Some people need proof that self-care is critical… Let’s start by talking about how emotions affect everything.

Come again?! Your emotions control and influence everything from your health and your sense of wellbeing, to your motivation, focus, success, and even physical strength.

If this sounds like a whole lot of nonsense, then consider what emotions really are: they are neurotransmitters and hormones. What many people don’t realize about neurotransmitters and hormones is that they have a huge range of different roles in the body that go far beyond simply affecting our mood. That is to say that when you change your mood, you also change many other things.

For example, did you know that norepinephrine (a neurotransmitter with much in common with the hormone adrenaline) can increase your physical strength? Hence, when you are “amped up” in the gym, you can lift more!

Likewise, if you have high cortisol (the stress hormone), then you will be more likely to store fat, you will have more anxious thoughts, you will struggle to sleep, and you will even degrade your muscle? Worse, cortisol can actually direct blood away from your immune system and digestive system, which is why chronic stress can lead to so many health issues over time. This same process is useful of course if you are in a life or death situation!

Hormones and neurotransmitters regulate our appetite, they control our sleep-wake cycle, and they impact on our ability to store memories. They can even increase or decrease our perception of pain! Did you know for instance, that serotonin is a natural painkiller? Whereas cortisol makes it much higher?

There are no good and bad hormones or neurotransmitters. That is not the point here!

The point is that if you can take control of your emotions, then you can take control of your entire body and system. As a result, you can be calmer, happier, stronger, healthier, and more resilient against illness. And that is all pretty amazing really when you think about it.

And THIS is why self-care really matters. Because if you don’t look after your well-being, it’s more than just your mood that is going to suffer. Learn to control your mood and you can perform your best, you can combat feelings of pain and lethargy, and you can feel amazing doing it!

So let’s consider ways to turn around a bad mood…

Being in a bad mood is often taken lightly and can be seen as something of a joke. You may have teased a friend or relative for ‘getting out the wrong side of bed’ or ‘being a bit moody’ and generally we don’t consider this to be a big deal. Sometimes though, being in a bad mood can be a serious problem if it happens often or is consistent. Not only can being in a poor mood prevent you from enjoying yourself, it can also lead to severe depression (or be a symptom of depression or stress), cause you to make bad decisions, and even cause you to drive your friends and loved ones away.

When a bad mood is severe, or when it emerges a little too often, it becomes a serious problem and you need to do something about it.

Here are some ideas of how to improve a bad mood:

Let it Go
There are a lot of articles and books out there advising catharsis when you’re in a bad mood. ‘Vent your anger’ they recommend, ‘by punching a punch bag or screaming into a pillow.’ Unfortunately, there is one small problem with this advice – it’s unfounded. Studies have shown repeatedly that punching a punch bag or ‘venting’ anger in any other way will achieve nothing and in fact only make you angrier and for longer. The better way to deal with anger is to make a conscious decision to ‘let it go’ – because after all you’re not going to help anyone (especially yourself) by continually focusing on the same issue. Likewise if you’re very upset, make the conscious decision not to wallow.

Be Incongruent
In other words do something that is incompatible with being in a bad mood. Watch a funny film, sing a happy song, or otherwise act in a way that doesn’t sit well with being angry or depressed. This can actually become a self-fulfilling prophecy: you act happy and suddenly you start to become happier. Even just smiling can help to improve your mood due to a process known as ‘facial feedback.’ It sounds awkward at first, but try it then next time you are down and see if it works!

Go Incremental
You need to actually convince yourself to listen to that happy music if it’s going to have any effect. This can be tricky seeing as your bad mood will be clouding your judgement and will be affecting what you want to do. The solution is to be incremental – to listen to gradually more upbeat music, or to watch gradually more upbeat programs (try googling ‘funny videos’). Doing this you will be able to ‘ease’ yourself into a better mood and it won’t seem quite so off-putting.

In whatever way you can, try to leave the bad mood in the past, and focus on the good that already exists in your life. It can be a challenge, but it is so important to your health to keep your own spirits lifted (and not rely on others to lift them for you).

