7 Tips for a more likely positive mindset

Maybe you know the feeling:

You have a job you don´t hate but also don´t love. Most days, you don´t mind going to work, but at the same time, you never look forward to being there and could imagine a hundred different places where you would love to be instead.

You like your car because it brings you from A to B. But you know there are better cars out there. The same goes for your apartment. You like your home, but you could always change something and wish for much more than what you currently have. Overall, you are convinced your life could and should be different.

But you genuinely believe that this is the way life works. It wouldn´t help to complain because there are always people in situations you think are much worse than yours. And, of course, that´s the truth. There always will be someone who has less than you. Someone who´d wish to switch life with you. But at the same time, there will always be someone who has more than you. This is also true.

And what do you think is the reason for this? Why are you where you are right now in life? What is the reason behind it? Is it just a coincidence that you are not the person you dream of or live the life you desire?

Why do you have to go to a job you wouldn´t choose if you´d had the choice? Why do you have to live the life you are currently in? A life you would have changed yesterday if you just could?

What is the difference between you and any other person you know? Any other person who seems to live a better life? Why does it seem that everyone around you lives a much more fulfilling existence? And how can you achieve the same?

Every one of us is truly unique.

Not only the way our bodies look or the way we talk. What our culture is or where we are from. There is not one single person on this planet who is exactly like you. Not one single person.  

You are unique in the way you think and the way you act. What your dreams are and your desires. What you do expect from your life. Where you want to be in 10 years – where you don´t want to be in 10 years – someone´s biggest dreams could be your worst.

Isn´t that amazing? We are all so different … and yet still the same.

You could write a book filled with all of your thoughts you have in just one day. You think about so many things every day. It´s crazy!

But what are the thoughts you think? The words you speak to yourself when no one is listening? What are your daily habits?

Are you cheering yourself up regularly? Or are you used to telling yourself what you could make better and what are all the things you fucked up today?

Wouldn´t it be great to have a tiny voice in your head that constantly tells you how gorgeous and unique you are? How amazing it is that you are in the world? That you are the greatest gift, a true blessing, to all the people around you and yourself?

What would it feel like to have such a voice? And what do you think would happen if you were forced to listen to this daily? Could this be the start of something completely new? A complete new YOU?

I want to share a little secret with you – you can have all of this!

You can be your cheerleader!

You can be your biggest fan!

Because it doesn´t matter: you can be your greatest critic. You can live your life and never be good enough for anything … or choose to be perfect the way you are – either way, you are right. We are the ones who give power to whatever we think is worth our energy.

What are you choosing? Do you want to keep feeling miserable or choose to be the best version of yourself? Why not try out something new?

But how should this work, I hear you saying? – don´t worry, I got your back.

In this blog post, I will show you some tricks to achieve that. Your inner voice will support you instead of criticising every step you take so that you can create a much more positive mindset.

With all that said – let´s jump right into this blog post…

3 things to avoid if you want to achieve a more positive mindset

1. Social media and TV

You probably know this situation:

You come home after a long day at work. Tired and stressed from all the deadlines in your head, and after a chaotic day, your only desire is something to eat and turn on the TV. You are lying on the couch; you´re scrolling through social media. Of course, you want to be up to date and also want to relax at the same time. What could be better than a movie and some good old gossip?

Worldwide we use social media for an average of 147 min per day, and only in Germany do people watch television for an average of 213 min per day.

Totalled, these 360 minutes of screen time are about 6 HOURS daily on average!

Six hours of precious time we give daily to other people. Other people who make a profit out of our time. Not only time but also energy is what we provide. We watch movies and people and give them our power. We feel with them, and we cheer them up. Or, we even cry with them (Yes, we´ve all seen “The Notebook”, haha)

And in the first place, that seems like a good thing. People are usually very social creatures, so it`s natural to feel with others and enjoy what they do. Movies and everything else that TV and social media can offer us is a kind of art.

So, it feels natural to us to appreciate the work of others. TV and social media are magnificent inventions. Billions of people appreciate daily what those devices can offer us. Entertainment that couldn´t be cheaper, it seems. We don´t even have to leave the house to enjoy it. And I think that´s brilliant!

But the side-effect of these easy-to-access entertainments is that we can get lost too quickly. Suddenly it´s a ritual for us to check on our social media or turn on the television. It is nothing special anymore; it´s just what we do daily. We don´t even realise that we are tired and lazy, and we don´t know what we should do about it and how to change something.

The entertainment factor is not the problem. Nor the fact that we want to be up to date. If it´s a conscious decision, then it´s all good.

But if we don’t even realise that 3 hours later, we still scroll through social media or watch episode after episode of our current series, we lose control over our lives.

The more we consume, the more energy we give. And the more power we give to someone else, the less we have for ourselves. But we need 100% of our God-given energy to make dreams a reality.

