Friday Focus: Positive Thinking

'A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty' Winston Churchill 

I am going to use that 'Friday feeling' to bring a positive outlook to my blog and to use that as a feature every Friday. Today is seen as a good day for many - the end of a working week, the start of a free weekend to spend with friends and family or just two empty days to fill with as much (or as little) as you like!

We all face challenges in our lives that make it very difficult to remain positive sometimes - but if we look at these challenges as obstacles that we can overcome - it can make even the hardest times a little bit easier to work through. Positivity doesn't come naturally, it is something that we choose to be. If you look at situations in a negative way, this encourages a train of connected negative thoughts, excuses and reasons why we can't move forward and places blame on why a certain situation has happened.

It is simple; everything happens - not ominously, for a reason - but because it just happens - and it is up to you to choose how you feel about it. 

If you're tired of feeling worn out, miserable, angry and upset with people or things that have happened - let's try to stop that cycle and change the way that you feel. You need to look forward and rid your life of the negativity that surrounds you. Negative thoughts don't just attract negative situations but they also attract negative people. No one is perfect, and that isn't what we are striving to achieve, but you need to begin to rid your life of the negativity that surrounds it.

Negative thoughts trigger negative behaviours - your triggers could be alcohol, food, shopping - all of these behaviours mask things that we may not want to face in life. They 'gloss over' a situation by making us feel better. But for how long does that 'good feeling' last? Take a step back and examine which behaviours in our lives are good for us and which are not. Think about how you feel when the euphoria of experiencing your trigger wears off. Guilty? Angry? Resentful? Upset? You can learn from these negative experiences and turn them into positive experiences by replacing them with things that make you feel good.

Be kind to yourself; boost your self-esteem by learning to accept the person that you are inside and out. If you can identify things that need to change - you can change them but be positive about how you look and how you feel and try not to be overly critical. Be honest with yourself and steer clear of the negativity. Remember a positive outlook is a choice that we can make.

- Friday Focus - List 10 things that you like about yourself and concentrate on them. Define what integrity means for you and begin to reclaim it - Start the weekend on a positive note!