Please share your recommended bad-mood buster method in the comments below.

You’ve likely heard that practicing gratitude is good for your body, your mind, and your soul. It is also often mentioned that a practice of gratitude will help you manifest the life of your dreams.

But how do you actually put a practice of gratitude into practice? Keep reading!

Gratitude has strong links to life satisfaction and good mental health. People who are grateful experience more enthusiasm, love, and joy. They also have better protection from emotions that have a destructive impact like bitterness, greed, and envy. Simply because they area more focused on what is good in their life.

It is believed that gratitude can reduce your lifetime risk of developing a substance abuse disorder, anxiety, or even depression. It can also help those who suffer from these issues and other conditions to find healing and closure. Being thankful helps you to understand that there is goodness out there, even if you are suffering or feeling lost.

Gratitude isn’t just an uplifting and warm feeling; it can also benefit your body. People who introduce gratitude practice into their lives cope more effectively with stress, enjoy better physical health, and recover more rapidly from illnesses.

Even better, gratitude extends beyond you. When you experience gratitude, it reaches past you into your wider social circle. Gratitude has the power of inspiring others to act more kindly, and it can strengthen your bond with others around you. People who are grateful are more likely to be viewed as trustworthy, optimistic, outgoing, and helpful. These are valuable characteristics that draw others to you and help you forge positive and strong relationships. And better yet? Gratitude is contagious! Wouldn’t you love to spread more good feelings to your community, to the world?!

When you introduce gratitude practice into your everyday routine, you’ll experience positive effects such as:

• A sense of abundance in your life
• A greater appreciation of how others contribute to your well-being
• Recognition of the small pleasures in life
• Developing a more positive outlook that allows for a happier life experience

If you start practicing gratitude regularly, you can begin to reap all those benefits for yourself.

Banishing Negativity, Focusing On Positivity

A key element of introducing gratitude practice into your life is banishing negativity and focusing on positivity in return.

Thinking positively comes with a host of benefits including:

• Happiness – banishing negativity in favor of a positive attitude can awaken happiness in your life. You may not be rich and you may not have reached the career goals you set yourself, but happiness is all about attitude. If you have a positive mindset, you automatically become happy. Recognize your happiness doesn’t depend on an external cause. Rather, it comes from within. All too often, we find reasons not to be happy. We delay adopting a positive mindset. I’ll be happy when I lose weight. I’ll be happy when I win the lottery… Banish negative thoughts like “I’m too fat to be happy,” or “I’m too poor to be happy.” You can make yourself happy right now without any of those things by simply thinking positively. It sounds hard at first, but with some practice it can become second nature!
• Motivation – when you banish negative thinking, you can actually become more motivated to accomplish the goals and dreams you set for yourself. Being motivated in itself is a positive characteristic, pushing you forward, encouraging you, and helping you to overcome obstacles. Being positive makes you more motivated to succeed and it also helps you believe that you can be successful. As a result, you will be able to achieve more than you ever imagined.
• Self-esteem – when you have a positive mental attitude you’ll have higher self-esteem. You will look at yourself more kindly and begin to see your good traits rather than only the bad ones. Ignore negative people and forget about what they say and think. As soon as you adopt a positive mindset, others around you automatically raise their opinions of you and become more respectful.
• Better health – positive thinkers are usually healthier and more energetic than negative thinkers. The mind’s effect on the body is a powerful one, and positive thinkers enjoy a healthier immune system with faster recovery times.
• Better relationships – when you think positively, you’ll find that other people gravitate towards you. People prefer those around them to be positive since they bring happiness, energy and joy into their lives.

Gratitude – A Skill That Takes Work

Although we’re all capable of being grateful for so many things in life, it’s not something that we all do naturally. This makes it a somewhat alien skill. When you first decide to start practicing gratitude it can be very difficult at first.

You may find yourself struggling to think of things to feel thankful for, or you may try telling yourself to be grateful but not truly feeling it. All of this is normal, and it’s something that needs to be worked through to come out the other side and to reap all the benefits that gratitude can bring.

