The Light Is Coming

Who else feels like this song is totally underrated? Whenever I need a hit of positivity and confidence, I blast AG. It could be this song, 7 rings, just like magic, successful, God is a woman – you name it, I love it. 

Anyways, this post started with an amazing question I received from my bestie Ana (love her!): How are you such a positive light in a world of darkness?

I’m known for being Pollyanna-level positive. Whether you love that or not, I think we can all agree that knowing how to stay happy and optimistic is so important in life. So, I wanted to expand upon this question and make a whole post dedicated to it. Here are my methods that help me stay positive, even in difficult or uncertain times:

Gratitude

If you know me, you probably saw this one coming! Imo, I think gratitude is the most essential practice to develop a positive mindset. This is because the simple thought of recognizing how blessed we are has the power to instantly brighten our perspective. I always like to acknowledge what I’m grateful for in my mind throughout the day, as well as intentionally reflect on my blessings when I journal. We can be grateful for big things like loving family and friends, a safe place to live, and a job  – or, smaller things like a cute dog we saw walking on the street, an uplifting song, or an interaction with a kind stranger. When gratitude becomes a natural part of our mindset, we start to find positives everywhere we go – and we basically become a magnet for joy. 

Self awareness and acceptance of the present moment

I’m grouping together self awareness and acceptance of the present moment because I feel like they’re really interrelated. I think to be consistent in our gratitude practice, (even in difficult times) it comes back to having the self awareness to focus on the positive. I learned from reading The Power of Now that self awareness and acceptance of whatever we’re feeling is the first step to improve any situation. Although it can be sooo difficult to not let little negative things affect our positive energy, it just takes a little self awareness and acceptance. This doesn’t mean that we’re necessarily happy with the situation, but that we’re at peace with it, which makes it easier to stay positive.

Identify learning opportunities

But, what about those tough times where things are out of our control and just seem to go awry? This simple, poignant quote from The Power is a great philosophy for life: “If something good happens, I appreciate it. If something bad happens, I see it as a learning experience.”

I also saw a quote from Ed Mylett that changed my life. It was so simple and so profound: “If God doesn’t fix the situation, he’s using the situation to fix you.”

Both of these quotes are so true. Even if things aren’t ideal, it’s all about taking away the learning experience. It’s easier said than done, but we can proactively respond by identifying what we can learn from the situation that we can use to improve ourselves. This will help us stay resilient and optimistic in the long term and automatically results in a net-positive outcome. 

Furthermore, an important note I want to make sure everyone knows is that we don’t have to be positive 100% of the time; I’m certainly not! Feeling sad and going through challenging times and learning opportunities is a part of life, and happens to everyone. It’s all about how we respond to these situations. This positive response and attitude makes us appreciate how much we’ve grown from challenges, while also strengthening our gratitude for all of the good things in our life.

Consciously choose happiness

Rhonda Byrne explains in her famous book The Secret that in life, we have a choice to think positively or negatively; that we’re in control of our thoughts and reactions. So, let’s all try our best to make a conscious decision to smile, find happiness in (mostly) everything we do, and envision ourselves radiating positivity into the world. Something I've found that helps is to surround ourselves with positive people, quotes, and reminders that will elicit those joyful emotions within us. 

To tie this post back to the title, I also had a moment where I just told myself that good things are on the way, that positivity surrounds me, and the light is coming to me – and don’t be afraid to do the same! I think the single most important decision we can make to improve our life right now is to decide to think positively. Of course, we all need to be realistic sometimes, but I personally think it’s much more fun to be unrealistically optimistic ;)

I hope you enjoyed reading these mindset tips and that you can implement them into your life. Remember, the light is coming!!