many reasons to cultivate a positive attitude. Here are a few to keep in mind:

Empowering Thoughts

Empowerment thoughts are the process of using positive thoughts and concepts to motivate yourself or someone else to think and behave with positive outlooks about oneself or life. To help achieve their life goals. Being empowered means having control over your life and knowing that you can make decisions about your life with confidence.

Happiness

Happiness is a state of mind. A positive attitude allows you to affect your mindset to gravitate to happier thoughts rather than negative ones. In a sense, it helps you persuade yourself into happiness with its positive outlook.

Self-Confidence

People with positive attitudes feel more self-confident. They view their positive attributes rather than focus on their negative traits or qualities. This helps them to feel better about themselves.

Stronger Immune System

Medical researchers have long-established the links between mental and physical health. Chronic stress can undermine your immune system by overstimulating the body’s fight or flight response. Positive thinking induces calm and quiets the anxiety, leaving your immune system to function normally—even stronger.

Abundance

As mentioned earlier, positivity attracts more positivity. You may be left with an abundance of positive feelings—and outcomes. For instance, thinking positively about finding more opportunities often translates into doing just that—finding more opportunities to capitalize on. A person with an abundance mindset is happier, more creative, and more grateful—all this often leads to a happier state of being.

Meaningful Relationships

Just as a positive attitude can help you feel happy about yourself, it can also help you feel more optimistic about your relationships both at work and otherwise. Rather than focusing on the negative attributes of work colleagues, friends, family, or a partner, you can tune more closely into the positive; they lead to more harmony between each of you. Feeling good about your relationships can help you deepen and strengthen them. In contrast, negativity can cause relationships to deteriorate in both small and large ways.

How to Nurture Abundance in Your Life

Use these tips to cultivate a mindset of abundance:

• Observe the day-to-day thoughts: The limiting beliefs you live with today were most likely generated during childhood. They begin to manifest until one day you start to believe that those thoughts are the reality of your life. For example, most of us have heard these little philosophical sayings, “if you eat cake, you will get fat,” “earning good money is difficult,” and there are so many more. It is crucial to pay attention to your limiting thoughts to modify them and start using empowering thoughts. Do not continue to repeat the vicious cycle.
• Don’t empower limited thoughts: After you notice which limited thoughts tend to repeat in your life, make a conscious decision not to indulge them. Instead, move beyond them through positive thinking and replace them with empowering thoughts.
• Practice gratitude: it’s easy to feel positive when you feel grateful. A lack of appreciation opens the door to negativity, making you think what you have is smaller or less than.
• Be clear about what you want: what do you want from the universe—from your life? Be clear in your mind about what you want. It will help you focus on your goals more clearly, positioning them to attract what you desire.
• Keep a journal: write down your wishes or goals in a journal accompanied by positive affirmations. Read it each day for a month. Experts suggest that repetition is the best way to practice a new thought; this will help you make positive thinking a habit. Some cultures also believe that words have power, and by writing them, you are giving life to your intention.
• Behave according to what you visualize: imagine that your goals are happening and act accordingly. Visualization can help you attract the positive abundance you seek.
• Practice positive thinking (and add emotions): thinking positively is a habit. To establish that habit, you need to practice it routinely. Also, try to indulge in positive emotions and look for ways to reduce your negative emotions like fear or sadness. Positive feelings like gratitude and love can help you more easily maintain your positive attitude and outlook.
• Relinquish control of others: striving to maintain control of others in a world where we are not in control of everything is a sure source of frustration—and negativity. The only control you truly have is control over thoughts and actions. Trust in the process; trust the universe to deliver back the positivity you send out to it.

What Others Think about You

You can not control what others think about you. So you mustn’t focus or invest energy and time in trying to worry about the opinion that others may have about you. When we assume or become aware that someone thinks negatively about us, we may automatically feel bad or ashamed. Feeling bad can undermine our happiness and positive outlook. Do not allow other people’s thoughts to have power over you. Minimize the effect of their opinions by only adding the appropriate intention of self-evaluation. This is done when the time is right and can be used to self-improve. Instead, focus on your positive outlook and goals.

Practice Self Love

It is vital to love yourself! You are a work in progress. Rather than dwelling on your flaws and mistakes, focus on your opportunities to improve and attain your goals. Love the fact that you can contribute positivity and well-being to the universe! No matter how small you may think it is, it can begin to transform your entire life.

Inspiration

As you strive to practice and maintain your positive mindset, try to draw inspiration from others who embody that success you wish to achieve. It does not have to mean monetary success. It can simply translate to a life you want to lead; living that life equates to success. Think about someone like Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. Their positive outlooks and focus on positive methods for achieving positive outcomes helped them transform a country and inspire the world.

Develop Activities at Home that Nurture a Positive Attitude

There are many ways you can boost your positive mindset at home. You can use these tips to practice positive thinking and attract the abundance you desire:

• Be in contact with nature: nature helps soothe our stress and harmonize our internal and external environments.
• Exercise: exercising dispels stress, which can make thinking positively much easier.
• Sleep: it’s tough to feel positive when you’re mentally tired and physically exhausted. Be sure to get an adequate amount of sleep each day to support your positive outlook.
• Eat healthily: avoid sugar and processed carbohydrates that can zap our energy—preventing us from feeling good and from feeling positive. Eat foods that support your fitness goals and health.
• Meditate: meditation helps you to focus on the present. Use your meditation time to declutter your mind from stress or negative emotion. This helps to leave room for positive feelings. Try to combine meditation with yoga to gain spiritual, mental, and physical benefits.
• Do things you love: it is easier to feel positive when you are doing something you enjoy. You will feel more fulfilled and grateful when you spend your time doing what you love to do.
• Surround yourself with positive people: remember that negativity is contagious. Negative people could detract you from your positive attitude and happy state of being. By surrounding yourself with positive thinkers, you may be inspired to think more positively about yourself and life.

When you make positivity a way of life, you will often position yourself to attract more positivity. You may experience its many different manifestations that you never thought possible. These simple tips will help you nurture and practice positivity so that they become healthy habits in your day-to-day life.

I wanted to share a podcast about vibration/sound. This information is very related and important to learn how a positive mindset can be affected by sound/vibration.

Interview With Brainwave Entrainment Expert, Morry Zelcovitch – Part 1
Interview With Brainwave Entrainment Expert, Morry Zelcovitch – Part 2

Authors Note:

I want to thank my teammate Paula Hernandez for the help with the research and for helping me co-write this article

About the author

Julio Gerardo Cardona Guillen is a content writer at Porch.com. He loves writing articles that are helpful to families and the community. He is passionate about writing topics on education, wellbeing, nature, the environment, and home inspiration projects. He is interested in keeping his topics positive, fun and light.