Have you ever observed that your head becomes blurry whenever you gather too much screentime and have difficulties thinking straight? You are kind of tired, but still, you cannot sleep. You feel some weird type of exhaustion.

And how should we focus on creating a positive mindset if we cannot even catch a thought?

Think about this for a minute.

Do you like that?

And if not, what do you think you can do about it?

As I said before, I don´t think that social media or TV itself is the problem. We make it an issue. So, if we are the source of the problem, we are also the cure.

The only thing we need to do is to be aware of our behaviour and our daily habits.

Try to make the intention to consume media consciously and make the conscious decision about what you consume to achieve a positive mindset.

This decision will change everything.

2. Toxic people

We´ve all heard about “toxic” people and that we all should stay far, far away from them. We´ve been told that all they want to do is to poison our minds and harm us in the worst kind of way.

Well … not really.

Those “toxic” people are not so much different from us. They are real people like you and me. They`ve experienced life and want to master life like any other person on this planet.

So why the heck do we even declare people as “toxic”?

Because some people can be harmful to us and our positive mindset:

• We lose energy while being around them
• We get in a bad (angry, sad, mad, etc.) mood which we don´t appreciate
• We let us be manipulated to be different around them

But these “toxic” people don´t show this behaviour on purpose. People always act in, for them, the best way possible. But sometimes, the best way they can generate is not suitable for us. Because the best way they can show up is still toxic concerning what we define as desirable behaviour from people interacting with us and how we want to be treated by them. This leads to miscommunication and toxic reactions.

What exactly is toxic behaviour?

For us to understand what toxic behaviour is, we, in the first place, need to understand what “toxic” actually means:

The word “toxic” means something (chemical substance, animal, plant, bacterium) has toxic attributes. Still, it can only show them by interacting with another organism (e.g., human) – if this foreign organism gets somehow in contact with the toxic attribute, it reacts – if the reaction is not pleasing for the concerning organism, we speak of toxicity.

Hence, nothing a person can do (to others) is declared toxic. It only gets toxic in combination with a reaction from another being.

So, if a “toxic” person constantly complains about how terrible their days are, how unfair their boss treats them, or how huge their problem with money is, it´s just how they see life. It´s only what they experienced in their existence. This is just how they learned to think and react to their environment. They´ve never been taught things differently or seen the necessity to change their perception of life.

This behaviour is not toxic by itself. It´s just one way of experiencing life. But as soon as this behaviour influences your attitude and vibration, it harms a positive mindset.

Suppose you let yourself be manipulated by other people’s low vibration and constant negative vibes; you are more likely to copy this behaviour and start being negative within your thoughts. And it is not about discussing problems but about complaining and making a victim out of yourself. It´s about losing control, about giving your power to other people or situations. It´s about believing that you are NOT in control of the problem. You can do nothing about it, and your life is out of control.

This is what a toxic person makes you feel and believe.

They project their powerlessness on us. They show us that they are right. That the world is this horrible place, they blame it for being. They show us their proof of telling the truth. And, of course, they are right.

They are right because they genuinely believe it. This belief is what makes their opinion a reality.

But we are right as well. If we say, we are in control of our life. If we say we can change everything we don´t want to experience – we are right.

For you to believe in yourself and get the proof for all your magnificent perceptions, it would be counterproductive to be around people who won´t believe you and, even worse, won´t let you define and live out your own positive and powerful beliefs for creating a more positive mindset.

3. Processed food

If talking about a positive mindset, we cannot skip this part. Our mind and body are connected, so it just makes sense to talk about the food we consume daily. Many studies are out there discussing how our eating influences our well-being. Not only does it affect our physical appearance and health, but also our mood and emotional health.

So, it is said that an unhealthy diet with lots of highly processed food can increase the risk of getting depressive symptoms, and this has nothing to do with what we are about to achieve – a positive mindset. Therefore, the sensible next step would be to focus on nutrition.

Disclaimer: I will never say negative thoughts have no chance to affect us with the healthiest diet possible. But if we can do something we are indeed in control of, why shouldn´t we take this step and probably increase the likelihood of having a better mood and more positive thoughts?

The thing with food is that everyone has an opinion about this topic. And most of the time, the belief is so strong that a discussion about food – healthy food – is almost impossible. Just think about the millions of different types of diets out there. People follow a vegan lifestyle; others go with meat and other animal products. Some believe avoiding carbohydrates is the only way to go – they swear by the keto diet, and many more are out there. Combining all these different opinions about the right kind of food is almost impossible. And it´s not necessary. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs.

I won´t tell you what to eat or avoid regarding nutrition. But I will always tell you that no matter what kind of food you choose, your priority number one should always be to feel your best. You deserve to feel your absolute best, no matter what you do.

When you think about the purpose of food, to what conclusion do you come?

Why do we even consume food on a regular, daily basis?

