“Transform Your Life with This Daily Practice”
Captain’s Log: Day #23 of my 30-Day Challenge to write a 500-word article every day for the next 30 days.
Maintaining a positive mindset can be very difficult. With everything going on, the economy, finances, social media, political events, it can cause a lot of distraction, frustration and exhaustion. We are living in a world where it can be easy to feel envy for other people’s success just because you see their highlight reels without taking into account the context and backstory of how they got there.
But there is something that we can cultivate daily to combat this and maintain a positive mindset. And by doing this we will be able to count our blessings, feel grateful for everyday and maintain a positive disposition in life.
And the way to do that is by maintaining an attitude of gratitude. But that’s easier said than done. How can we maintain that type of attitude when you’re stuck in a rut or there’s a lot of bad things happening to you?
Let me share you what worked for me…
A couple of years ago, I came across this video about using a gratitude journal. At first I thought it was kinda cheesy, but I wanted to give it a try and see what would happen. So I bought a gratitude journal and started filling it up.
There were a couple of questions on the journal that I had to answer to identify what were some of my goals, my past achievements, what physical things do you have now that you only dreamed of before. Once I started to stack this list, I realized that there were a couple of things that I had already achieved that I just used to dream of before.
For example owning a piano, when I was young, I had always wanted to learn how to play the piano, but we could not afford one, but now that I’m earning and could afford it, I was able to buy one for myself and enjoy playing it whenever I want to.
The next thing I did was write down at least three things that I am grateful for. It could be as simple as waking up in the morning, hearing the sound of birds chirping, the feeling of the warm sunlight on your skin early in the morning. It doesn’t matter whether it big or small. The idea is to be able to find something to be thankful for no matter how trivial or irrelevant you think it might be.
And the last thing is listening or saying affirmation statements. An affirmation statement is usually, a sentence of powerful words put together, like a positive statement, and this sentence is aimed to tap into your conscious and unconscious mind to motivate you, to challenge you, to push you to reach your full potential in life.
Some examples could be:
- All of my dreams are coming true right now.
- I attack the day with energy, enthusiasm, and gratitude
- I have inner strength, grit and the confidence to win at whatever I choose to do.
By stating your affirmation statements daily you build that positive behavior and program your subconscious to be positive and ready to receive the blessings of the day.
Once I was able to consistently do this, I noticed that I was less anxious about things that were happening around me, especially things that are outside of my control and helped me to have a more positive outlook for the day.
So, to sum up here are some things that you would want to make sure to do on a daily basis:
- Stack your wins. Write down your achievements, things that you wished for or did not have before but are present with you now.
- List down at least three things you are grateful for the day. It could be as simple as waking up alive for the day, or having a roof above your head.
- Positive affirmations. Listen and speak about what you want your future self to become and have.
If you do this daily, I’m sure you will start seeing a better outlook on things and will be able to maintain a positive mindset regardless of what’s going on around you.
