Transforming negativity to positivity

by Kelly Beischel PhD, RN, CNE

The sun is hibernating.

Students are grubbing for grades. You’re overworked and underpaid.  The list goes on, right? It’s easy to travel down the road of negativity and dissatisfaction carrying a suitcase full of all that’s wrong….

  • in the world.
  • in your classroom.
  • in your life.

But negativity and dissatisfaction can weigh down your suitcase

until you just don’t want to pick it up. It happens to the best of us. But here’s the good news. It doesn’t have to be this way!

There are simple strategies to help us turn these mindsets around. Do you want to be positive and happy? Do you want your load to feel lighter?

“Dissatisfaction roots you to the spot where you currently are,

but appreciation for what you have attracts the happier and better to you”

~ Rhonda Byrne

Three simple strategies to transform from negativity to positivity, from dissatisfied to happy:

1.   Use “I” not “me” statements

We shackle ourselves to victimhood when thinking and talking using me statements. It’s true. Have you ever noticed the preposition that typically comes before me is “to”? Yep. That’s victimhood.

Chucking off “me” and using “I” will break the chains of dissatisfaction. You see, “I” shifts us toward assertiveness. Shifts us to stand in our power. Standing in this place of power enables us to determine what it is we want.

And it’s from here that we develop systems to shape our lives, our classrooms and our world.

2.   Look UP and out

Looking “down and in” is a sure fire way to root us in dissatisfaction. Looking up moves us out of ourselves. The expanse of the open sky reminds us that there is more. That possibilities are endless.

Looking up also opens our airway, a vessel for oxygenation. And when is improved oxygenation ever a bad idea?

3.   Seek beauty and appreciate

Beauty is everywhere…. Buds on trees. A smile from a stranger. The sun peeking out. Students curious in the classroom.

Opening our eyes, really opening them, to the beauty that exists right in front of us can have profound effects on our mindsets. Moving our mindsets from the impossible to the possible.

Journaling our gratitude for the beauty in nature, in people, and in life can also frame our thinking.

Try this.

Each night journal 3 things you are grateful for. (Some days are harder than others, for sure.) But trust me, you will begin seeking beauty, seeking the positive. Even if it’s for the sake of having something to write in that darn journal.

And we all know positive begets positive, right?



These are just three of my strategies when I find myself in a negative place. What are yours? I’d love to try them out.

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