Life and Happiness Coach, Shireena Shroff Manchharam, shares her secrets of being positive. Shireena says, “I definitely wasn’t always so sunny and positive. It took years of hard work to identify the things that were holding me back, learn how to cultivate more gratitude, see the silver lining in every situation, and shift my mindset to be more optimistic and forward-thinking.”
To start to cultivate a more positive way of thinking there are several things you can do, but the top three recommendations are:
Mindfulness can help ground you to be more present. With so many distractions around, the first thing we need to do is be focused and present. Start by doing the things you do on autopilot like driving, taking a shower, eating, etc. and do it mindfully. That means doing these tasks without distractions like scrolling aimlessly through Instagram. It means when you eat, you smell the aromas of your food, you think about the tastes, and you do it with your full concentration. Even while you shower, feel the sensation of the water on your body, smell the soap, and appreciate how the shower makes you feel.
Another great way to move towards a more positive mindset is by practising gratitude. This simple task takes practice and trains our mind to see what we have versus what we don’t. Start by identifying three things that you are grateful for from your day, every night. You can share it with someone or even write it down in a journal. Over time you will notice how you are able to see the silver lining even in the hardest moments.
To move to a more optimistic way of thinking, we also need to learn to let go. It isn’t easy to “let things go” if we are unable to assess what we need to let go of. So, at each moment when you feel stressed or bogged down, ask yourself if you have control over the situation. And if you don’t, toss it away into the wind. Occupy your mind with things that are in your control. Trying to change others, hoping and praying for things out of your control, etc. will lead you to feel deflated and negative. Shireena says, “By practicing these few simple things, we can train our brain to move away from the sad into the happy.”
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