To engage in positive living it is essential to understand how the mind, through thought, affects mental health and emotional wellness.
Many psychologists describe how the mind, through thought, affects an individual’s ability to react to stressors or obstacles.
The World Health Organization states that as an individual develops a more positive way of thinking, his/her mental health improves.
Having a strong foundation of emotional stability/clarity assists an individual in adopting and maintaining healthy habits that promote long-term improvement to mental health.
Examples of Healthy Habits that Promote Daily Positive Living
Creating healthy sleep, food, and gentle movement habits improves the balance of an individual’s mood.
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Maintaining consistent sleep/wake patterns daily.
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Better Sleep by Reducing Screen Exposure to Late Night
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Promote Environmental Sustainability by Creating Healthy Habits
Emotional Wellbeing and Social Connection
Emotional Wellbeing can be positively impacted more through the development of a few very close connections rather than having a large number of casual connections.
Deep, meaningful connections can provide love and trust, and create an atmosphere of emotional safety.
The Mayo Clinic gives examples of how adding positively supportive social connections will help regulate emotions in times of crisis.
Mindfulness Practice is Essential to Positive Living
Mindfulness is important to Positive Living and Mental Health.
Daily short practices improve your ability to focus and improve your clarity of feelings.
These habits form a strong foundation for physical activity and the improvement of mental health, which will be addressed further in this article.
Physical Activity Supports Positive Living
Movement also provides a physical balance which leads to learning better techniques for managing stress.
Without proper management of stress on a regular basis, it can lead to deterioration in focus, sleeplessness, and instability of emotions.
According to the American Heart Association, untreated prolonged exposure to stressful situations negatively impacts an individual’s/mind’s health.
Strategies to Manage Stress Practically
Positive living consists of encouraging simple stress-management techniques to achieve a calm state of mind and body.
Simply following a set of strategies will give the person who is applying them more control over his/her daily life as follows:
Creating Calming Routines Each Day
Having the same routine day after day plays an enormous role in a person’s ability to control stress long-term and subsequently improving the overall state of well-being.
Incorporating predictable daily routines will decrease the mental load on an individual as well as enhance focus on the activity being performed; additionally, integrating the same calming habits into an individual’s routine will give him/her the ability to evolve his/her perspective of gratitude and purpose into practices of positivity through living.
Practicing Gratefulness for Positive Living
The act of being thankful redirects a person’s focus from their day to day stressors, to the things that matter most in life.
Experts from Harvard Medical School say regularly showing gratitude improves a person’s overall emotional state and helps with decreasing negative thought habits.
Daily Grateful Practices that Feel Natural to You
If you truly want to establish yourself as a person of gratitude, this should be done with extremely simple daily practices.
Performing gratitude practices in shorter durations daily allow you to create and sustain emotional balance in your life without placing pressure on yourself.
Sample manageable acts of gratitude include: every day, write down three of your favorite moments from that day.
How Purpose Helps with Mental Health
When a person has a strong connection to their purpose, living positively becomes more meaningful.
A purpose is a source of guidance and support during hard times and is an important factor in a person’s overall well-being.
Goal setting should be about positive living and not a source of pressure or stress.
Setting smaller, achievable goal steps allows you to maintain emotional balance.
Managing Your Digital Life for Good Mental Health
Digital Balance for Emotional Wellbeing
To live positively in today’s world, one must learn to carefully manage all aspects of one’s life that involve technology, specifically screen time.
Being constantly exposed to technology increases stress and contributes to emotional fatigue.
The Pew Research Center conducted research showing that being constantly bombarded with digital content negatively impacts individuals’ ability to think clearly and remain mentally healthy.
Creating Mother Exciting Digital Experiences Daily
Digital use in balance enhances mental health & reduces stress.
Daily simple habits that keep individuals from feeling overwhelmed can include:
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Setting time limits for checking emails of social networks
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Turning off notifications that are not essential
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Creating some screen free time before sleeping
Understanding Self-Compassion & Mental Health
Reducing harsh self- judgment on failures supports mental health by building resilience, states the American Psychological Association Psychologists.
Self-kinds builds emotional health and well-being, thus, when there is a fail it does not cause mental distress.
Replacing Self-Critical Voice with Supportive Voice
Many struggle with the self-critical voices that increase stress and anxiety.
Positive living teaches individuals to pay attention to the voices without allowing those thoughts to consume them.
When reframing a failure to an educational opportunity it results in better emotional balance and decreased stress over an extended period.
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Talking to self in a supportive and encouraging manner
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Allowing your body to rest with no guilt when emotional or physically exhausted
Emotional Safety and Restorative Habits
When you feel safe emotionally, you will begin to create better sleep habits, which means you can utilize positive living.
Planning meals according to nutritional guidelines will lower stress levels and create stable,(emotionally).
Plant-based meals with fruits/vegetable combinations and whole foods allow for more balanced emotional state and create opportunities to become better hydrated and less fatigued during the day and avoid irritability.