Remember that gratitude is a skill like any other. How does an aspiring musician end up playing at Carnegie Hall? The answer is “practice.” It’s the same for gratitude. Practice makes perfect, so keep working on being grateful for the little things. It may be hard at first. In fact, it almost certainly will be. But, with a little effort and time, it will eventually become easier and, soon, being thankful will be second nature.

One great way to get started with a gratitude practice is to take a simple paper calendar (you can always make your own) and write three things you are grateful for each day. Ideally you will write your list in the morning, but any time of day you can spend two minutes reflecting on the good in your life is a great time!

As your calendar fills up with all these wonderful, beautiful, even simple things, you will start to see the bounty in which you already live!

If you forget a day, don’t fret. Just fill in more things the next day. Can’t think of three “new” ideas each day. That’s ok! Repeating what you really love, what you are really grateful for is also a great way to start.

The point is to keep up the PRACTICE so that over time gratitude will become a natural process for you every day!

The old saying “love heals all” has been used as a motivational mantra during hard times. This elusive idea that love, one of the most powerful emotions of them all, can bring about a sense of peace is overwhelming; in the best way possible.

Unfortunately, it takes a deep understanding of yourself and the world around you to grasp the concept that love really can heal a majority of the things we go through. Let’s consider how.

Love Is Supportive
It seems that during our darkest moments, the outpouring of love can come in various forms. Whether it’s a friendly text from a loving family member or a nice greeting from an unknowing stranger, love is expressive. This seemingly small display of affection can be the light an individual needs during an overwhelming time.

Love Is Patient
When a person truly loves someone, they exercise patience. This means they’re open to overlooking simple flaws with the hopes that one day they’ll continue working on themselves. This is an essential quality to have when you’re in a romantic relationship. Sure, nobody is perfect. However, the more you continue to exercise patience, the more you’ll appreciate their growth.

Love is Unconditional
Much like a mother who loves her child, true love is unconditional. This means it’s able to overlook physical and emotional imperfections. This is especially healing for individuals who are going through transformative stages. They may be on a weight loss journey or even pursuing a new career. Those in their circle who love them are able to overlook this momentary lapse of “perfection” and exercise unconditional love.

When people are going through certain things, they need this unconditional love to help them endure. By having this unconditional support from the ones around them, they’re able to continue their journey with strength.

Love is Understanding
When a person feels misunderstood, they’re missing a strong aspect of love from others. They may feel like those around them aren’t trying hard enough to see their point of view. This could easily come off as unloving.

However, individuals who love one another will go above and beyond to understand their counterparts. This means taking the time to listen and truly grasp the perspective of those around them. This is an essential characteristic for those in romantic relationships.

Understanding is one of the foundations of love. In fact, many people end relationships because they felt their partner simply didn’t understand them. Since it’s so important, it’s vital for those to seek understanding as a means to showing love.

Love is Expressive
When individuals are going through hard times, it’s good for those around them to express their love and support. This little boost of motivational confident is like medicine to a sick child. It just makes the pain tolerable and easy to endure.

When an individual expresses not only their support, but also how they feel about a person, they’re letting them know that their live is real. This is especially important for individuals going through self-esteem issues.

How Can You Show Love
Using love as a healing tool is an essential part of developing healthy relationships. One of the foremost ways you can implement this into your daily relationships is to let those around you know how you feel about them.

Seek to practice understanding and patience as you deal with those going through hard times. In addition, never be afraid to express your love and support for them. Your kind words and consistency may be just what they need to endure.

As you continue to practice love as a healing tool, understand that the universal law of attraction is real. What you put out will surely come back. Therefore, continue to place love at the forefront as it truly heals all.

Love truly makes the world go round. If you are eager to learn how to use the power of love to live the life of your dreams, consider enrolling in the 8-week online course:

LOVE YOUR LIFE !

Enroll Now

As you know, if you are following along with our Positive Thinking Challenge, a journal is an amazing tool to use for thinking more positively. It isn’t just great for gaining more clarity and venting your frustrations, but for your journey to being a more positive person as well.

