When creating a blog, the number one aspect of me that I was eager to share was my positive outlook on life; and of course my recipes (new recipe coming in my next post!). Since we are in a time where anxiety and being pessimistic (someone who focuses on the negative aspects) is very controlling, I wanted to share a few thoughts on positive thinking to provide a bit of guidance towards becoming optimistic, which actually has a lot of benefits (more on that to come). Especially since this pandemic is not only confusing but stressful for every single person, a little positivity can really go a long way and help change that generic mental perspective that could coincidentally lead to more isolation.
Temporary Happiness VS Permanent Joy
From my intro blog, I shared a quote that describes how focusing on the good helps the outcome become brighter. This little comparison actually shows that the temporary happiness you create by focusing on the good can lead to the permanent joy created by the positive outcome. I can guarantee that if your mindset through this pandemic has been mentally proactive, the outcome from this confusion will set you up for a feeling of gratitude and essentially happiness from your productive self-journey. I will say that this pandemic is extremely unsettling, and you may be ready to just give up your whole routine and social life as most of us were stuck at home, but, if you even slightly alter your mental mindset, you will be surprised by how much impact you have made on your overall mental health.
Let me tell you, from my personal experience with being a naturally stressed person, there comes no automatic switch in your brain that you can just flick on and off to become more optimistic. It takes time and definitely some effort needs to be put in. Right off the bat at the start of quarantine, I was already facing challenges that put me in a really anxious place in my life and now entering this weird stage with no school or face to face contact with my friends, it caused more stress than beyond my age of how much stress a young adult should go through. But right away, I knew that if I wanted to be the best version of myself and take a leap to living life still to the fullest despite the circumstances, I had to really work on myself and how I can move my focus towards the positives:
- More time to try new recipes (this was by far my favorite)
- Start a new hobby (actually ended up being yoga and I have never felt better)
- Still being able to talk to my friends (not ideal that it was through face time, but the times were not going to change)
- Organizing my room (this one was ideal because there was so much confusion walking into my room)
- Spending time with family (Since both my brother and sister are university kids, this made me so grateful)
- And finally, getting time to work through my mental health challenges
I am genuinely a relatively happy person but since I was experiencing a very hard mental health challenge, these positives ended up helping me be the most proactive I have ever been and let me say once that quarantine period was over, my overall purpose and happiness were beyond amazing.
This is young me in my prime crazy years of curly hair and just total smiles!
Now, going back to the benefits of positive thinking, I have never been more amazed by this article by the Mayo Clinic (which I will link down below), and if you have the time, it basically tells you whether you are a naturally positive or negative thinker. It also gives some tips on creating a healthy mindset which could be daily self check-ins or even just surrounding yourself with positive people. Whether or not you are naturally optimistic, there are so many ways you can switch your mindset which essentially leads to a healthier lifestyle and so many health benefits with less chance of developing certain health problems. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this blog (excuse the length, I guess I am just blabbering a bit) but linked down below will be my socials again if you want to follow and also the link to the Mayo Clinic that I really recommend!!