Maybe this seems like a very simple and childish step, but laughing really makes you happier. It is proven that when you laugh you release hormones in your body that make you happier. Try to take life less seriously and laugh a little bit more often! Play with your kids or pets or watch a funny comedy that makes you laugh. And even if there is nothing to laugh about, when you actually do not feel that good: try then at least to smile. Even if you fake the smile your body will release happiness hormones. Furthermore your body will relax and you will experience less stress.
It seems like we are only focussing on the negative aspects of life. Even if we had a really good day, we only remember those 2 red traffic lights that we had to wait for. We have the feeling that other people are always lucky and that in our own life shit happens all the time. But this is not true at all!
The people that always seem to be in luck simply focus more on the positive things in life, while you are perhaps only looking at everything that is going wrong. In this way you will never really be happy. Therefore try to look more at the things that are positive in life. A good practice for you to learn how to focus on the positive things in life is to every day write down three positive things. If you keep doing this for a couple of week, you will quickly start to think more positively.
Almost every person has a few people in their surrounds that do not really liven up the atmosphere. They are often complaining about everything and do not motivate you to reach your goals. As long as you keep surrounding yourself by these people, you will probably also keep thinking negatively. Negativity is contagious. It is therefore important to surround yourself with people that have a positive attitude, because positive thinking is luckily just as contagious as negative thinking.
It can be the case that not everything is going as you would like them to go. You have set yourself specific targets that you really want to make, but there appear to be obstacles in the way. Quite possibly it is not possible to overcome these obstacles, and then it is key to adjust your goals to the situation. Of course you can be frustrated and disappointed for a little while, especially when you did everything you could to make these goals. But don't get stuck in these feelings for too long!
Try to be realistic and flexible and set yourself new goals or research a little how to overcome these obstacles. You can do nothing and stay frustrated, but that doesn't really get you any further of course. You are in control of your life and you decide which direction you will go. If you do not undertake any action, nothing will happen. Every disadvantage as an advantage in the end!
This may seem like a very difficult one for many people, because we often get up with thoughts in our mind about the day that cause stress. We wake up too late, have to hurry up to work and we don't have any time for ourselves. Try waking up a little bit earlier and do everything with attention and love. If you wake up half an hour earlier, you have a little bit of time for yourself and you can calmly eat your breakfast. Don't you agree that your whole day would be a lot better if you wake up relaxed?
People that are negative often behave like a victim. If something goes wrong, it is always the fault of another. They have the feeling that the whole world is against them and that it will go wrong again anyways when they try again. It can indeed go wrong and that can be the result of the conditions, but in the end you are the one that needs to take responsibility for your own life. If it doesn't work when you go left, then go right! Think about a new plan and keep trying, try to see these obstacles as challenges and you will have fun in trying!
Often we only look in a negative way at an event that we experience as negative. But what if you would turn this around? Find the positive part of every negative thing. Perhaps you were fired from your job, but now you can have quality time with your kids! Or maybe half a year ago you broke up with your boyfriend, but that made sure that you now made the choice to go traveling. The 'negative things' in our life can thus in the end be the best things that evert happen in our lives!
We get caught up in thinking about stuff that is not really important or realistic. Therefore write down everything what you are worrying about on a piece of paper. Now look at which thoughts are really not important or realist. Cross out these thoughts. Now you will see that there are not really that many things to get worried about!
Positive thinking can be stimulated by living in the moment. Feel your body and your breath, you become conscious of the world around you and enjoy! Our negative thoughts are often about fears of what is going to come. If you only think about this moment now, what is wrong at this moment? Probably you will find out that at this very moment nothing is really that wrong at all.
Of course it is the case that you want to achieve certain goals in life and be able to pay the bills that you find in the mailbox tomorrow. But try to think about everything that you can now at this very moment do about something that you are worrying about. Can you at least make a first move to solving the problem? Then do so right now. If you can not do anything about it at the moment, then why worry about it for longer? Simply accept that there is nothing you can do at the moment. If you want to learn how to live in the present moment, without worrying too much about the future, then meditation can help you in this.
Even if positive thinking is not really working that well for you yet, then you can at least start becoming positive towards others! Give someone a well meant compliment or do something good for someone else. Thank someone for all the fun times you had with this person and give a little present to someone from your direct surroundings. If you behave positively towards others, you change your focus from stress to gratefulness. And you will always get positivity for this in return!
It is also a lot of fun to simply smile at strangers on the street. You will become happier by yourself, simply because you have a mile on your face. But you also bring a little bit more positive energy into the world. And you will see that most people are happy to smile back to you, which will in turn be a positive influence on your mood!
