It can be difficult to stay positive when life puts obstacles in your way. However, maintaining a positive attitude can help you cope better with life’s challenges. Paying attention to your self-talk, taking positive action, and avoiding negative people can all improve the way you deal with adversity.

Notice your self-talk

How do you speak and about yourself? If it’s negative, consider whether you would speak the same way to your best friend or a beloved family member. A constant litany of negative comments, even if it’s from you and no one else, can weaken your attitude and keep you from feeling positive. For example, if you make a mistake you made before, you might tell yourself that you are so stupid, you can’t believe you’ve done this again, you will never learn.

When you start to notice how often you say things like this to yourself, you’ll start to see that it’s no wonder you feel so negative. Instead, replace your negative speech with affirmations like you’ve made that mistake again, but caught it faster this time, you learn and will try to do better next time. You might also want to consider a gratitude journal. Many people find that taking the time at the start or end of each day to write down three things they are grateful for has huge benefits.

Take positive action

Feel your emotions

Positive thinking shouldn’t be about suppressing your emotions. It’s important to allow yourself a full range of healthy emotions, including sadness and anger. The difference is, you don’t allow yourself to sink into increasingly negative thought patterns. For example, if you are upset because you did wrong in a job interview for a job that you really wanted, you might tell yourself that you are angry with yourself and sad that you did not perform better. , but you won’t feel like this forever. Some people find it helpful to give themselves a time frame in which they can indulge in feeling bad. Then they need to start working on a solution.

Avoid negative people