Healthy Eating Habits are Sustainable
By making the choice to be successful with simple-to-follow and adaptable, Healthy Eating Habits, you will increase the amount of Healthy Food and therefore help yourself and others lead more productive lives (produce freshly made healthy meals to eat).
Establishing Healthy Sleep Patterns
The Healthiest Way to Live is as a Healthy Sleep.
Sleep is one of the Key Components to maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle.
By establishing a healthy Sleep Pattern not only will you have increased energy/focus and decreased fatigue, but you will also be better able to control or manage your emotional and stress level.
Ways To Improve My Quality Of Sleep
There are Various Different Habits That Can Support A Better Sleeping Experience Over Time:
Better Sleep Equals Better Control of stress and emotional Rested minds are better able to handle challenges with calmer, clearer responses – (less likely to become overwhelmed with excessive emotion).
Improved sleep patterns will naturallyAid in Our Ability to Make Healthy Nutrition Choices.
They (healthy nutrition choices) increase likelihood that we will support the continuation of Positive Living.
Creating Balance Through Nutrition and Mindful Eating
One of the key components of creating balance through positive living is limiting excessive sugar intake and processed foods.
Another component of creating balance through positive living is practicing mindful eating and being present during your mealtime.
Having consistent nutritious eating patterns provides mental stability and better control of stress.
Over time, consistent nutritious eating patterns provide overall improvement of an individual’s mental health and energy.
With improved overall mental health and energy, individuals are a step further on their path of living a positive lifestyle and creating lifestyle balance long- term.
Healthy Boundaries at Work
It is important to set up appropriate Healthy Boundaries within your Work.
The combination of your work/life balance improvements will allow you to feel more engaged both at work and outside of work.
This level of balance will allow you to develop your skills of Resilience and continue along your path to Positive Living in the future.
Developing Resilience Every Day
Resilience has been identified by Psychologists (American Psychological Association) as a very important element of an individual’s long-term Mental Health.
The Development of Resilience through Habits
Through the practice of developing habits, we can develop greater emotional resilience.
Examples of this include:
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Being patient while in challenging situations.
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Optimism supports positive living through shaping people’s views about the way they see challenges and obstacles.
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The practice of optimistic thinking allows a person to have hope, without overlooking the truth of reality.
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Positive thinking can help an individual change his or her perception of a negative situation so that they can feel less distressed emotionally and have greater mental health.
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Staying focused on things we can control.
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Celebrating small accomplishments.
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Reducing the amount of negative “self-talk” that we engage in.
Maintaining Consistency (of Positive Living) For The Long- term
Consistency is Important To Mental Health
Positive Living—Consistent Habits (for Positive Mental Health)—produces the best results (for) Mental Health.
Motivational bursts of Energy may not lead (long-term) to Emotional Health.
According to National Institute of Mental Health (NIH) clinical psychologists, Consistent Routines improve Mood Regulation and Stress Regulation.
Avoiding Burnout (due to) Perfectionism
Maintaining Consistent habits does not mean one must do (all of) them perfectly on a(n) daily basis.
Positive Living provides Flexibility and allows Individuals to maintain some Core Healthy Habits while letting
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Select habits that will fit Target current Lifestyle
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Track progress in a casual, low pressure
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Restart Routine calmly after taking
By maintaining Consistent Habits, one’s Emotional Responses will be Slowly Reshaped overtime and mental strength built.
Ultimately, Positive Living becomes an Automatic Life-style and not a Focussed Effort.
Overtime, a Structured Approach to Personal Growth significantly enhances the Development of a person’s self-confidence in everyday life starting with that person.
Growth as an Emotional Safety Net
Personal Growth is a Key Component of Positive Living, as well as one’s Emotional Well-Being.
Learning New Skills creates Confidence and Mental Flexibility.
Growth Mindset develops Resilience and Motivation as indicated in the Harvard Business Review.
Growth During Development Without Pressure
Positive Living allows for Personal Development without the Pressure of Comparisons and unrealistic expectations.
Personal Development should be Supportive, Not Stressful.
Growing through gradual exploration of interests balances emotions and eases pressure from within.
Healthy habits of growth include:
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Enjoyable reading / learning
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Creating goals for self without dates of expected completion
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Regularly checking in on how you’ve been growing
Positive Living Environment
The environment dictates how you feel throughout your day.
The physical environment and emotional state affect our positive living.
Efforts for Minor Changes to Enhance Positive Living Environment
While creating a positive living space takes effort, it does not require grand changes to the physical surrounding space.
Continue Supporting the Created Environment
Mindful behaviours will keep a supportive environment effective:
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Regularly cleaning and maintaining the actual living space
Positive environments support positive behaviour and the balance of emotions daily.
The positive environment makes it easier to continue with the commitment to positive living.
The building blocks of these foundations will lead to enormous mental health benefits.
