Flexing your Positivity Muscle
Yes, positivity is like a muscle, it gets stronger the more we use it. Same with negativity. Which muscles have you been flexing lately?
Here’s a daily exercise routine to help you build strength in positivity:
You notice you’re awake
What are the first thoughts you are thinking? How do those thoughts make you feel? If it’s something other than along the lines of grateful, joyful, happy and excited to be alive, there’s some work to do.
Is there some adjustment you need to make in your life to help you wake up happy?
Is your system trying to communicate something to you? It could be as simple as going to bed earlier to have a good night’s sleep, or as complex as leaving a relationship or quitting a job that isn’t right for you anymore. Whatever it is, are you willing to really listen to you and stop fighting what your being is trying to tell you?
Or maybe it’s just your thinking that needs a little adjusting
What could you think or focus on that would give you a positive feeling, experience, outlook? Can you think of three thoughts that help you feel happy, grateful joyful, etc.? Can you imagine three things about your day that you feel positively about or are looking forward to? Can you find three positive ways to view your situation, your day, your current life-circumstances?
It’s not so much what happens to us in life, but the attitude we have and how we respond that determines our experience
Use some positive affirmations
Maybe there’s some affirmation or phrases you can start to repeat to yourself the moment you wake up to activate your positivity muscle.
Some possibilities:
- Today is a brand new day with brand new possibility and experience, I open to receiving all the good life has to offer me
- What else is possible? How does it get any better than this?
- I love life and life loves me, all is well.
Or write your own statements that help you feel positive and get in the habit of repeating them when you first wake up.
So, have you flexed and stretched that positivity muscle? Do you have a slightly brighter outlook on your day?
Good.
Now get up.
Sing if you can
Songs with positive and uplifting lyrics are the best. Even humming a tune will work. It’s hard to sing and be unhappy. I sing in the shower, in the car, wherever I am. I’ve even made up tunes to positive affirmations and sang them in the car on my way to work. Tunes stay in your head more than just words, so affirmation songs will give your positivity muscle some extra, long-lasting fuel and strength.
Throughout your day, pay attention to your thoughts
Are they true? Really true? Even if you think they are, how do they make you feel? What if thinking something else could make you feel better? Would you be willing to pick thoughts that contribute to your happiness, well-being and positive experience of your day?
See if you can notice and put your attention on any thought, feeling, or experience that increases the positivity in your day. In any situation, ask yourself:
“Is there another way I could look at this or chose to experience this that would add to positivity in my day, in my life, in the world?”
Are you willing to choose it?
Your positivity muscle is getting stronger!
So just notice, and when you start to give your negativity muscle a work out, see if you can adjust and build strength in your positivity muscle instead.
Now this may sound simple, but for some of us it is not so easy. If we’ve really worked the negativity muscle, we may have a very weak positivity muscle and it could take some concerted effort and practice to rebuild strength there. So, just know, the more you flex your positivity muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets!
Ok, so now you’ve made it through your day. Perhaps it was a GREAT day, and you felt super positive, maybe it didn’t go as well as you’d hoped or how you would have liked…. but here you are, getting ready to crawl into bed and go to sleep.
Review your day and make adjustments
As you lie in bed, reflect backwards through your day. How did things play out? How did you respond? Can you feel gratitude and appreciation for all the ways you engaged and responded that you feel good about? How about the places where perhaps you worked the negativity muscle or did not respond in the most desired or positive way? Instead of beating yourself up, criticizing and judging, what if you can just reflect, and then imagine how you might have responded differently? Can you create the positive experience for yourself now, even if you didn’t have it then?
Get Grateful
After reviewing your day, what are you grateful for? What can you celebrate? I challenge you to find at least 10 things you can genuinely feel grateful for about your day. It can be as simple as having a warm bed to sleep in, whatever you can genuinely feel grateful for not what you think you should be grateful for. See if you can find ten things. If you’re positivity muscle hasn’t been getting much flexing, then start with two or three, whatever you do will be building your strength in positivity.
Of course you can also use gratitude as a positivity muscle-building tool at any moment in your day, the more gratitude you are able to cultivate in your life, the more positivity you will experience.
Here’s the daily positivity muscle-building routine in five easy steps:
- Listen to yourself and your being when you first wake up. Notice what you are thinking and how those thoughts make you feel. What thoughts can you choose to think that contribute to positive experience and feeling?
- Activate positive affirmations and thoughts. Sing! Sing positive songs, write affirmations and make up a tune to go along.
- Pay attention to the energy of your thoughts. Are they true? How do they make you feel? What could you think that would contribute to your positive experience of your day, your life, your world?
- Review your day before you go to bed. What can you celebrate? Can you re-vision the moments that did not go as you ideally would have liked, and create the positive experience for yourself now?
- Get Grateful. Find ten things that you can genuinely feel grateful for. The more gratitude you can cultivate in your life, the more positivity you will feel.
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