Make your Bed in the Morning with Optimism
Refresh your sense of positivity first thing by making your bed with care and focus. A small gesture to be sure, but one that reminds me that if I take control of small decisions in this way I will feel my own power to affect larger decisions – crucially the decision to adopt an optimistic attitude for the rest of day. I’ve got this!
Singing in the Rain
Learn an Optimistic Poem
We appreciate positive times more by having experienced the bad. In fact, we would not appreciate sunnier times without living through the rainy ones. I love the way this idea is expressed in this poem by the 19th- century Scottish writer Charles Mackay. Learn it!
Oh you tears,
I’m thankful that you run,
Though you trickle in the darkness,
You shall glitter in the sun
The rainbow could not shine if the rain
refused to fall,
And the eyes that cannot weep are the
saddest eyes of all.
Remember your Optimistic Self amid your other Identities
While it’s generally healthy to feel integrated and whole, I have found it handy to realise I have multiple self: a cheery persona, a pessimistic one, and a more positive, optimistic one. Remembering this can help when I feel down. Yes, I have a gloomy self, but I can also be more upbeat. This kind of compartmentalizing is a skill mastered by many in order to maintain balance. So remember your inner Tigger!
Adopt an Optimistic Appreciation Pause – an OAP!
This is about cultivating positivity and optimism by appreciating those you wouldn’t routinely thank or notice in the busy rush to get things done. It could be the person at the till who serves you lunch or the office cleaner.
Take a moment next time you encounter someone who helps you in this way for a Positive Appreciation Pause. Think how much they have positively added to your life.
Be kind: practise a random act of kindness, preferably to a stranger.
Being kind to others has a very real effect on our own optimism. We become kinder to ourselves and develop a more compassionate, accepting inner voice, which you can call upon to help you counteract negative thinking. Ideas include:
Pay a coffee forward
Smile
Pay attention to what someone is saying when they talk to you. Listen to understand and not to reply. There’s a reason we have two ears and one mouth.
Get in Touch with your Vagus Nerve
Stimulating our vagus nerve at the back of our throats may help reduce unhelpful inflammation, as well as triggering a feeling of relaxation, positivity and optimism.
The audible vibration we create and experience when chanting, gargling or humming can stimulate the vagus nerve. This could explain why chanting, and especially the ‘om’ sound are used in yoga and meditative practices. Get chanting.
Take an omega-3 supplement:
Nourish your body – omega-3 fats are especially mood enhancing. Take a supplement: data shows it is as effective as eating oily fish which I don’t like anyway.
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Singing in the Rain: An inspirational workbook on Amazon
MORE: Top 10 tips to improve your mental health by Rachel Kelly