Joinsupermoms

Start the year from a place of positivity and inspiration. Determine not to let persistent low or negative energy dampen your efforts. Negative emotions can be difficult to navigate. They could lead to stress and anxiety and kill creativity and successful parenting. You can be determined to intentionally beat negative feelings thereby managing fear and paranoia. These three intentional routines helped me beat negativity, reduce paranoia, and improve decision making:

1. Practice Self-Awareness: Being self-aware means understanding your emotions and how to grow from them. It helps to spend some time alone analysing your thoughts and feelings, observing how you have responded to each. The goal is to question your responses. Were you happy with your responses or can you work out a more positive response in the future? Self-awareness helps you create a mental space where you objectively evaluate your thoughts and feelings: how these affect your actions or inactions. You program your mind to lead you to positive actions. I don’t recommend a timeframe for each self-awareness session, but I do suggest that you practice this often, particularly after a memorable experience and at the end of each session you have a clear understanding of what you felt, why you felt it and how you reacted.
   • My safe place: In my garden or out with nature. I love a balanced temperature for me. Not too cold and dry, not too hot and humid. It has to be breezy and the air is best clean. By the sea tends to be perfect, but sometimes on my terrace is fine too. Here, I focus on my emotions, the negative ones and the positive ones and why I feel each one. Some negative emotions I can learn and grow from, but those “unconstructive” negative emotions are redirected to positive emotions. Here’s how:
2. Beat Negative emotions: Negative emotions come from negative thoughts. When it comes to negative thoughts, the mind will sometimes make a mountain out of a molehill or lengthen the tunnel, so you don’t see its light. So, prepare to be an unrelenting fighter in pushing away those negative thoughts. First, I list all the positive events that I have experienced. Some call them blessings, hence the saying, “count your blessings”. They can range from something as seemingly nonsensical as ‘I love the colour of my shoes’ to something as significant as ‘no war in my country’, or as life changing as ‘I have beautiful children’. Be sure your positive lists put a smile on your face. Next, I question my fears. There are perceived fears and there are evidence-based fears. What is perceived, I construct a positive alternative to. What is evident, I list an available set of solutions to. This helps to be more balanced and realistic.
   • My list guide: I write down my negative thoughts and question them. Question each thought by providing evidence for and against it. Doing this, I sometimes gain perspective and the negative thoughts are reduced. Other times, I need a little more.
3. Grow a Support System: This used to be the hardest part because trust didn’t come easy for me. Using these 3 evidence-based methods, however I found people I could count on to be objective and unbiased while being empathetic and helpful at the same time. See if you can find people like that and share your experiences with them. They could be friends, family, or even a health professional. Start by sharing your experiences and see if they provide the support you need before moving on to sharing your feelings. Talking about your experiences might help you to objectively understand your feelings and to analyse them. So, keep a good support system close by. Beware: Don’t let people tell you how you feel or should feel. Remember, find your safe place, analyse your feelings.
   • Get Professional Help: Start with your GP, it could be an open conversation about how an experience is shaping your normal daily routines. Your GP might be able to isolate any underlying health related concerns, recommend healthy habits including sleep and physical exercise or recommend a therapist if necessary. Do not underestimate the importance of mental health and do prioritise this if negative feelings are impeding your daily life.

Maintaining a positive outlook all year will call for a combination of self-awareness and support from others, sometimes professionals. In all, remember to be realistic in setting your timeframes for self-awareness sessions, discipline your mind to transfer from negative to positive thoughts, and keep growing a support system.