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7. Follow these Activities to gain Positive Emotions

We all want to feel positive emotions and be happy, don’t we? However, toxic positivity, which is pressuring yourself to feel positive, can lead to toxic positivity. Ms. Priyanka Varma, Clinical Psychologist, The Thought Co, explains how incorporating simple and basic mental health care into your routine can aid in creating a healthy base of emotions.

Exercise, food, and sleep are the basics of any emotional or mental health. While it may sound too easy to be true, just having a good schedule, eating healthy food, sleeping well (for 8 hours), and exercising, even if it’s just a walk, can provide strength and motivation when one is struggling with emotions. This forms the fuel to face the struggles, highs, and lows with a sense of balance and grounded perspective. It’s a natural way of taking time out, disengaging from the worldly stresses, and hitting a refresh button on yourself.

Externalise your feelings by expressing them. This is a healthy way of letting your subconscious run wild, and then working through it. Journaling with free flowing thoughts or with prompts allows the release of your fears, worries, and stresses. This enables a deeper sense of self-awareness and thus ensuring you make better decisions for yourself.

A common theme, noticed especially in the pandemic, is dealing with uncertainty. The struggle with uncertainty is our need to control things, even in the future. However, a healthy way to approach this by weaving hope in our days but also being grounded in the present. To stay in the present means being able to focus on what you have control over - which is always and only the “I in the present”. Ask yourself: “Where am I right now?” “What can I do right now?” or “How does thinking about this help me in the now?” Try grounding techniques like meditative exercises that involve focusing only one thing at a given time. The concept behind this is to focus only one thing at a given time, such as the thing right in front of you. This ensures that we are able to face uncertain times. For example, playing Sudoku or Join The Dots.

Meet yourself daily. That means setting up a space and time which you spend just with yourself. Do only one task you like to do in that time frame (mono-tasking). This could be listening to music, going for a walk or just making some tea. This will allow you to slow down, gain perspective and re-energize yourself without any distractions.

A study by Seligman on Gratitude confirmed that individuals who expressed gratitude regularly feel happier, are more resilient and experience less symptoms of depression. Maintaining a journal, jotting down or thinking about even five things that made you feel happy through the day can help you feel more positive.

Say no whenever you want to, even if it is to your best friend. Make clear boundaries with everyone around you. This will help you avoid burnout and feeling overwhelmed. It may seem hard to begin with, but just avoiding a social gathering that you believe will drain you out is the first step to making boundaries. Prioritise your own mental, physical and emotional self.

Try creating a routine for yourself that is realistic. Most of us make plans that are hard and might be unrealistic. Instead, try making a routine that includes everything you love to do AND everything that has to be done (your goals), and stick to it, but realistically. This will help you live a more balanced life. Do not include things that are not a priority.

Go for therapy! Therapy is not only for people who have mental health concerns or for people facing difficulties. Therapy gives a person a safe space to open up and time to be themselves. This in itself will help evoke positive feelings. Therapy will help you get regular introspection, self-awareness and more perspective in aspects of your life.