How Do You Stay Happy And Positive In Negative Situations

 

Do you become pessimistic and lose hope, when you fail or when you face difficulties? Do you know that you can change your attitude and maintain a positive attitude, even when facing difficulties?

When facing negative situations or problems, and when we hear or read about difficulties or disasters, strangely, the mind starts expecting them and looking for them, and we become more aware of them. This affects our moods, how feel, and how we act. We get angry and frustrated more easily, become unhappy, and we develop a negative state of mind.

A negative state of mind is like a heavy rock that you carry on your back, slowing you down, weakening you, and making you feel helpless. With this kind of attitude, you become passive, do not try to improve, and allow external situations to control your life. Is this something you really want?

How is it possible to change this attitude? Is it possible to be positive and stay so, when facing difficulties? Is there an alternative to a negative state of mind?

The alternative is to develop a positive frame of mind. You can learn to stay positive in negative situations. However, this requires vigilance, awareness of your thoughts, and some inner work. This is not difficult and is fun to do.

Tips for Staying Positive in Negative Situations

1. Get enough sleep and rest

When tired and exhausted, it is much easier to become negative, frustrated and unhappy. Strive not to overwork and exhaust yourself. You should get enough sleep at night, and get some rest, every now and then. Sleep and rest calm your body and your mind. When you are calm, it is easier to deal with negativities and not let them affect you.

2. Bring more positivity into your life

Try to be around positive people. Positivity is contagious. By being around positive people, gradually, you will notice that you are becoming positive too.Take action, be more active, start new projects and do things that bring happiness into your life. Watch funny and entertaining movies, and read positive quotes and inspirational stories. It would also a good idea to read about successful people who did not allow their circumstances to limit their dreams and their goals. All this, will affect your state of mind.

3. Focus on solutions, not on problems

When things are tough, we tend to focus on the problems. Focusing on problems, makes them grow, and if we don’t do anything about them, we become unhappy, frustrated and pessimistic.

If we maintain a positive attitude, believe that there is a solution, and keep looking for it, we will ultimately find it.

4. Exercise your body

Exercising your body improves your health, your energy level, and your inner strength. This makes it easier to think positively and face difficult situations with confidence and assertiveness, and deal with them more effectively.

Any kind of exercise is beneficial. You may walk, swim, play basketball, go the gym, or do anything else that you like. If you don’t usually exercise your body, start gradually, do not overdo it.

5. Replace your negative thoughts with positive thoughts

Strive to make it a habit to replace each negative and pessimistic thought with a positive and optimistic one. You will need to be aware of the thoughts that are passing through your mind, and if they are negative, immediately shift your attention to other, happier and optimistic thoughts.

You will probably experience inner resistance, and you might even forget to replace your negative thoughts. Nevertheless, continue to practice this technique over and again, until this way of thinking becomes natural and easy.

6. Repeat affirmations

Repeating a positive affirmation when in difficult or unpleasant situations, or when in the company of unpleasant people, would help you divert your attention and maintain an optimistic state of mind.

There are plenty of affirmations, which you can find on the Internet, suitable for different situations. When you repeat the affirmation with faith and focus, you change your attitude and state of mind in accordance with the words you are repeating.

Affirmations, which are positive statements, can motivate and encourage you, and change how you feel. I have included many affirmations for various purposes in my book, Affirmations – Words with Power.

7. Do not take anything too personally

Strive not to take personally, what people think and say about you. There is no reason in the world to allow their thoughts and words hurt you. It is you, who allow their thoughts and words to affect how you feel. Often, people are not even aware that they hurt you.

Don’t keep thinking about what people said and why they said it. They might have meant something different and you misunderstood them. They might have been joking, or what they said was not about you at all.

You need to learn to let go of anger, resentment and hurt feelings, and this becomes possible with just a little degree of emotional detachment, which is another term for letting go. You can find working advice and guidance about emotional detachment in my book, Emotional Detachment for Happier life.

8. Learn to meditate

Well, this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but even ten minutes a day of meditation, every day, would relax your mind, emotions and body, relieve you of stress and strain, and make it much easier to stay calm and positive in difficult situations and handle them more efficiently.