a group of smiley faces on a yellow background.

Positive Mental Attitude: 5 Tips to Create a Positive Mindset

Amber Murphy

Maintaining a positive mental attitude is not exactly the easiest or simplest thing in the world.

Life can sometimes be challenging, and the worse the situation you find yourself in, the more complicated it is to fill your thoughts with positivity. With all this, whatever your problem is right now, you should always keep a positive and healthy mental attitude. Believe me, you will find something positive to see in life, even in the situation you live right now.

I know that it’s easier said than done; that’s why in this article, I will show you how to achieve it, and I am also going to give you 5 valuable tips to be optimistic even in your worst moments.

Creating a positive mental attitude towards life

Balloons with smiley and frown faces on them

Being positive is something that can be created and cultivated. Still, to do so, you must realize that it is your choice to be positive or not and that if your answer is “I want to be more positive,” then you will already be breaking down the walls that are holding you back from moving forward.

Once you understand the determining factor that you must cultivate your positivity, start doing just that.

If you don’t know where to start, encourage even more the positive concept you need to create about yourself and the people closest to you.

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You can change your mind. It’s all about not giving up and working on it always, whether reading magazines, observing other people, or even taking therapy.

Do whatever it takes (and good) so you can begin to better understand how to be positive, and when you are in that process, you will see that everything will start to come naturally.

Being positive is something that happens, that after a lot of effort and practice, will come up and stay as if it was your second skin.

How do I create a positive mental attitude?

1. Don’t carry everything

You are not the most indestructible person in the world, and although sometimes we want to carry everything and try not to externalize it, you don’t think about how much it is being internalized.

I’m a person who sometimes likes to think that I can handle it all, that I don’t need to express how I really feel all the time, and just have a smile even when I don’t think that way.

I know that being happy, smiling, and all the synonyms have to do with being optimistic, but when everything goes wrong, and you feel like you can’t handle anything, just let it out and say it.

Holding back your emotions and pretending to be something you don’t feel or aren’t is not the solution to keep the negativity away.

Why do you think that crying, even when it is more of a sign of sadness, is so relaxing and liberating when you are going through a bad time?

I didn’t use to be a person who shed tears often, but when I started to do so, not for everything but the significant things, I began to feel much better emotionally.

Don’t be afraid to express your frustration or anguish that you may feel on many occasions. You are a human being with the right to handle every one of them. You’re going to be okay.

So instead of putting it away, let it out and don’t carry all the weight as if it were nothing.

2. Sleep and don’t think so much

Man sleeping in bed with his dog

Waking up from a good night’s sleep may be just what you need to start your day off on the right foot.

I know it’s hard to get your mind off all the problems and bad things that are happening to you, but just as it’s hard to hold onto them, thinking about it so much won’t help you in any way either. To achieve a positive mental attitude, we need to let these things go. Let go of negative thoughts.

When you have time to rest your mind from all the lethargy and negative thoughts that are inevitably created when everything goes wrong, your problems may seem more insignificant than the day before.

A good 8 hours of sleep will help you relax and think more calmly and positively the next day.

There are days when you need to say “enough” and give your thoughts a rest.

You must be thinking, “it’s easier said than done” because sleeping when you have so many worries for many results in having to take painkillers or sleeping pills that give you at least a few hours of sleep.

Don’t run for medication or sleeping pills, and go to a more natural solution.

Having a cup of tea, doing some yoga or meditation, relaxing a bit before going to sleep, and starting the task of resting a couple of hours will help you get it done.

3. Live in the moment

Don’t lock yourself into the past and what will happen in the future.
Commonly, we are thinking most of the time about the past and future instead of our present, and when everything goes wrong, it is even more complicated to focus on the now.

However, if you do not manage to leave behind at least 50% of your thoughts regarding these two times, you will not manage to be more positive.

When you have problems and don’t focus on your present, you will always be thinking the worst of what could happen or what has already happened. That’s why when you try to live in the now, it becomes so difficult just to want to smile. A positive mental attitude starts with getting out of our head.

There is a moment for everything. If it has already happened, there is nothing you can do about it, and if it is going to happen, it will happen anyway.

You may not be a believer in fate, and even if you are not, no one knows what will happen in the next minute or 10 years.

Don’t be so hard on yourself and try to divert your thoughts from the past and future.

The past that haunts you and the future keeps you from enjoying the minutes of the day you are living.

There is always a time to solve the problems you have and find a solution to them. It is all about the present and what you do in it.

4. Face your problems

Holding a ball with a smiley face on it

The greatest fear of all people is to think about the future, to have to face their problems, and look for a solution.

Maybe not so much the point of looking for a solution, but to find one, you must always face up to it and analyze and see it from the perspective necessary to do so.

But if you are already practicing to be more positive and have a positive mental attitude, facing the problem will not look as intimidating as it did before.

Sometimes the mountain looks enormous, but that doesn’t mean you can’t climb it. Climbing it will also help you become more mentally strong and face future challenges.

If you need help in facing your problems, you can always talk to someone you trust, who can help cushion some of the anxiety you start to feel in the moment.

You don’t need to be completely alone when it’s time to show your face.
Sharing your problems and only talking about them can help you take a significant weight off your shoulders when you have to face them, so on top of that, don’t forget that you are not alone, and you can look for support.

5. Think that everything will get better

What is wrong now will not necessarily be wrong forever.

Don’t close yourself off to the idea that because you’re going through a bad time, that you’re not having the best of luck lately and feel like you’re drowning; there’s no way things will get better.

You have the tool for success or failure, so the one who decides if something will improve or not is you.

So get yourself together, believe that everything will be better maybe not within an hour or tomorrow, but in the future, that you won’t be stuck with a bad patch for the rest of your life.

Difficult situations are just that, difficult. So the word impossible should not enter your vocabulary.

It is not easy to think about how something will get better when it looks so bad, but when you manage to bring a ray of light into that “bad,” others will come along.

No matter how negative or closed off I am, I always try to focus at least on this one thought, believing that it will not be the same all the time, and someday I will get over it.

If you need some inspiration, here’s a list of positive quotes we compiled.

How to maintain a positive mental attitude

Yellow balloons with smiley faces on them

To keep a positive mental attitude, you must believe in yourself, have confidence in yourself and your abilities, and know that the only one who sets limits for himself is you, and, especially, you must keep your mind away from all negative thoughts.

Some activities and actions make you feel freer with yourself, that the world smiles at you, and everything will be fine. But other things only cause your self-esteem to drop and your negativity to skyrocket. Remember this: anything that makes you tired and stressed is an enemy both physically and mentally.

So, to start believing in yourself and overcome the limits you set for yourself, start by taking care of your health in a general way. The more you take away stress, the more you will encourage positive thinking.

Adopt habits that are beneficial to you and help you acquire a positive mental attitude. Eating healthy, exercising, yoga, meditating, or only going out for air; activities alone or with your partner and actions that help you clear your mind and give space to the positive thoughts you need.

Remember that once you acquire a positive mental attitude, then the challenge will be to maintain it.

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