Keeping your positive energy flowing in a cynical world presents a unique challenge.
The unpredictability of life often results in volatile emotions. We all experience these emotional ups and downs as our lives unfold, most times leaving these emotions unchecked. We argue that it doesn’t have to be this way. While external circumstances are often random and mysterious, our internal processing of these circumstances needn’t be.
If our ability to handle stressful situations is underdeveloped, we risk creating a negative outlook by default. This scenario is undoubtedly a problem since negativity manifests itself as stress. When stress is a constant presence, we put ourselves at risk – physically, mentally, and emotionally. Instead, you can choose to be proactive in counteracting stress. You do this by understanding what thoughts and behaviors cause negative energy to proliferate. In choosing to abandon the practices that encourage negative energy, you allow for positive energy to occupy its place.
By merely choosing to observe your negative thoughts with detachment instead of curiosity, you significantly reduce or eliminate their effects. You must always remember that negative thoughts are not an extension of who you are…they are just thoughts. In essence, these thoughts are the brain’s problem, not yours. Don’t allow negative thoughts to influence your behavior.
10 Benefits of Adding More Positive Energy to Your Life
A positive outlook adds so many benefits to your life. Studies show that positivity is advantageous to your health and well-being. Many people wonder what kind of benefits you get from being positive. So, what are ten benefits you can experience from adding more positive energy into your life?
1 Improve Your Relationship With Others
Relationships are an essential part of your life. Strong relationships strengthen you, mentally and physically. They can even make you feel happier and more energetic. So, it’s vital to maintain your relationships with family and friends. Cultivate a strong bond with your family members. These relationships are often the longest ones you’ll have during your lifetime.
Connect with your friends regularly. Friends can be a great source of encouragement and fun. Your positive energy helps you reach out more to friends and family for some life long relationships.
2 Become A More Spiritual Person
Positivity enhances your spirituality. Spiritual people believe that something greater than themselves helps them get through their life. They find strength through faith and spiritual connectivity.
Years ago, psychiatrists scoffed at religion, labeling it as a crutch. But today, studies show that people who practice spirituality or religion are mentally stronger and better able to cope with life’s stresses. Now, spirituality is seen as a way to boost your positivity, to be happier and healthier.
3 Unleash Your Creativity
Positive energy boosts your creativity. When you have a positive outlook on life, you’re more apt to try creative solutions to problems. You’ll keep working in the face of difficult challenges. Failure can be a great motivator if channeled through a positive attitude. Several wells- known famous people failed in a significant way only to succeed in a big way finally. Their positivity kept them going. Your positive energy motivates you to pursue opportunities without fear of failure. Positive energy encourages thinking outside the box. It unleashes a child-like way of finding a solution without all the trappings of negativity. Positive energy allows your brain to imagine new ideas or concepts freely.
4 Feel More Relaxed
Stress can be harmful to your mind and body. It zaps you of energy, making you feel like you need to be cautious and watchful all the time. Boosting your positive energy can help you relax and let go of those things you can’t control. It can also give you the ability to cope with difficulties. When you feel relaxed, it lowers your body’s cortisol levels.
One positive energy exercise you could try is to write down all the good things you experienced in your day. Something as simple as seeing the sunshine through your windows or hearing your child’s laughter is worth recording. These thoughts can help boost positivity and help you relax.
5 Improve Your Sleep
Positive energy benefits you both mentally and physically. One study set out to better understand the relationship between positivity and sleep. Researchers found that a healthy sense of well- being and positivity enhances a person’s ability to sleep soundly. A positive attitude lessens the stress related to insomnia. They also determined that just as positivity increases sleep, negativity reduces your ability to sleep well. If you’re negative, you’re prone to worry. Worry eats away at your mind and steals your ability to sleep. Sleep is vital for every part of your body. Rest is known to help your
- Immune system function better
- Your stress hormone reduction
- Gives you a healthy appetite, lack of sleep makes you overeat
- Better breathing
- Better cardiovascular health
- Low blood pressure
6 Boost Your Immune System
Do you see the glass half full? It could determine your ability to stay healthy. There is a critical link between a positive, upbeat attitude and overall better health. Research suggests positivity can have these health benefits on your body in these ways:
- Lower blood pressure
- Reduced risk of heart problems
- Lower weight
- Good blood sugar levels
- Live longer
7 Become More Productive
Positivity gives you a boost of energy that you need to accomplish things. When you’re free of stress and negativity, you’re better able to be productive. Worry can zap your strength, and this influences your productivity.
