To Activate Positivity, Look for It in Everyday Life
There are three things you are working toward to achieve a balanced emotional scale: (1) reduce the number of negative thoughts, (2) increase positive thoughts, and then, when you get good at it by improving your core skills, you will (3) learn to move the fulcrum point so positivity tips the scale. Know that one great big feather isn’t going to tip the scale—mostly because there are no feathers that large. If you have 5,000 pebbles a day on one side, you’d need a feather the size of Manhattan to even come close…and you’d need one every day.
A lot of people believe that when you get the dream job, the supportive partner, the substantial raise, the luxury car, or the beach vacation, the your emotional scale will tip in a positive direction. Unfortunately, this isn’t true. While the great thing you finally get may give you a temporary mood boost, soon afterward the rumination of negative thoughts will return, making your life anxious and stressed once again.
How to Boost Positivity in Your Life
So how do you bring more positivity into your life on a regular basis? You begin with a review, a search, a savoring, and an honoring of all the positivity that is already around you. You won’t be able to find positive emotions in your life at the frequency you need unless you look for them. Let’s take a deeper look at how you might start your own mental version of “wax on.”
Research shows that once people can activate a positive feeling, there is a natural tendency to want more of it. Importantly, for the purpose of this exploration, studies show that being able to pick out something positive from among the negative is particularly vital. For example, if you notice a smiling face within a sea of disgruntled ones, or the beauty of an urban community garden in the midst of an expanse of concrete, it can elevate your experience. When you deliberately look to increase your positive emotions, scientists call it “upregulating.” Here’s a chance for you to try it.
Look for Peace and Joy Right in Front of You
Even if you are in a crummy mood and are worried about a number of things, you can still look for the positive. The good surrounding you can get lost in the negativity. You need to make a deliberate effort to retrieve it and amplify it. By focusing on the available peace and joy, you will start plucking feathers out of the rock pile.
We are going to begin right where you are—in this moment, with whatever is in front of you. Look around you. In your journal, create three columns.
Label the first column “Object.” Here, make a list of things, objects, or images that bring you joy or a sense of peace. Make a list of a minimum of 10 things.
Label the second column “Reason.” Write the reason why this object brings you peace or joy.
Label the third column “Memory” and write what the object evokes from your past.
Now, write down any themes you notice in the lists. For me, the thing that jumped out was how people close to me have given me gifts that I enjoy having around me while I am working. I wasn’t fully aware of this before the exercise.
Being able to notice your surroundings, and the peace and joy that is already there, awakens your senses, memory, and gratitude for what you already have. This pause for positive thought allows you to notice, appreciate, and amplify it. Savor the positive emotions connected to your present moment.
Final Thoughts: Positivity Is a Practice
Doing explorations or exercises like this will help raise your overall awareness of all of the good, positive things you have in your life. Over time, you’ll start to see with more clarity that you may have a lot more gifts and blessings in your life than your brain was leading you to think. Positive psychology, just like going to the gym or eating healthy, is a wellness practice that takes time to build into a habit. You can start this habit anytime, anywhere.