Keep reading to learn about all the reasons why you using a journal will help to increase your positive thinking.

You Can Reframe Your Negative Thoughts

First of all, you will use the journal to help reframe your thoughts into more positive ones. This is one of the biggest hurdles of thinking more positively, since you can’t control negative things that happen in your life. Almost every day, unexpected events will transpire that might put you in a funk, make you feel sad or frustrated, or just really affect the day you had planned out for yourself.

While you can’t control these events, you can control how you deal with them. You can use your journal to write down your negative thoughts, then look at ways to make them positive. My article Turning Negative Into Positive When You Have a Bad Day explains this in more detail. .

You Find Out Why You Have Negative Thoughts

As you begin journaling all your thoughts and feelings, you will also discover why it has been hard for you in the past to have more of a positive mindset. There are often patterns in the more negative things you talk about, whether they are all related to goals you haven’t achieved, your work or school life, or even specific people in your life.

It is important to be open and honest in your journal, because that is how you will understand more about yourself and where your frame of mind comes from. By understanding WHY you have negative thoughts, you are able to make changes in your life to be a more positive person.

It Helps You Be More Grateful for the Good in Your Life

Journaling for positivity is a great tool because you can express gratitude. Being more grateful is all about understanding the good things in your life, whether it is your health, people, or where you live and work, and appreciating it. You can write down one thing to be grateful for each day in your journal, which immediately puts you in a better mood and helps you to think more positively.

Once you get used to thinking more positively and living a positive and optimistic life, you can start sharing this with others. Helping others to think more positively is a wonderful way to surround yourself with happy, content people who will lift you up just as much as you lift them up.

Here are some helpful tips for helping others with their own positive thinking.

Become a Beacon of Hope and Positivity

There is no better way than showing by example. Without saying a thing, people will know when you have become a more positive person. Suddenly, your Facebook posts are about optimism and light, instead of blue, sad, and depressing updates. When they are around you, you always have a smile on your face, and when something negative happens to you, you always have a way to be positive about it. This is what others will see, and soon develop on their own.

Provide Encouragement to Others

Another amazing method for helping others to be more positive is giving them confidence. Encourage your friends and loved ones when they are trying something new, tell them when they do a great job, and show them that they can truly accomplish anything they put their mind to. When you are confident and feel good about yourself, you think much more positively about different situations.

Express Your Gratitude for Other People

Expressing gratitude isn’t just beneficial for you, but to others in your life as well. Every time you are grateful for someone, show them and tell them! Let them know you appreciate them and are grateful for them being in your life. Tell them specifically what you appreciate and how it had a positive impact on your life. Show through action by helping them and being there for them the same way they were there for you.

Recommend Ways to Be More Positive

If someone in your life seems down or overly negative, show them ways to be more positive. Let them know how you personally shifted your mindset, find the bright side to any situation, let them know a way it can be looked at as a good thing. In the worst situations, just being there for them and helping them move on from something is the best thing you can do to help them find the positive spin.

Keep showing others how to think and be more positive, and they can someday share this with others as well!

If you want to be a more positive person, sometimes it just takes appreciating the good that is already in your life. This can be done through expressing gratitude. Here are some different ways you can express gratitude every day.

1. Become an Active Listener

IF you want to be more grateful of others and show your gratitude, be an active listener. This means not just hearing what someone says, but really absorbing what they are telling you. Don’t use your phone when someone is talking to you. Look them in the eyes and take in what they are telling you. This is active listening, and shows the other person that you care about what they have to say.

2. Express Gratitude in Your Journal

One way many people like to show gratitude is by writing it down in their journal. This is something you can do every day, by writing down at least one thing each day you are grateful for. Some days will repeat, which is okay! Other days, there will be a specific situation that you appreciate. It is okay to just be grateful you woke up and have your health, that you have a job, or something as simple as eating one of your favorite things.

3. Always Thank People Who Have Helped You

Remember to tell people when you are grateful for them. Whether they have done something to help you, gave you a compliment, or were just there for you, this is a good reason to show your appreciation. A simple thank you is enough, but when someone goes above and beyond, really tell them how much you appreciate them and that you are very thankful to have them in your life. This little gesture means so much to the person receiving the gratitude.

