9 Habits to Kick Toxic Negativity Out of Your Life

It is easy for toxic negativity to consume your daily life. Being more positive throughout your day is possible if you make time to adopt healthy habits to limit or get rid of those negative moments. Here are nine habits that you can try to start having less toxic negativity in your life.

Positive Affirmations

Affirmations are a great way to promote self-confidence and belief in your own abilities. Neuroplasticity, or your brain’s ability to change and adapt to different circumstances throughout your life, offers a clue to help understand how you can make affirmations effective, according to Marney A. White, Ph.D. Creating mental images of yourself achieving positive things will encourage you to do what you can to succeed. Saying only negative things about yourself will attract them to your reality. Using positive affirmations will help you feel relaxed in stressful situations and help you avoid self-sabotaging thoughts or behaviors that can interfere with your success.

Set Realistic Goals

Goal setting is important, but if you make goals that can be unattainable, it will bring negativity into your life that can be avoided. Setting realistic goals can help you feel more successful. According to Frank L. Smoll, Ph.D., setting higher goals can result in a higher performance, but if the goal is too difficult that it results in failure, a different goal should be set. One that is still challenging but realistic. It is also important to set goals that are within our abilities, and eventually, we can work our way to something bigger and better.

Get Plenty of Sleep

Getting a good night’s sleep can help with kicking toxic negativity from your life. Good sleep can help improve your concentration and productivity. Sleep deprivation negatively affects your brain functions like cognition, concentration, productivity, and performance, according to Joe Leech, MS. Sleep also affects your emotions and social interactions.

According to a 2010 study published in Sleep, people who hadn’t slept had a reduced ability to recognize expressions of anger and happiness. Leech says that poor sleep affects your ability to recognize important social cues and process emotional information. Getting better sleep will help you be more aware of the positive moments in your life.

Keep a Healthy Diet

Feeling positive about yourself outside is as important as you feel inside. Eating a healthy diet will help you feel great all day which will help you think more positively of yourself. According to Harvard Health, healthy eating helps keep your energy level high. Eating a balanced diet includes a variety of unrefined carbohydrates, protein, and fats, with plenty of vegetables, whole grains, and healthy oils. Eating certain types of food in a particular amount can help you prevent fatigue, says Harvard Health. Having a balanced diet will help you feel better about yourself and will limit the amount of negativity you allow in your life.

Give Back to Others

A great way to fill your life with more positivity is by helping others. There appears to be a direct correlation between overall well-being and giving our time, money, or other resources to a cause that we are passionate about, according to Raychelle Cassada Lohmann, Ph.D. People who volunteer tend to be happier and healthier. According to a study in Social Science & Medicine, a person who volunteers more than monthly, but less than weekly is 12 percent more likely to report being very happy and a person who volunteers weekly is 16 percent more likely to report being very happy. If you don’t have enough time to go volunteer somewhere, you can also do acts of kindness to your family, friends, or helping a neighbor.

Practice Gratitude

Being grateful for what you do have in your life is a great way to bring more positivity into your life. Gratitude is recognizing the positive things in your life and appreciating how they affect you. There are different ways to practice gratitude, according to Jacquelyn Johnson, PsyD. You can do gratitude exercises like journaling, telling someone you’re grateful for them, meditate on the positive aspects of your life, or giving thanks through prayer. Gratitude is a great way to feel more optimistic and positive about your life now and in the future.

Get Regular Exercise

When you engage in regular exercise, your body and brain produce hormones and neurotransmitters that have a positive impact on your mood, memory energy levels, and sense of well-being, says Mark Stibich, Ph.D. A good workout can make you feel more relaxed, and it can also give you a sense of accomplishment in your day. Doing some exercise can help you get rid of the toxic negativity that you can be carrying inside you; it is a great way to release it all.

Try Meditation

Meditation is a great form of connecting to your thoughts and working with yourself to get rid of any negativity in your life. According to Harvard Health, it is one of the easiest and achievable stress-relieving techniques, in which you can focus your attention inward to induce a state of deep relaxation. It can help you realize that your thoughts or even a person are causing you to feel this way. A research review published in JAMA Internal Medicine in January 2014 found meditation helpful for relieving anxiety, pain, and depression.

Limit Multitasking

Reducing stress can help you get rid of negativity in your life. Trying to multitask too many things at once can cause you more harm than good. According to Amit Sood, M.D., your mind can only switch rapidly between tasks but not multitask. Sood suggests instead trying to maintain focus on the task at hand. You can reduce distractions and make a plan on how you will handle your tasks individually instead of doing them all at once.Sources:

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