Look for Something Positive in Each Day

As human beings, we are pre-programed to look for danger, to look for what is going to affect us in a negative way. So it stands to reason that we tend to focus much more on all the negative things happening around us every day. And in so doing, it becomes even more difficult to see the positive things happening around us.

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If we think about how we are living right now in South Africa, boy, we are really having to dig deep to find the positive! We’re at stage 6 load shedding. We had that absolute horrific fire in the city centre where 77 people lost their lives! I can’t even begin to imagine what they must have suffered and now their families are left reeling from the devastation, along with those who were fortunate to have survived but now find themselves completely homeless with absolutely no possessions. If you are South African, then you know that I could go on for the next 10 pages writing about all the awful things happening around us right now.

But of course I won’t because the object of this article is not to focus on all the awful experiences we’re going through. The point of the article is to encourage you to be looking for all the positive things in your day. And when you set your mind to it, it’s really not that difficult.

For most of us, we go to sleep in a warm comfortable bed, having eaten a great meal and we wake to a country where the sun shines brightly no matter what time of the year it is. As a nation we are resilient beyond measure. We love so unconditionally, and we give so much of ourselves, stretching ourselves far and wide, to uplift and encourage each other along the way.

The best advice I can give to you is that you start a process of training your mind to focus on the positive side of your life, rather than the negative, starting with not becoming obsessed with constantly watching the news and reading posts on facebook that draw your attention to all the awful things that have happened that day. I’m not saying place your head in the sand and prevent yourself from knowing what’s happening around you. What I am saying though is, pay attention, but don’t become that drawn into all the bad news, that you don’t allow yourself to recognise that your life is good and that there are many amazing people in the world and there are many amazingly beautiful things happening every day.

Then, get yourself a little book and keep it at your bedside. Before you go to bed every night, write down five positive things that happened to you that day. When you first start out, it will be difficult. And it’s difficult because we don’t acknowledge those little positive things that happen. We don’t acknowledge that the smile you got from your security guard this morning as you drove out your complex, is a positive thing. We don’t acknowledge that those little arms that wrapped around your neck to kiss you goodnight, are a positive thing. We so very easily don’t see the beautiful side of our life.

Knowing that it is within our DNA to look for danger, to always be aware that around the next corner is that tiger waiting to lurch itself at us, gives us the opportunity to become consciously aware of how our thoughts play out. It gives us the opportunity to become much more aware of where we place our focus and in turn allows us to take control of the thoughts in our heads. To take control of how we see the world. It allows us to steer our thoughts away from the negative and to place our focus on the positive.

Take a day for yourself and do a little experiment. Every time you find yourself thinking negative thoughts or focusing on what could be negative experience for you, write it down. Write down that experience, and those thoughts. Divide your page into two and on the one side, record the negative on the other side, record all the positive thoughts and experiences you have had that day. I am willing to bet that there will be days when the positive column remains completely empty! And wow, if it does, then you know – it’s time to take control of your thoughts and your focus.

By focusing on the positive aspects of your life, you will relieve yourself of unnecessary stress. You will relieve yourself of the heaviness that you feel at the end of every day. You will find yourself becoming less irritable and less grumpy. You will also find yourself becoming so much more fun to be around. And when you can enjoy your own company, you know that others will be enjoying it too.

Imagine that people could believe that you’re not fun to be around? You don’t want that, surely you don’t!

Make it your special project, starting from today, to become that person who sees the positive in their life and brings the positive into the room, so that others can be brought into the positive as well. It’s a crazy thought that you should make it a project for yourself. But what you will find is that as you work on it, it will become second nature and soon you’ll be seeing the world from a completely different angle without even trying!