We eat to strengthen our connection to the physical world. If we choose not to eat, we lose this connection step by step and fade away until we lose our bodies.

But we are here in the physical world to fully experience this beautiful, physical life. Our bodies love to be nourished so they can provide us with lots of energy and the best health possible. And the highest goal for our body is, again, that we can feel glorious.

I could write about healthy and unhealthy food as much as I want to. You can read about it and agree with it, but you need to experience it to understand the impact nutrition has on your body entirely.

How can you experience the difference?

Often difference makes not what we do but what we avoid doing. It´s about stepping back, even for one moment, and clarifying where we are in life. About observing our habits. It´s about decisions. It´s about choosing how we want to define ourselves.

Whenever you feel ready for this, sit down, have a nice cup of tea, get yourself something to write (if you want to write it down), and think about how you want to feel about nutrition.

What impact do you want nutrition to have on you and your body?

Personally, it is crucial that food, on the one hand, makes me replete and satisfied, but on the other hand, I want to feel energetic and light. Food should fuel my body so I can do everything I´ve planned for the day. But all of this is impossible if my body feels heavy and weak. If I need to schedule some time to take a rest from what I ate before, this does not support my idea of the purpose of nutrition.

For this reason, my intention regarding the food I consume is:

• I feel light and satisfied in my body.
• I´m in balance with my body, and so does the food I consume.

For you, something different might be more important than what it is for me. If so, that´s great!

Just think about what is important to you regarding food, and you will start to eat what matches your intention the best.

Now that we discussed what you could avoid for a more positive mindset, I want to talk about what you can do to improve a positive mindset.

I´m aware that, what I think is the way to go, might be, for some people, not attractive. Please remember you are always entitled to follow your own beliefs! I´m not here to tell you what to do and what to avoid; the only purpose for me to talk about specific topics is to give you some new ideas to think about so that you might have a much easier time finding your path in life.

With all of that said, here are…

4 things to do to achieve a more positive mindset

1. Spend time in nature

When we spend time in nature, we realise that nothing matters. Nature doesn’t care if you´ve got the latest iPhone or the promotion you think you need. We will realise that it doesn´t matter if we are right with our opinion. We don´t need to argue, and we don´t need to prove anything.

Nature does its thing and does not care about any other circumstances. Trees grow in the weirdest places, and they don´t care if we think it shouldn´t be possible. Bumblebees fly even if humans think they shouldn´t be able to fly. Nevertheless, they fly.

There is no better place than nature where we can clear our minds and eliminate our problems, even for just one moment. It can help us to calm down and take a deep breath. Sometimes we will see that our problems are not that tremendous.

It can help us to realise that we are not our problems. We are not our thoughts. Not our bodies. We are so much more than that, and uncomfortable situations created by humans can not define our worth or are entitled to take our time and energy if we decide not to give it away.

Therefore, go into nature whenever you can. If you need to bring your phone, then put it on mute. Take a deep breath and walk. Our bodies are created to move. Let your thoughts come and go and enjoy this particular moment of being part of this great cycle, what nature is.

Nature never needs to force anything. It just flows. When spring comes and flora and fauna get more sunlight, everything starts to grow and bloom. When it comes to autumn and temperatures are dropping, and the sun is hiding more often, nature begins to prepare to sleep. It´s a hoop that never ends.

And so are we, part of nature, whether we want it or not. We, too, never need to force anything and can decide to go with the natural flow even if we sometimes forget that we are in control of that. 

2. Move your body

While moving our body, we get that extra dose of happiness in the form of endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin.

We feel relieved, relaxed, and more energetic. That´s pretty amazing, huh?

But many people think that being active or doing sport – whatever you want to call it – is necessary to get your body in a particular type of shape or get a specific fitness level, and for nothing else.

And, of course, exercise is highly beneficial for these goals. But if your only matter is to change your physical appearance, which may be the single reason you are active, you need a lot of discipline and patience for a purpose located outside.

Since you won´t see results immediately, this can lead to frustration because change is something we usually associate with unpleasantness – and thinking further – if we “force” ourselves to do something unpleasant because it´s unknown and uncomfortable, we associate it with “punishment” – we want to change our physical appearance because we are not satisfied with how we currently look – and the result is that we do something we might not like, also it feels like a punishment and even worse we don´t see results fast enough to compensate the uncomfortable feelings.

Hence, it´s unfortunately easy to lack motivation and to quit, even before we get the results because we need the feeling of success. But especially at the beginning of a fitness journey, we don´t feel successful; it´s exhausting and tiring.  

If you lack the motivation to stick to your goal because of the lack of results or successes, you won´t see the necessity of making it a routine. Suppose your single incentive for doing sport is to look good and to get compliments. In that case, you will always be dependent on the world around you – if people appreciate your appearance or if the body shape you are working towards is currently in trend.