4. Create a Gratitude Jar

If you don’t want to write down all the reasons you are grateful in your journal, try creating a gratitude jar. You can use small pieces of paper to write down one thing you are grateful for each day, fold it up, and put it in the jar. This is a fun activity you can do with your family as well, helping everyone to be more grateful. It is also a great gift for others, where you can personalize an empty jar for them and give them paper and pens to use for the gratitude jar.

5. Volunteer to Help Others

You can also express your gratitude through your actions. You don’t always have to be vocal about how much you appreciate someone else and how they have improved your life, but instead show them through how you help them. Volunteer to help them with a big project, show up when they are going through a rough time, and invite them to spend time with you. When you go out of your way to be there for other people, they can feel your gratitude.

As you have learned from previous articles on the subject – and if you are following along with our Positive Thinking Challenge – thinking positively every day has many benefits. It helps with your emotional and physical health, from improving your daily life and relieving stress, to actually helping with your physical health and wellbeing.

If you want to learn how to think more positively every day, here are some tips to get started.

Have More Confidence in Your Own Abilities

More often than not, a lot of your negative thoughts are related to fears you have about your own abilities, and not at all rational. Are a lot of your negative thoughts during the day related to how you think you are failing, or in ways you don’t think you will ever succeed? These are the thoughts that are related to your own self-confidence. Start acting with confidence, understanding your best skills, and really playing them up. Focus on your best abilities and qualities, instead of becoming drowned in the skills you think you don’t have.

Act with Intention

It is also important that you act with intention, which will also help you to reframe your thoughts into more positive ones. When you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it, it automatically gives you more confidence about what you can accomplish. This is going to help you feel good about yourself and what you got done, which alone helps a lot with your positive attitude throughout the day.

Find Your Triggers for Negative Thinking

When you have days where it is difficult to get past certain negative thoughts, try to find reasons for those thoughts. Was it from an unexpected event? Do you have an anxiety disorder that leads to irrational fears? Is there someone in your life causing these negative thoughts? What influence does the news or social media have on your mindset?

These and many other things can be triggers for your negative thinking. When you find triggers, you are able to better to handle those situations, so that you can avoid them and hopefully develop a more positive mindset.

Look for the Humor

Sometimes, bad things happen in your life that create a negative narrative, and you just have to laugh it off. When your car breaks down on the way to work, or you have an embarrassing moment you can’t stop thinking about, just move on, understand you can’t take it back, and laugh it out.

It isn’t easy to just switch turning negative thoughts into positive ones, or even putting a positive spin on a negative situation. Sometimes, you are just having a terrible day and are completely consumed by one derailment after another. These are the days when you need to think a little out of the box if you still want to be a positive person who thinks optimistically about everything in life.

Here are some tips for reframing those negative thoughts into positive ones, even when it seems like everything is going wrong.

Why Bother?

First of all, why do you need to reframe your negative thoughts? Technically, you don’t need to, but it can help to maintain a positive attitude as you go through life. It is not what happens to you that defines you, but how you deal with it. Everyone has things that go wrong or unexpected in their life, but not everyone has a negative attitude about it. Why? Because some people have learned how to cope with the bad things and somehow turn them into good things, even if they are just putting a positive spin on something that had really unfortunate timing.

Write Everything Down

If you are a little overwhelmed by all the negative things happening on a particularly bad day, just take a step back, take a breath, and write it down. Get out your journal and detail everything that has happened. Describe in detail why you are having a bad day, what has happened or gone wrong, and what you have done about it.

In some cases, you find positives just by writing it all down. In others, you just feel a little lighter having vented through journaling. And in other situations, you might find that you didn’t have the best response to something, and you were actually the reason it went bad. This intention is a really important lesson to learn moving forward.

