Wondering how you can learn to radiate positivity to improve your overall happiness and to spread an infectious smile? We're sharing our 9 top tips for making your mood better every day!
We all know what it feels like to feel less than positive. You wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and for the rest of the day, it seems like nothing goes your way. You're grumpy with your partner, impatient with your coworkers, or generally just not in a good mood.
Whatever it is you are feeling is totally normal! Life happens. We all have difficult days (and yes, sometimes months or years). Just because these feelings are normal though, doesn’t mean you have to stay in them for longer than you would like.
Jump to:
- What Does It Mean To Radiate Positivity?
- Why Is It Important To Radiate Positivity?
- 1. Positive Affirmations
- 2. Express Gratitude
- 3. Give Back to Others
- 4. Take Time for Self-care
- 5. Take a Mental Health Break
- 6. Stand Tall
- 7. Positive Self Talk
- 8. Take Action
- 9. Surround Yourself with Positive People
- When You Radiate Positivity
The great thing about having a range of emotions is that you truly can choose which emotions to tap into. Therefore, if you are ready to fight off those negative vibes and radiate positivity instead, keep reading to learn how.
What Does It Mean To Radiate Positivity?
One of the most difficult things to do when you are feeling down is to pull yourself out of that space. So, if you are trying to learn more about how to radiate positivity, then you are already moving in the right direction.
Radiating positivity is essentially when your positivity is reflected in the way you present yourself to the world. This doesn’t mean that you are always happy or never have a bad day.
It means that you have found a way to view even the difficult times with a perspective of positivity. As cliché as it may sound, it is about looking at life through the lens of a glass half full (rather than half empty).
Before you can radiate this positivity though, you must first create an authentic sense of positivity within yourself. This is where the nine practices below can help.
Why Is It Important To Radiate Positivity?
The most important reason for radiating positivity is for your own physical and mental health. The more you are in a positive frame of mind, the better your quality of life. In fact, being more positive can help you live longer.
Moreover, while it is not your responsibility to make other people happy, your choice to radiate positivity for your own well-being can positively impact those around you. Think about the people you love to be around.
Most likely, they have a positive outlook on life. In contrast, think about the people that you often feel emotionally frustrated or drained after being around. They probably tend to have a more negative outlook on life.
The people we surround ourselves with truly impact how we feel. Therefore, choosing to express yourself in a positive way will help others feel positive around you.
Hence, you are more likely to have positive interpersonal relationships that can further support feelings of positivity.
1. Positive Affirmations
Affirmations are words or phrases that we speak to ourselves. It is important to identify these as “positive affirmations” because we don’t want to be repeating negative thoughts to ourselves!
While you don’t want to speak negative words or phrases to yourself, thinking about what you are feeling negatively about will help you create your affirmations.
For example, if you are having a difficult time waking up each morning you can create an affirmation like “I am excited to wake up and start my day!” Another example may be saying, “it’s going to be a good day,” as soon as you wake up.
Now, you may not feel this way right away. You may even feel a little bit silly saying these things to yourself. Give it some time though.
Affirmations are about repetition.
The idea behind affirmations is that you are changing negative thought patterns by replacing them with positive ones.
If you think about how many times you have told yourself “I hate waking up for work,” (or another frequent phrase), then you will recognize how you frequently you may need to repeat positive affirmations to replace the old ones.
Even though you may feel silly at times, the more you practice using affirmations the easier it is to shift your thinking and feelings in other situations.
More importantly, that feeling of silliness is sometimes just enough to help you immediately shift the negative moment.
2. Express Gratitude
Gratitude is one of the most powerful ways to create positivity in our lives. When we take time to express gratitude, we are intentionally choosing to focus on something other than the negative.
We are also reminded of the good things in our lives.
Like affirmations, sometimes this can feel difficult in the moment. Especially if we are feeling particularly low. However, even the simplest expression of gratitude can get you moving in the right direction.
Try writing down 5 things you are grateful for each night before you go to sleep. It can be as simple as, “I am grateful it was sunny outside today” or “I am grateful I have a warm bed to sleep in.”
You can write this as a simple list or expand on why you are grateful for these things. If 5 feels like too many for one day, just focus on one thing you are grateful for.
3. Give Back to Others
In addition to giving thanks, giving to others is another amazing way to shift negative energy to positive.
Sometimes when we are feeling less than positive, it is a result of focusing too much on something negative that happened. This is not to say that we should avoid acknowledging when negative things happen, but simply that we are aware of how it is impacting our energy.
What sometimes happens is when something negative happens, it consumes our energy. We dwell on it. Overthinking it or talking about it non-stop.
In these instances, taking time to step away from focusing on the negative by doing something good for someone else is a powerful way to shift into the positive.
Not only does it shift your energy, but it also helps create a positive experience in another person’s life. Remember, we never know what is going on with someone else.
Another person may need that positive experience in the same way you do.
Giving back doesn’t have to be a big event or even cost any money. You can write a kind message to a friend, offer to make someone a meal, or buy a coffee for the stranger behind you in line.