Pretty daunting, right? – but don´t worry …

Here is another way of thinking about movement:

Movement equals life

Let me explain this:

Everything in life is constantly shifting.

Look around; you won´t see anything that is not always in motion. Nothing stays the same. For animals or anything that can actively move, it´s obvious. But also think about something steady like the sand on the beach. Those tiny stones may not roll around by themselves but think of the ocean, the wind, the rain and creatures walking by. There are uncountable influences that occur to change the location of something seemingly immovable.

Movement and change are natural states. It´s nothing we need to be afraid of. Sometimes we may not like when change happens, but it´s natural and necessary.

Just imagine if everything all the time would stay the same!

You may want to see it like this: The more you move your body, the more you connect yourself with life. And the more active you are, the more you can enjoy life to its fullest. The more likely you can achieve a positive mindset.

Also, since movement means life, moving your body means self-love. Your body deserves your attention daily. You move your body because you want to keep it alive and healthy. To feel your absolute best.

While moving your body, think about how much you love yourself. How much your body deserves this and you as well. You will see that the moment you change your perspective, everything changes.

You will start to see that moving your body is a blessing.

Move your body because it makes you feel good. Therefore, you never have to do a type of sport you reject from the bottom of your heart. Find something you want to do joyfully every day, and then make it a routine. You deserve this!

3. Meditation

Meditation is a great way to separate yourself for one moment from the reality you´ve created. You can see through meditation that the truth you´re living is not objective. That it is just what you´ve made out of it, though. You can enjoy the present moment and be – by breathing and feeling your body.  

When thinking about meditation, I feel that the primary purpose of this practice is to step back from everything in the physical world and observe oneself in the present moment. This way, we can reclaim the energy we left on past situations, other people´s issues and anywhere else but on our current selves.

Every time we sit down to practice meditation, it can give us the power of control. Over our minds, and more importantly, our thoughts. We can feel a massive release of tension and stress, and when the session is over, you can realise that the problems, which were so exhausting before, are suddenly not so threatening anymore. And this feeling is just everything for me.

But meditation requires, like most things in life, regular practice.

In the beginning, you may get lost in many distractions from your surroundings. Your thoughts may digress from one moment to the other.

But that´s normal, and it is just fine.

Every time you notice your mind wanders, let go of your thoughts and don´t judge yourself for getting diverted while you intend to think nothing.

You are who you are.

With all your thoughts and habits, it´s okay.

There is no need to condemn yourself. Just go back whenever you see yourself getting lost in your mind.

4. Practice gratitude

This last point is, hands down, one of the most effective ways to get a more positive mindset. You can do it anywhere and anytime; it doesn´t matter what you´re currently doing.

You can practice gratitude at all times. There are always things we can be grateful for.

Why should you practice gratitude? How can you benefit from this?

Because it doesn´t matter – it makes no difference.

Yes, you read it correctly.

It does not matter if you talk (or think) about a situation, person, or yourself negatively or positively. You take the effort to speak/think anyways. So, the action is the same.

Nothing will change at this very moment if you think and talk in a criticising or judgmental way.

You won´t see any results in exactly the second the words, full of envy, leave your mouth.

Your reality won´t be a different one in exact this moment.

BUT…

What does matter are the emotions.

What makes the difference is what you will feel while thinking and talking in a bad or good way about anything important to you. About anything you think is worth your energy.

So, choose wisely what is worth your effort of thinking. Choose wisely in which direction you aim your energy.

Always remember:

What goes around comes around

And this proverb couldn´t be more accurate.

Because if you judge others, you will consider yourself the same. The level of criticism you practice on others in your outer world will weigh double your shoulders. You will criticise yourself even more if you see mostly the bad in others. You will punish yourself for the same you blame other people.

But you deserve better. You deserve to be treated with love and empathy. Simply for the reason that you are.

Hence, practising gratitude will shift your focus from an overall negative, critical and judgmental attitude towards a peaceful and positive mindset filled with empathy for others and, more importantly, for yourself.

Be grateful at any point. Practice daily to see the good in everything. It is possible. There is no reason for you to stay in a low vibration of criticism and judgment.

Take the first step and be genuinely grateful; your life and world will shift with you.

You can do it.

Life is all about mindset. It´s all about vibration. It´s all about focus.

Changing your mindset to the positive will drastically turn your life around 180°. You will start to see opportunities you´ve never thought of. Miracles will happen because you´ve learned to appreciate them. Even the smallest trivialities will become something powerful and magical.

Don´t let your peace and you’re worth be determined by others. It´s your life, so claim your power!

Start today. Make a decision.

I hope this blog post can help you bring light into the dark. Creating a positive mindset is a journey. It can be frustrating, I know – like all new things in life can be.

But being on this journey and experiencing a new perspective of everything will be like living a completely new life.

I would love to hear from you how you like this blog post.

See you soon!