There is (Almost) Always a Positive Spin

This might not be true for all bad things in your life, but there is usually a positive spin you can put on most situations. It might be that you made a mistake, learned from it, and will try harder not to make it in the future. Or the positive spin is just that the bad or embarrassing moment is over, and now you don’t have to relive it.

In other situations, maybe you had to go somewhere new because the place you usually visit was closed, and while this put you in a sour mood, you met someone new at this new place. Cherish and appreciate these unexpected moments, because they really provide you with a lot more positivity.

At the end of the day, when you are still struggling, just appreciate that the day is over and now you can move on from it.

As you know, if you are following along with our Positive Thinking Challenge, a journal is an amazing tool to use for thinking more positively. It isn’t just great for gaining more clarity and venting your frustrations, but for your journey to being a more positive person as well.

Keep reading to learn about all the reasons why you should use a journal to increase your positive thinking.

You Can Reframe Your Negative Thoughts

First of all, you will use the journal to help reframe your thoughts into more positive ones. This is one of the biggest hurdles of thinking more positively, since you can’t control negative things that happen in your life. Almost every day, unexpected events will transpire that might put you in a funk, make you feel sad or frustrated, or just really affect the day you had planned out for yourself.

While you can’t control these events, you can control how you deal with them. You can use your journal to write down your negative thoughts, then look at ways to make them positive. We will talk about this more in a later blog post as well so you really understand how this works.

You Find Out Why You Have Negative Thoughts

As you begin journaling all your thoughts and feelings, you will also discover why it has been hard for you in the past to have more of a positive mindset. There are often patterns in the more negative things you talk about, whether they are all related to goals you haven’t achieved, your work or school life, or even specific people in your life.

It is important to be open and honest in your journal, because that is how you will understand more about yourself and where your frame of mind comes from. By understanding WHY you have negative thoughts, you are able to make changes in your life to be a more positive person.

It Helps You Be More Grateful for the Good in Your Life

Lastly, we really like journaling for positivity because you can express gratitude. Being more grateful is all about understanding the good things in your life, whether it is your health, people, or where you live and work, and appreciating it. You can write down one thing to be grateful for each day in your journal, which immediately puts you in a better mood and helps you to think more positively.

If you have ever read about being more positive, changing your life, or any self improvement topic, then you have probably come across the concept of affirmations.

The reason people talk about them and encourage them so much is because of how powerful they can be. An affirmation is just a positive statement you repeat to yourself to get into a positive mindset. It seems so simple, but it truly does make a major difference in how you think and act.

Here are some different ways you can use your daily affirmations.

Write Them in Your Journal Each Day

When you write down affirmations, it is good to have them in a permanent place to reference. Have a page in your journal dedicated to all your favorite positive affirmations. You can either read off this list every day, or actually write new ones down each day.

Every morning when you write in your journal, write down at least one positive affirmation that pertains to something occurring that day, or that will help your mindset for what you have coming up. Writing it down is going to help you use it efficiently, along with saying it out loud to yourself.

Keep Digital Copies of Your Affirmations

It is also a good idea to have your favorite affirmations in other places, to be used any time you need them. Maybe you keep your journal at home, but you need a quick positive affirmation while you are at work or running errands. Try to keep a digital copy of them on your phone, so that you can reference them at any time. This really helps in those unexpected situations.

Set a Timer for Using the Affirmations

Having a hard time remembering to use your affirmations each day? Set a timer! This can be a timer that goes off at the same time each day, like shortly before you typically get ready for work, or in the evenings around bedtime. You can also have different timers each day depending on what your schedule looks like.

Use Event-Specific Affirmations

There might also be times in your life when you need a positive attitude about a certain situation that is causing you stress or anxiety. For example, if you have a big oral presentation coming up soon at work or school, you might be worried about all the things that could potentially go wrong. Instead of focusing on those, focus on something positive. Create affirmations that help you understand you are capable of doing this presentation, remind yourself that you are prepared, and that you are brave and strong.

Pro Tip – Make sure the affirmations you choose are only for yourself, and not others. These are all about you and your own mindset. They should not reflect any other person in your life. They are personal and private, and you don’t need to feel like you should share them with anyone.