Being positive isn't about having an amazing life. Being positive is something that I've had to learn, especially since becoming ill. My life is far from perfect and there are a lot of struggles I am faced with on a daily basis both on my good and bad days.. On my bad days I do get down and I do have my negative moments but positivity is a mindset and outlook that I've have to work on and sometimes I have to do "fake it till I make it". it's also okay to be negative as long as you don't stay negative; we're human's and we're built with positive and negative emotions.
I'm not an overly positive person, but I'm trying to be more positive and this was something that came out of my psychology sessions when I was in hospital. I do really struggle to be positive a lot of the time especially about my health and my future. But there are little things that I find help me to stay positive as much as I can.
Personally I think if you're overly positive all the time you lose an appreciation and gratitude for things in life. So when you have a balance of being positive you'll have more of an appreciation and gratitude for things when something good does happen. But equally if you're negative all the time and you let it take over you and you don't even try to be positive life will start to feel worse than it actually is and that goes for anyone.
I come from the perspective of someone with a chronic illness as that's the situation I'm in and I'm learning that balance of being a positive and an occasionally negative person. Usually when I'm fatigued, in pain or experiencing a lot of symptoms I'll most likely become more negative and being ill is probably why I'm not positive all the time. I do try to 'smile through the pain' but that can be a challenge.
I can be a positive person too and I want to be a positive person more often even on my bad days.. I have gratitude for the family, friends and people that I have in my life. I am so thankful for the NHS (though that comes with a mix of negativity at times), I feel positive when I have cuddles with my guinea pig Flop, play a game with my family, hear from a friend via text or a letter in the post, or get lost in an activity I enjoy or when I have clean hair and braid it, put on some makeup or when I've done my nails.
So that's part 1 as I didn't want to write a super long blog post. Check out next week for part 2 which is about things that help me stay positive.
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| © Stacie Swift |