“Changing how you view things isn’t easy. Throughout our lives, we are told that things are the way they are. At no point are we told that we have the power to change it. Today I am telling you; you have the authority to change your mindset and become more positive.” – Robert Norman
Mindset is an important part of intentional living. If you don’t live life with a positive mindset the odds are you won’t achieve your goals because you have defeated yourself before you even began. So many of us never make that connection and wind up staying exactly where we are, miserable, confused, and feeling like we will never truly be what we want to be.
As a coach, I find that mindset is one of the first major obstacles my clients have to overcome. They have made a significant first step in realizing something isn’t right and they know they want change. Then, by committing to coaching, they take an even bigger second step toward that change. After that, it becomes a collaborative effort. However, your coach can’t drag you down your path. I’m here to walk with you, not force you to make change. That is all on you. So, how do you overcome blocks like a negative mindset? Here are five ways to create a positive mindset.
Commitment
You’ve made the commitment to the coaching engagement. Now, it’s about committing yourself, over and over, to the process. Mindset isn’t something that just happened one day. It developed over a lifetime of choices, experiences, and relationships. For those with negative mindsets, those choices, experiences and/or relationships have had a negative impact on their lives making it difficult for them to overcome the expectation of failure. However, if you commit to redirecting your mind every time it begins to work against your goals, you will find that with time you begin to loosen up and develop a more hopeful mindset instead. This is a commitment to developing better habits which will, over time, improve mindset.
Gratitude
I cannot stress the importance of gratitude in the process toward intentional living and overcoming a negative mindset. Going back to the lifetime of choices, experiences, and relationships, when we are grateful for them all- positive and negative, we align our subconscious to work within a positive frame of reference. The fact is that we all have negative experiences that influence our lives and therefore our mindset. If we can be grateful for the lessons learned from those negative experiences we reframe them into something of incalculable value. Gratitude is one of the number one ways to overcome a negative mindset. Living gratefully is liberating and therefore conducive to a positive mindset.
Unplug Yourself
In this day and age I have found that our constant connection to the outside world is wearing on our ability to be happy, find joy, and maintain a healthy mindset. We are bombarded with negativity. Social media, television, newspapers, the internet at large. We are constantly confronted with a LOT of negativity- even when we experience confirmation bias and when we experience cognitive dissonance it can make us feel more imbalanced. And imbalance almost always leads to a negative mindset. One of the biggest things I work on with clients and mindset or balance is unplugging from our devices and our access to media. Set aside a few hours a day to disengage from the rest of the world and spend time working toward your goals or with people who love and support you instead!
Boundaries
Set healthy boundaries. This can work in conjunction with unplugging yourself and is another element I help people navigate in my coaching practice. Boundaries are imperative to a healthy mind, body, and spirit. When we do not actively set and honor healthy boundaries we can very easily misstep into negative actions that improve the odds of negative consequences. Negative consequences reinforce our subconscious beliefs which work against a positive mindset. In this day of remote working and learning we are compelled to be “on” all the time. Unplug at the end of your day. Set boundaries with your boss and coworkers. Develop a “commute” habit that helps you disengage and create a boundary between work and home.
BTW!- This also applies to your friends, families, and acquaintances. We can’t be everything to everyone. It wears us down at best. At worst, relationships without healthy boundaries can become toxic. People who really want you to live you best life will actively support you creating healthy boundaries and will respect them.
Get Outside!
This may seem a little out there but studies show that the more time we spend outdoors the better we feel. We spend so much time indoors- working, bingeing Netflix, on our devices, that we forget to make time to go outdoors and breathe. Vitamin D is one of the most common deficiencies in the modern human body and our best and most efficient way of maintaining healthy levels of vitamin D is by being out in the sun. Believe it or not, when we have healthy levels of vitamin D our bodies and minds function better. When we feel better physically we feel better emotionally and spiritually. In addition to the health benefits of sunshine, when we spend time outside in nature- even if it’s just our backyard or local park, we are investing in our environment, spiritually connecting to the world around us and all its beauty. This small action can make a huge contribution to a creating a healthy mindset.
There are SO many other ways to create and maintain a healthy mindset. I could go on for days, but the five points above are a really good start! If you have a desire to develop a healthy, positive mindset; if you long for purpose and clarity in your life; if you want to work on living intentionally instead of having your life live you, feel free to contact me here through my website HERE or email me at cyrstalclearholisticcoach@gmail.com. I am also on Facebook @claritycoach12. Let’s talk and set up a free consultation to see how YOU can change your life by changing your mindset!