Positive energy unburdens your mind so you will feel refreshed and ready to tackle the things you need to get done at work and home. Create good habits to start your day to ensure good productivity in your day.
Simple habits have significant effects on how productive your day is. Whether you practice eating a healthy meal, writing in a gratitude journal, or find time to exercise, you will reap the benefits of positive energy played out in good daily habits. Other habits like making your bed, taking a shower and getting some fresh air will also help you start your day and enhance your productivity.
8 Enjoy A More Abundant Life
Positive energy boosts your overall view of your life. Your happiness affects your ability to cope with difficulties and makes you more resourceful. Researchers are still learning how a happy attitude can boost positivity and how positivity increases a happy life.
Your positive energy helps you step back and see all the blessings in your life. This positivity enhances gratefulness and contentment. These things give you a feeling of a beautiful life, not necessarily an experience free of difficulties, but an overall blessed, abundant life.
Enjoying your abundant life isn’t associated with your wealth or your status, it’s an inner sense of contentment about your life.
9 Provide A Better Role Model For Your Children
As parents, you want to help your children grow into mature, happy adults. Your positive energy will model for your kids how to deal with life’s troubles. As they see you deal with major and minor difficulties, whether it’s how to deal with an unreasonable boss or how to fix the broken dishwasher, they’ll learn how to handle things in their life.
Your positive attitude in the face of challenges will speak volumes to your kids. The old saying, “More is caught than taught,” is true when it comes to parenting. Your kids are watching you, and your positivity will teach them how to cope in life. Seeing your kids handle life with a positive, upbeat attitude will be a blessing.
Parenting is hard, but you may be doing a better job than you realize by just being positive and upbeat.
10 Gain More Self Confidence
Positive energy gives you a sense of self-confidence. It strengthens your resolve to tackle hard things. Positivity helps you fight negativity or fear, which can paralyze you from trying new things. Self-confidence helps you look outward at the needs of others without a doubt. You will be able to help others without fear of rejection. Focusing on things that are going right in your life boosts your confidence. It enables you to remove your focus from the negatives and look at what is going well.
Positive energy fights low self-esteem and negativity in your life, so you feel confident and positive about your life. Confidence isn’t pride, but humbly using the gifts you have for the welfare of yourself, your family, and your community.
These Ten Benefits of Positive Energy Are Waiting For You!
Of course, these ten benefits are just the beginning of all the advantages you will gain in life from being positive. There’s no limit to the ways that your life will be better because you choose to view it with ‘a glass half full view instead of a glass half empty’ view. Step back and take in all the beautiful blessings you have in your life. It may not be a perfect life, or a life free of problems, but that’s okay. Stay positive. It will make life more enjoyable.
Here are eight behaviors that block positive energy (and how you can avoid them.)
1. Allowing ‘success’ to dictate your life
The fact is that most people desire to be successful. In and of itself, desiring success is not negative behavior. In fact, it’s perfectly normal. It’s the obsessive preoccupation with success to direct and command your life that is unhealthy. There are millions of ‘successful’, yet miserable people that live among us. People with plenty of money, good looks, beautiful spouse, power, etc. They should be living the dream, right? Wrong.
This is because allowing society to influence what ‘success’ means is toxic. Unfortunately, our society is very (very) materialistic and consumer-based. As a result, society’s definition of success is often based on the balance in your bank account, the car in your driveway, and the home that you live in. Per this definition, there is no uniqueness or individuality on what ‘success’ is, hence, why so many ‘successful’ people are quite miserable.
It’s time to re-define success and focus on positive energy, instead!
Only you can define what success truly is – not society, your parents, your spouse, or anyone else. When you learn what success means to you, resolve to achieve it without any outside influences.
2. Preoccupation with vanity or self-image
Do you know who Joan Rivers is? For those who do not, she was an incredibly talented and smart comedian. She gave generously and was active in her community. Also, she was is famously known for obsessing about her appearance, undergoing about 739 plastic surgery procedures. She continued these procedures until her death at age 81. What causes someone to do this?
Again, society has influenced the definition of what beauty is – toned bodies, expensive makeup, and clothes, makeovers, hairstyles, etc. As a result, people (especially young women) are increasingly susceptible to these harmful influences. We see this in disorders such as bulimia, anorexia, and others – leading to depression and sometimes suicide.
Trying to earn acceptance and enhance self-image by adhering to society’s definition of beauty often results in emptiness. True beauty is found in your heart, mind, and soul. What you do for others. How you treat strangers. What you give of yourself.
Recognize and love your own beauty.
