Your Fears Are Contagious – How To Focus On The Positive

Remembering how to focus on the positive in trying times can feel impossible. But even during these difficult times, do you know what your most valuable resource is? Go ahead and guess… Some people will say ,money 💸.  Others will say, time.⏱ But I think it’s something deeper. I think…

Our most valuable resource is our ATTENTION.

Let me Teach you How to Focus on the Positive!

Let’s talk about what we are giving our attention to right now, how to focus on the positive and how to protect our mental health for us and for our families.

JOIN OUR 21 DAY CHALLENGE FOR MORE!

“Why Am I So Negative?” and How to Focus on the Positive

If you’ve caught yourself thinking, “Why am I so negative?” it is because unfortunately, our focus is particularly drawn by negative stuff. It’s only natural.

Our negativity bias is there to keep us alive.  It’s there to point out in big, flashing, neon lights everything that could possibly go wrong.  But, it’s oversensitive – like a faulty fire alarm – it screams 🚨”the house is on fire!”🚨 when your pasta just boiled over a bit 🍝.

Negativity Bias Examples

Examples of negativity bias are rampant! You know when someone gives you like 10 compliments, but one piece of criticism… what are you most likely to focus on? Yup, its that one piece of criticism. 😟 It doesn’t even counter balance those 10 compliments, you just focus on the negative!

Or for example, if you drive past a car crash, we can’t help but be drawn to look at it. We’re fascinated by a negative thing that has happened, and we focus on the pain loss and suffering of the people in the car crash and we actually sometimes ignore or completely don’t notice all the helpers that have come to help.

The positive passes us by while the negative imprints in our minds.

Right now, amidst a world wide global pandemic, have you noticed we focus on all of the pain and loss and suffering and anxiety, and we forget to notice all of the silver linings, the blessings, the opportunities that are afoot for us and our families during this time?

How Does Panic, Fear and Anxiety Serve Us?

Living with a constant state of panic, fear and anxiety doesn’t actually serve us. I mean, let’s be honest. Does it help the people battling to breathe, if you’re glued to scary news on Facebook? Does it help the doctors and nurses who are busy ventilating patient after patient for us to be biting our nails and fearing the worst?  No. It doesn’t. It’s wasted energy.

3 Personal Tips for Positivity

Here are 3 tips for positivity that I use in my daily life:

1. Say no to negative thoughts, negative stories on social, and negative fear sharing
2. Look for the positive
3. Be grateful

Today, I challenge you to go on a negativity fast.

And while you’re at it, take on a positivity diet. Look for strength, optimism, and creativity. As Mr. Rogers said: Look for the helpers.

24 hours on a positivity diet. Call it a media fast.

24 hours where you are fasting, where you are saying no to:

• any negative inputs
• negative thoughts in your own head
• negative stories on your Facebook feed
• negative fear sharing that your friends and family are sharing with you

You’re going to say, “no,” 🙅 and you’re not going to let any of it in for 2️4️ hours. It’s not going to hurt anyone, you’re still following the recommended health guidelines, it’s just going to create a bubble for 24 hours. I want you to see how it feels.

So for these 24 hours, whenever you have a negative thought, you’re going to burst that bubble.

On my positivity diet, every time a negative thought comes up, I’m going to turn my attention to the positive.

How to Rewire Your Brain to Be Positive

The key to a positivity diet is learning how to rewire your brain to be positive. For example – I’m looking at a car crash, yes the negative is right there. But I’m going to notice how people stop and help, and that is a beautiful thing.

Or how, the magic of modern medicine is gonna to save peoples lives.

Or how they have insurance in place, and they’re not gonna lose all their assets.

Or whatever it is I can focus on that’s positive about that situation that helps those people. Every time you’re going to think about a negative thought, you’re going to switch it out for a positive one.

And so I want you to light a candle right now 🕯️, to mark the beginning of your positivity diet. And in 24 hours, you can come off the diet if you want to, or you might just decide to keep it going for the remainder (as I am 🙏🏼.)

We have to show up with positivity for our children.

We have to be mentally strong.

And we are not immune to the negative impacts of the Coronavirus on our mental state.

Optimistic Thinking Amidst a Pandemic

We can wash our hands 🧼, and sanitize🧽, stay home 🏠, and wear masks😷, and do everything we can to boost our immunity and to lower our exposure to the virus itself.

But my question to you is, are you doing the same for your mental health? Are you building up your immunity, and are you killing and sanitizing any kind of tiny insidious fear-based, anxiety-based, negative-thought-based ideas from infiltrating and infecting your mind?

Don’t let yourself be at risk for being emotionally infected by this contagious virus. Boost up that psychological immunity to the anxiety and fear.

Your Positive Thinking is Contagious – Remember How To Focus On The Positive

So your challenge today is to light a candle, go on the positivity diet, go on the media fast, and I want to see a picture of that candle today. Show me a picture📸, hashtag #playpandemic, and make sure everybody knows that physical immunity is not enough. Emotional immunity is what we also need.  Don’t allow the virus to bring you down into anxiety and depression. Your positive thinking is contagious too – use your most valuable resource and remember how to focus on the positive.