This month we have been talking about staying positive. I think we can all agree staying positive is a fantastic outlook to have on life, but it isn’t always an easy thing to do. I want to talk about how staying positive gets easier with practice.
Staying positive isn’t always easy. Sure, when things are going well and life is good, it is easy to have a positive outlook on the future. It isn’t nearly as easy when things stop going according to plan. It is easy to fall into the trap of asking why, or thinking things will never go right for you. Staying positive in these situations is where it really takes practice and hard work.
Staying positive gets easier the longer we do it. At first, it can be hard to be positive when everything seems to be going wrong. For myself at least, I tend to question why this is happening to me or why can’t it be different rather than focusing on what is good about the situation or how I can learn from it.
As we force ourselves to look at the positive side of even the toughest situation, the little things begin to cause less and less stress. Positivity becomes a natural response to hardship.
I have seen this happen in my own life. I used to become easily frustrated when things didn’t go according to plan. And being frustrated makes it even harder to turn the tide and make things start to go in your favour.
During my recovery, I was taught the importance of looking at the positive aspects of everything. For example, there were definitely weeks where for I slipped up a few times with snacks, but was able to challenge myself with the dinners. I learned that rather than dwelling on being imperfect in my recovery, I needed to focus on the accomplishments of the week. I learned to take the progress I made with dinners and keep the momentum going to work on snacks in future weeks. This positive momentum continues to increase, and it becomes much easier to take positive steps in recovery rather than getting caught up on the aspects I haven’t done well on.
I am sure most of you can attest to this, because we have all had struggles, whether it is an eating disorder, anxiety, depression, financial stress, etc.
For those of you who are in the middle of a hard time right now, believe me, I know it is hard to stay positive. I want to encourage you to keep at it, though, because staying positive through whatever it is you are going through right now will make this challenge and future struggles far easier to overcome.
I’ve heard the quote from Friedrich Nietzsche thousands of times “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” I always thought it was a bit cliché, but it really is true. The more we stay positive through hard times, the easier and more natural positivity becomes. I hope you will remember this, and know even though it may be hard to think of the positives now, it will help you get through what you are going through, and will even help you in future struggles.
http://www.liberonetwork.com/staying-positive-gets-easier
