Grow Your Happiness: Tips for a Healthier Mindset

Have you ever had negative thoughts about yourself or maybe those around you? Now more than ever those thoughts may become more prevalent. These thoughts may seem harmless or maybe they come so naturally to you that you don’t even notice them anymore.

Thoughts like, “I look a hot mess”, “My stomach is so fat”, “I can’t do this”. Not sure what your thoughts are but these are some that I have said recently.

Did you know that these thoughts as simple and as harmless as you may think, are just like little seeds being planted? Over time these seeds will blossom into beautifully tragic WEEDS. Yes, WEEDS!

You water them with repetitive affirmation, feeding them with more negative talk, “confirmations” through social media, movies, conversations with “friends”, and even music.

(NOTE: if you find that you spend most of your day on social media, please set aside a specific time where you disconnect, to reconnect with other things you may enjoy).

Before you know it, you look at your backyard and wonder how did it happen. I say backyard because these are thoughts that we tend to hide from others or even ourselves.

Usually, we let these thoughts fester inside, thinking just because we didn’t say them aloud, they don’t hold any power. You are wrong my friend.

We may pretend to uphold one image of ourselves in public but behind closed doors, we beat ourselves up.

Things that would leave us heartbroken if we knew a loved one was thinking or saying the same about himself or herself.

This may resonate with you or someone close to you and you are thinking doesn’t everyone do this? Doesn’t everyone think about these things? You may be right. We have all had our moments of self-doubt or questioning our self-worth, but you don’t have to plant this seed.

Instead, you can choose to grow a garden of beautiful flowers or plants or food that can sustain you. I’ll tell you how – simple and plain.about:blankMedia upload failed. If this is a photo or a large image, please scale it down and try again.ImageUpload an image file, pick one from your media library, or add one with a URL.UploadMedia LibraryInsert from URL

Think of the mind just like a bare garden as we have been doing. Just soil. You are gifted with the option of planting seeds of sadness, happiness, anger — whatever you choose. The more you spend time with one seed, the more it will flourish.

For example, if you are sad, you may choose to watch sad movies/documentaries, read about sad situations, spend time in a dark room, or listen to sad songs. This will only make the sad seed grow! If this is your intention and you want to be sad, then you will be successful.

If instead, you choose to water your happy seed with scripture, meditation, or comedy, your sad seed will be less likely to survive.

This is such a simple concept, yet I see many of those around me including myself not adhering to this principle. We often get caught up in the present emotion, not realizing we are the gardener and we hold the tools to make a change.

So I challenge you the next time you are hit with a wave of emotion that will not benefit you, take a moment to process that feeling and choose the seed that you wish to grow.

So here’s a recap…

Tips for a Healthier Mindset

1. BE KIND TO YOURSELF Take a moment to process your feelings. If you aren’t feeling well or feeling sad or angry, take some time to sit with those emotions. Speak them aloud or write them down to reduce their ability to grow. Think of this as the pruning process.
2. MAKE A CHOICE Choose the mindset you want to grow. Decide that you want to have a more positive outlook.
3. FEED WITH INTENTION Be intentional and feed that mindset so that it can flourish. This could be the people you associate with, the books, music, or other media you consume. Even the décor of your living space.

Start building your garden of optimism, confidence, and self-assurance today.

How will you begin?

Advertisement