10 Things I Do To Escape Negativity

You can’t live a positive life with a negative mind.

Today, I wasn’t feeling my best.

Despite having good boundaries in place, the negative thoughts can still creep in. When this happens I have a list of go-to self-care activities and I thought I would share these with you.

Meditation

I always thought meditation was sitting crossed-legged on the floor and clearing your mind completely, which, quite frankly, feels impossible for me. I gave up trying to meditate for ages until it was explained to me that is not the case.

The actual definition of meditation, according to Merriam-Webster, is:

1: to engage in contemplation or reflection.

2: to engage in mental exercise (such as concentration on one’s breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness

Each morning, I make myself a cup of tea, set a timer for 10 minutes and sit in silence, letting my brain do what it wants to, which is usually worry, roll off my list of things I need to do and a few other odd random thoughts.

I have noticed that if I skip doing this for a few days, my brain slowly fills up, the thoughts having not been given their morning freedom and the overwhelm kicks in.

I have also found that if something I perceive as negative happens throughout the day, stopping to take 10 minutes can help me gain a bit of perspective and even put a positive spin on things.

Avoid the news

How often do we see positive news appear on the TV or on our phones?

Just this morning, I have had 5 phone notifications from a news app and all of them are negative.

Both negativity and positivity are like magnets and once you are drawn into one, the more you attract.

if I am in a negative mindset, I turn off the TV and any device notifications for the news. Seeing or reading something negative will just feed me more of it.

Talking

I have a counselling session each week and I feel comfortable enough to let any of my concerns out during that hour, but if I have something that’s bothering me, I talk to the husband, my family or one of my good friends.