Choose something that will enrich the positivity in your life (not drain it further).
4. Take Time for Self-care
While giving back to others is an amazing way to radiate positivity, it is essential that you are replenishing that positive energy in yourself. Think about the analogy that you can’t pour from an empty cup. Therefore, if you want to radiate positivity frequently - it is important to take time for self-care
Self-care is the act of intentionally doing something that makes you happy. Some forms of self-care are good mental health breaks, like meditation. However, they don’t have to fall into this category.
A self-care practice could be taking yourself out to dinner at your favorite restaurant. It could be going to a sporting event, leaving work early (if it won’t cause you more stress), leaving work at work (teachers, this one is for you), getting a massage, or anything else that calls to you!
Taking time to fill your cup with positivity doesn’t have to mean going out either. Think about an at-home practice you could start.
Take a bath after work, listen to relaxing music while sitting in the backyard, refresh yourself with lemon water, or drink your coffee while watching the sunrise.
There is no wrong form of self-care, as long as it allows you to give back to yourself!
5. Take a Mental Health Break
We live in a busy and noisy world. This isn’t just audible noise, but any type of distraction: social media, work, relationships, school, news, etc.
With so many distractions, we can often forget to take time to pause and check in with how we are doing on an emotional and spiritual level.
While a mental health break is a form of self-care, it is specifically aimed at taking a pause from the “noise.”
This could be implementing a formal meditation into your daily routine or a practice that connects you to your mind through physical movement, like yoga.
A mental health break could also include going for a walk around the neighborhood (leaving the phone on silent or just leave it at home) or a hike. It could be going for a long drive or sitting at the beach listening to the waves.
Journaling or mindful breathing are also great ways to take a pause from the distractions of the world. Just like self-care, finding a way to take care of your emotional, mental, and spiritual health is an essential part of radiating positivity.
It is another way that we fill our own cups, in order to share our positive energy with others.
6. Stand Tall
While self-care and mental health breaks are directed towards our internal world, how we carry ourselves in the physical world also impacts our level of positivity.
If you are walking around slouched over, eyes down, with a negative expression, you will most likely feel that way emotionally – low.
On the other hand, when we walk tall, shoulders back, and smile, it helps to shift our attitude to a positive state.
However, it is important to mention that telling people to “smile!” can sometimes have a negative impact. Therefore, only try this practice if it calls to you – not because we told you to do it.
7. Positive Self Talk
In addition to using positive affirmations, taking time to notice how you talk to yourself throughout the day is important to radiating positivity. Many of us tend to be our harshest critics.
This is often reflected in how we speak to ourselves.
Whether it is the words we say out loud when doing something or what we say in our minds – it all matters.
Therefore, be mindful of what words you are using. When you catch yourself speaking negatively, pause and notice what it is you are saying.
Ask yourself if you would say this to someone you love. If the answer is no, then it is probably not something you want to say to yourself.
To shift how you speak to yourself, continue with the practice of trying to speak to yourself the way you would speak to a loved one.
Additionally, using a positive affirmation can help you shift your mind back to the positive.
8. Take Action
One thing that can often keep us from feeling positive is when we feel stuck.
Maybe you feel like you are not moving up in your job or you are not in a career that you are passionate about. Maybe you don’t like where you live, or you are not in the relationship you would like to be in.
Whatever it is that is making you feel “stuck” – think about how you can take action towards changing your circumstance. This doesn’t have to be a huge change all at once.
Think about just one small action you can take each day.
For example, if you want to change your career, take 15 minutes each day to do something to move in that direction.
Update your resume, make a list of new job opportunities, tell a friend you are looking for a new position, and to keep you in mind if they hear of anything.
Taking action, however small, will help you slowly start to move forward and move from stuck to positive!
9. Surround Yourself with Positive People
It is said that we reflect the 5 people we spend the most time with. Therefore, surrounding yourself with other positive people is one of the best ways to be positive yourself.
Think about the people you are regularly surrounded by. How do you feel when you are around them? Positive? Energized? Negative? Drained?
Taking time to reflect on the people doesn’t mean you have to cut people out.
However, it may be beneficial to spend more time with the people who are uplifting. Another thing to mention is that everyone has bad days!
Therefore, when your positive people are having a down day – if you are helping fill each other’s cups regularly then you can help lift them up!
When You Radiate Positivity
Radiating positivity is about making a conscious effort to be positive. It is not about ignoring your feelings. Despite our most positive efforts, life will continue to happen around us.
Some days will be hard. Sometimes you will NOT feel or want to be positive. Those are all normal things!
The intention behind radiating positivity is that you are finding healthy ways to manage those other emotions so that you can more quickly come back to a positive space.
By using the tools above, you are more aware of when you are not feeling positive. You are also able to compare when you are feeling positive, versus times when you are not.
This awareness allows you to more frequently be in a space of positivity.
The more you feel positive and radiate positivity you may notice fewer negative days. Moreover, you will hopefully feel others radiating positivity back to you!
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