Five things to remember for a positive mind

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses” – Abraham Lincoln.

I absolutely love this quote as it highlights how easily we can turn something beautiful and positive into pain and negativity. One may value the attraction and scent of a rose and another may stress the pain of a thorn. This quote can be applied to our minds and how we view our life. We must always try to remember the beauty of the rose instead of focusing on the pain of the thorn. To help I have listed five things to remember for a positive mind.

Past mistakes don’t define who you are

To have a positive mind you need to remind yourself that your past mistakes do not define who you are. When it comes to the past you have a couple of choices. You can choose to let it define you, confine you, outshine you or you can choose to leave it behind you. Believe me there is only one choice that will leave you with a happy mind.

Mistakes aren’t always a bad thing as they can help you grow. If you use each lesson as stepping stone towards a better you then you will feel more optimistic for your future. Relationships for example, most of us have let that one person (friend or partner) stay in our life’s much longer than they deserve, am I right?

We were too easy with them and we didn’t put our own feelings first, but would you let this mistake define you as a push over ? No of course not! You would grow into a stronger, wiser and smarter individual.

It’s never too late

Do you ever look back on your life and think to yourself, if only I had done this or that then my life would be different now? Sometimes it may feel like we should have done things differently when we were at school. It may even feel like we haven’t been born into the best circumstances and now it’s too late to change.

This mind set is only going to delay you even further in living the life you want and achieving the goals you desire. The truth is, it’s never too late to be the person you wish to be. I remember my English teacher in school telling the class that before he became a teacher he use to work in construction. Now for some reason this story stuck with me, I believe it’s because it’s the first time I realised that we have the option to change.

Have you ever felt as though you were too young to be the person you wish to be?  Feeling like you have to wait until you’re older in order to be taken seriously. Let’s take Those Positive Thoughts, I could have decided against starting my blog because maybe I’m not wise enough to offer my advice or maybe I don’t have enough life experience to share my stories. Thankfully those thoughts didn’t cross my mind and I continued to create the person I wish to be.

As soon as you know what you want to do, where you want to go and who you want to be in life then you should embrace that feeling and set forth on your journey.

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Happiness is found within

If only I could land my dream job then I would be truly happy, if I met the right person my life would be complete, if I earned more money all of my problems would disappear. Once I’ve bought my own home my life will be perfect. Sometimes we believe that we need to accomplish a particular goal in order to be happy, the reality is these accomplishments will only bring you joy for as long as you choose to be happy. You first have to find the happiness within you, only then will reality reflect your feelings

Finding happiness within can be difficult if you are in a negative mind-set but you shouldn’t blame the world for your problems, this will only attract more negativity. Instead you must face and conquer all of your unresolved anger, fear, regret and jealousy. We must take responsibility for our own actions, our own journey and our own feelings. We must learn to love who we are and the life we live. When happiness is within you, nobody and nothing can steal you’re joy, because you and only you have control.

Everyone’s journey is different

In order to keep a positive mind you must remind yourself that everyone’s journey is different. I recently completed my second 10k run! My fellow runners and I all had completely different abilities, some of us were running our first or second race while others run 10k every Monday morning. Of course this didn’t matter.

You see as soon as my foot crossed the starting line, I was alone. Well not literally, there were hundreds of us, all running circles in Hyde Park. What I’m saying is even though we all ran together we each experienced a completely different journey.

A journey with our own mind and body. I couldn’t possibly compare my speed and my ability to anyone else because we are all different. The reason I’ve used this run as an example is because I found that the journey from start to finish is similar to life.

In life each person’s journey is as different as the next and everyone’s experiences are the result of many different influences. Therefore you shouldn’t compare your journey to others and you certainly shouldn’t let their accomplishments bring you down. Instead you should find inspiration from those you admire, be motivated by their positivity and apply their qualities into your own life.

To keep a positive mind, you must make everything and everyone around you an opportunity to learn and develop. Don’t be too quick to judge others as you don’t understand their journey. Most importantly don’t be too quick to judge yourself, you may just be comparing your beginning to their middle.

A positive mind creates positive results

Okay so maybe this last point is a little bit obvious, I mean asking you to remember to think positive in order to have a positive mind. Well duh! Although, how often do you remind yourself to think positive about your life and your future? A positive view on life is one of the most beneficial assets you can have.

Positive people see and expect success, health and happiness to happen to them, their positive attitude attracts positive results. If you fixate on the negative side of a situation then you will only make the experience worse. You know that feeling when you have an event scheduled which you’re not looking forward to.

Before you’ve even arrived you’re in a negative mind set and you’ve already decided that it won’t be worth your time. Instead, try to imagine the positive side of the situation. Your thoughts are more powerful than you may realise and only you hold the power to change them.

What are your tips on how to become more positive? Comment below!

Laura x