Categories
Future Habits Future Wellbeing

Who Wants To Be Negative Anyway?

In today’s article, we discuss who wants to be negative anyway?

Negativity is all around us and within us. It can be a battle keep it away and replace it with positive surrounding and positive thoughts.

We discuss today how to overcome negativity by understanding our environment and our self more. With some self-guided tips to apply.

I hope you enjoy and let’s create positivity.

Overcoming Negativity

Negativity comes in all shapes and sizes. From id-al gossip to being constantly inundated with the problems of the world via the news. Now I don’t know about you but negativity brings my energy down.

It has contributed to some damaging effects on certain parts of my life. For instance, I had a boss where every mistake I made, I had an overblown telling off. With every success brushed under the carpet. At a low point, all I wanted was some praise. I even confronted him and told him about my perceived success. All I got in return was you have achieved nothing. (That kind of hurt at the time)

Shortly after I left that company and as the months of mist blown away from my clouded judgement. I realised I was in a negative environment.

Too many people are in these environments. It could be work, friends, relationships, family or even media. The problem is when you’re in a negative environment. It can be hard to notice or see that there is a problem.

What I have learned is through self-awareness, this is how you get out.

Understanding My Environments

What I have learnt to do now is in any environment I’m in. Is mentally in the moment tally up the positives and the negatives of my environments. This could be a conversation you have where you can decide between the rate of praise and criticism you receive. If it swings constantly in the later. You know this isn’t an environment you want to be in for much longer.

First and foremost you have to think about your happiness and success. Thinking of what’s stopping you from excelling in these areas. When you figure this out that’s when your life can speed in the direction you want.

As we have stated that it’s hard to notice when you’re in a negative environment. It can be even harder to notice when we have dragged ourselves into it. This can especially be the case when others lure you into gossip. Especially when you start a new job it can be even more tempting to try and fit in.

Who Wants To Be Negative Anyway Science?

A study showed how agreeable we are to others. They had 15 actors who had differentiating points of few some true some false. An astonishing 75% of the people who participated were agreeable to false statements. The ability to fit in is very much part of what makes us human.

Maybe this is a survival trait left over to keep us safe within the group. We have to learn to be self-aware of this within us because if left untrained we can be lured into negative outcomes that do us no favours.

Who Wants To Be Negative Anyway History?

History is a great teacher and we don’t have to look too far back to how the German people responded to their fears being heightened to fascist viewpoints from Hitler and his Nazi party. It resulted in millions of needless deaths from the agreeableness of others even if these values was not theirs, to begin with.

That’s why it’s important to know your values of yourself and when entering conversations with people you know who to keep and who to let go of.

Who Wants To Be Negative Anyway Gossip?

Anyone luring you into gossip about others. If you don’t want to entertain this person just act like you know nothing and change the subject to something more positive. When you’re in control of your thoughts you can fight back against negativity that brings nothing but pain to your life.

You might respond “well I love gossiping.”

The negative consequences of these actions have been proven to create a lot of negative outcomes for yourself.

For instance, mistrust in you as a person from others, you enter into more selfish tendencies and it creates more fear within yourself about others.

It can even lead to an increase in anger responses. There should be no place in your life for negative gossiping of others. For the age-old saying treat others how you would like to be treated yourself. Plus no-one would ever like to be gossiped about.

How To Gain Peace Of Mind From Negativity

What I think we all love is when our mind is at peace and this is very true when we live in line with our values. A vast majority of us want to live outlives positively and not be drawn into any negativity but we need to understand this is not life.

Unfortunately, negativity is all around us. Humans are not perfect and will make mistakes accordingly but learning self-awareness of what’s around us can go a long way to fighting back against negativity.

In some cases, we might be subjected to unsolicited advice or it’s a good deal gone wrong that has left you financially in arrears. Whatever it is we can control whether we live in it or move away from it.

First, we have to recognise it, then understand it, then stop it and finally move into a new positive direction.

Peace of mind comes from us dealing with our negativity and our problems head-on. If we don’t they will not go away they will live within us or in front of us until we can take the courage to deal with it.

Self-guided tips to try

  • Become self-aware of your environment you’re in and find out is it helping you succeed or making you negative.
  • Be self-aware of your actions and write down how you can improve and get to work on it immediately

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed today’s article – who wants to be negative anyway?

