While it may be easy to have a positive mindset during moments in your life that are
happy and carefree, life of course doesn’t work like that. You will have unexpected
challenges, moments of loss and grief, and many bad days. The secret with maintaining
a positive mindset isn’t trying to avoid every bad thing, and ignoring any negative
emotion you have, but working on building up resilience and a new way of looking at
things.
Here are some reasons why you might be struggling with maintaining a positive
mindset, and some helpful tips for making it a little easier.
You Think Changing Your Conscious Thoughts is Enough
Whenever you have an active thought, it is coming from your conscious mind. But it is
your subconscious mind where the change in your mindset really happens. This is the
part of your mind that stores all your memories, your experiences, your deep-rooted
beliefs, and all of your thoughts. It is here where you want to focus all your attention in
order to change your mindset.
This is why you use other techniques like meditation, affirmations, journaling, and
positive self-talk to tap into the subconscious mind. These methods allow you to go
beyond just the thoughts in the forefront of your conscious mind, and actually take root
in your subconscious mind, helping to change those limiting beliefs you have about
yourself.
It is a great first step when you just try to think more positively, but if you want this to be
a lasting change in your mind, you have to go further and add some of these other
techniques.
You Aren’t Considering Your Own Limiting Beliefs
Believe it or not, the reason why you are struggling maintaining a positive mindset and
why negative thoughts keep creeping back in could very well be because of your own
limiting beliefs. People don’t always notice their limiting beliefs, because they often start
in adolescence, where you aren’t completely aware of them. You then grow up thinking
or believing these things about yourself, and it follows you well into adulthood.
If you notice that you have negative thought patterns getting in the way of a healthy
mindset, you need to think about your limiting beliefs. What is it you think you aren’t
good at? What do you feel you can’t do? What have you always been told isn’t in the
cards for you? What is something you never attempted before because you “knew” you
wouldn’t succeed?
When you start to find clarity about your limiting beliefs, it opens up the door to so many
more possibilities.
Stress and Negative Thoughts Feel All-Consuming
When it feels like everything is against you, and you can’t find anything to be happy
about, then you might need to first start at the core of your problems. This may come
down to stress management and making some changes in your lifestyle.
Where does most of your stress come from? This might be people in your life making
you feel more stressed and anxious, your job or the people you work with, your home
life, or just about anything else. You have to figure out what is the cause of your stress
first, and then find a way to start managing your stress in healthy ways.
Once you get into the habit of stress management and healthy coping skills, you can
then start shifting to a more positive mindset.
You Aren’t Practicing Often Enough
Developing and maintaining a positive mindset is an ongoing process, and not a linear
one. There is no end date and no perfect way to do it. Just like every other monumental
change in your life, it takes practice. You can’t go from thinking negatively all day to
suddenly feeling bright and cheery about everything.
It takes regular practice and daily habits that slowly start transforming your mindset into
a more positive one. Choose habits that you feel connected to personally, such as
journaling if you love writing, or meditation if you enjoy quiet activities you can do alone.
Incorporate these into your routine, and make sure you do them every day. If you
commit to using affirmations, add it to your morning routine so that you know you are
doing your affirmations every single day.