3. Stress addiction
Yes, you can be addicted to stress. This happens when you’re stressed to a point where it becomes hardwired into your brain…not good.
The physiological repercussions of constant stress: high blood pressure, increased heart rate, headaches, gastrointestinal problems, and numerous others. Health problems that result from stress: heart disease, asthma, obesity, diabetes, depression, anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease, accelerated aging, premature death.
Stress addictions don’t result from external circumstances. Only your internalization of stress can cause problems. The solution is mindfulness; being present; deep breathing; meditation; exercise. Also, remember to witness and observe your stressful thoughts as being fleeting while refusing to engage them. Just let them fade away.
4. Worrying about the trivial trials of life
Running 5 minutes late, forgetting your cell phone, getting cut off in traffic, being interrupted at work, being nagged…yes, all of these are annoying, but are any of these significant issues? Not really. Yet, many of us allow these to derail our mood completely. One minute we are doing just fine, and then someone comes along and does something that causes our blood to boil.
It is okay to become irritated immediately after some small, unpleasant event. It is not okay to continually replay this event in your mind and cause undue stress and anxiety. This is the epitome of dramatic overreaction.
Don’t make mountains out of molehills. Simply allow the thoughts to fade away without becoming trapped in a negative mindset. “Don’t sweat the small stuff” is a nice, simple quote to commit to memory.
5. Living in the past blocks positive energy
Regardless of the number or severity of the mistakes that have been made, today is a new day. It is impossible to enjoy the present moment when your brain continuously replays the past.
When we live in the past, we are essentially conditioning our brains to expect the worst. Your brain becomes wired in a way that is counterproductive to your present and future. You may even begin to feel victimized and burdened as a result.
It’s easy to say “just forget it and move on” but sometimes it isn’t that simple. Some of us have experienced trauma that has made it difficult to progress in life. But that doesn’t mean it is impossible.
Consider learning about and committing to mindfulness meditation, a practice that has been researched and proven to foster acceptance and assist with the healing process.
6. Possessiveness
Possessiveness is a telltale sign of insecurity and fear. Whether it’s conditioning your partner, children, or loved ones to become too dependent on your acceptance, it’s harmful to both them and you. Possessiveness breeds other problems as well – anger, sadness, anxiety, and loneliness – all of which compromise our sense of peace and understanding.
Often times, being possessive brings the exact opposite result – loss. Loss or disconnection from the ones you love, simply because you didn’t allow them to enjoy the freedom of having their own experiences. Obviously, we want to protect the people that we love and care for, but that doesn’t make it acceptable to constantly monitor their every move.
Remember that everyone needs space and freedom to make their own choices. Embrace the fact that somewhat distancing yourself is beneficial and will ultimately strengthen the relationships that you have with others. Be accepting and open to change as it comes to both you and the ones you love.
7. Not forgiving others
Some of us hold onto grudges for a long time. The problem is that unrelenting bitterness leads to angry emotions and disrupts your positive energy. This often makes it difficult to manage emotions or establish new, healthy relationships.
As with living in the past, some of you have experienced tremendous pain because someone betrayed your trust. Whether it was a parent, spouse, sibling, close friend, or someone else, disloyalty can be very hurtful.
Remember that forgiving someone is as much, if not more, about you than it is about them.
Learning to let go allows you to embrace feelings of gratitude, hope, joy, and peace. While what that person did may continue to hurt, forgiveness can lessen the emotional and psychological impact. Forgiveness does not justify or excuse what the person did…it just allows you to make peace with it.
8. Judging others
Sometimes we think we know a person by merely looking at them. Perhaps you even talk to them on occasion while harboring some judgmental thoughts. As you’ll see, judging others is either a standard response or a harmful one.
Judging people is something that all of us do – there is likely a biological or evolutionary reason behind it. Understand that not all judging of people is harmful or counterproductive. It’s normal to observe and evaluate those around us. Judgment becomes harmful when specific thoughts or feelings cause us to resent or admonish the individual.
When negative perception occurs, you often feel hostile or dismissive of someone. When you begin feeling this way, it is essential to recognize the path you’re going down. Instead of reprimanding or becoming angry at yourself, ask:
- Why am I judging them?
- Do I know what they’re going through?
- Can I practice some kind of empathy in this situation?
- Do I understand how they think and behave?
- Is there something positive such as a smile, quick “hello” or something else that may help?
Final Thought: Is Your Positive Energy Held Back by Other Influences?
Have these red flag behaviors occurred in your life? If so, let us know in the comments if you used the same tricks to overcome them and restore your positive energy!
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