Knowing and understanding what your values are can help maintain a positive direction without getting swayed to someone else’s values you don’t agree with.

So write down what your values are as a person and what are the people around values are. And see if they match up. I will leave the final decsion with you.

Have a great day and check out another similar article below.

Hi I'm Adam
Hi I’m Adam

I’ve spent over 10 years coaching and mentoring people within sport and business. I have many life skills that I have developed and I want to pass these skills on so people can find their best self. I believe it all starts in the mind and I write about valuable tools and strategies to help people grow in this area.

Categories
Articles Future Habits

The 5 Breathing Techniques You Have To Do

By Adam Smith

The 5 breathing techniques you have to do
Photo by Ale Romo Photography on Unsplash

Why Breathing Is A Powerful Tool

The typical adult can take between 14,000 to 20,000 breaths a day. How many do we notice? I can say with confidence probably not an awful lot. The system works perfectly so we don’t even have to take much notice of it. I would even say we take it for granted that it works so well, especially as it’s the process that’s keeping us alive. Depending on our mood or physical state our breath can be smooth when we are calm and very intense when we are fearful. That’s why it’s important to take control of our breath when our body is in demanding situations.

A Great Form Of Meditation

Breath-work for me has become a great way of meditating by taking control of my breath I can therefore take control of my thoughts and emotions. Doing any of these 5 exercises below has helped me feel at peace with my self. Where now I feel more calm, focussed and happy within my life. I hope 1 of these techniques below can help you feel the same.

The 5 Breathing Techniques

4 7 8 Breathing

This technique is great when you’re on the move. Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of 4. Hold your breath for a count of 7. Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of 8. This is helpful when you’re surrounded by people in a stressful situation or you feel anxiety while walking or in daily life. This has helped me tremendously is taking control of my stress and anxiety and reverting it to my normal state.

Wim Hof

This is probably the most famous breathing technique around with millions of views on YouTube currently. Wim has been pushing his bodies boundaries for over a decade breaking world records along the way. Now he teaches his methods and the breathing technique he uses. It’s intense breathing through the nose and out the mouth for 1 minute then taking 1 last deep breath in and on the exhale hold for either 1min or 2min then breathe in then hold again for 15 secs before repeating the exercise 3 more times. Wim claims that people do a lot of slim breathing and deep intense breathing can have positive impacts on endurance and strength conditioning.

Box Breathing

The reason its call box breathing is because it focuses on all 4 corners of the breath. The inhale, breath-hold, the exhale, and breath-hold. The preferred use of this is by following the pattern of inhaling for 4 seconds, followed by a four-second hold, then exhaling for 4 seconds and then followed by a 4-second hold. This should all be done breathing through your nose for a minimum of 5 rounds. This is preferred to be done early in the morning or of course when your feeling stressed, anxious or overwhelmed.

Nadi Shodhana

I first came across this with Breathe and Flow. They tend to do this after a Yoga session. This is alternate nostril breathing so first with your right hand get your thumb and wedding ring finger and place it on your nostrils. Then with your pointer and middle finger place those between your eyebrows. Followed by closing your left nostril with your thumb and breath in then out and back in one more time and then close the right nostril to breath out through the left nostril the breath in through the same nostril. Then repeat for 5 to 10 cycles allowing your mind to follow the cycles like a wave in the sea. I feel amazing after doing this and my mind and nostrils defiantly feel clear.

Kapalabhati

This is an intense breath-work which consists of alternating short, explosive exhales and slightly longer, passive inhales. Exhales are generated by powerful contractions of the lower belly which push air out of the lungs. Again this is used after my Yoga practice.

Final Thoughts

These are the 5 techniques that I have practised. My personal favourite is the Nadi Shodhana but all have their positives. I tend to go through them all each month to keep me on my toes and not to get too comfortable doing just 1 technique. I recommend if you haven’t already just to give it a go for 1 month and evaluate your experience and whether you have gained anything from it. For me and a lot of people, I’ve read or come across it has helped them a lot. So let’s get back to basics and get in touch with breathing. It’s what’s keeping us alive.

I hope enjoyed this post on breathing techniques, I hope to see you in the next post!