with Positive Thinking!
After a winter’s worth of snow, ice and sleet we could all use a little warmth. While curling up by the fire can do the trick until you have to brave the outdoors again, lasting warmth comes from the inside.
The best way to stoke your own inner glow is to apply the power of positive thinking to your life. Call it the power of intention, seeing the glass half-full or looking on the sunny side of the street. You’ve heard about it in books and movies and maybe even in the form of age-old parental advice. Whatever you want to think of it as, don’t underestimate the power that positive thinking can have to bring a little warmth into your life.
Set the scene for Smiles
Since it takes a little while to get your head around a new idea, let alone a whole new way of thinking, start by surrounding your senses with an inspiring and optimistic fragrance, with a Glade® Wisp Flameless Candle in Suddenly Spring®.
Close your eyes and focus your attention on an area of your life where you might normally have trouble staying positive. Don’t make this something huge and overwhelming; choose something realistic. Make it something that you just can’t seem to find a proactive solution to.
Perhaps it’s a person that you find irritating, your overflowing email inbox, or even the prospect of doing five loads of your family’s laundry!
Try to get really clear on what this looks like and then determine what the best possible result could be. For example, see yourself no longer becoming irritated by that person who always seems to rub you the wrong way or your family pitches in with the laundry.
An Experiment in Happy
Once you’ve clearly established a situation in your life where you’d like to feel more positive, commit yourself to a little experiment. For the next two weeks, whenever this situation appears and starts to irritate you, try to take a deep breath and think of something positive. It might help to keep a positivity journal during this time so that you can easily monitor your progress. Check in with yourself in this journal at regular times during the day when you might usually feel frustrated about the situation.
If you find it really hard to be positive in those moments…that’s okay! It takes a long time to change our habitual ways of associating with something and it requires lots of patience. Just try to come back to your positive intention when things get difficult. Another easy tool for helping to stay upbeat in challenging situations is to use your breath. On the inhale, think “Let” and on the exhale, think “Go.” Keep your mind on your breath for a few minutes and you’ll find that most of your irritation has probably evaporated.
Powerful Positivity
After two or three weeks of your experiment, make a date with yourself to review the results. First, take a few moments to reflect on whether your attitude towards your chosen situation has changed. Odds are that you’ll probably feel better about it regardless of whether your family has pitched in with the laundry or not!
Read back over your journal to see how far you’ve come and then imagine what could happen if you started to apply this powerful thinking to other areas in your life!
