**5 Tips to Eliminate Negativity By Judi Moreo

Negativity can really affect your life. It can lead to depression, cause health issues, and destroy your connections with others. Here are a few tips to help you eliminate the negativity in your life.

First, figure out what is triggering the negativity. Before you can eliminate it, you must identify it. You will probably find that much of your negativity comes from those self-tapes you play in your head. You need to find ways to change those tapes from negative to positive. One way of doing this is using affirmations. Just make sure the affirmations are very specifically tied to the actual negative thoughts. This is where a lot of people go wrong with affirmations. They use general ones that are not relevant to their own issues. This is like general praise, it works some of the time, but can be overdone. “Good job” is not as useful as, for example, “I like the way you share with Bobby during play time.” Same with affirmations, try to stick as close to the negative tape as possible, and change the negative to a positive.

Meditation and yoga are both great ways to cut down on the negativity in your life. Both focus on using breathing exercises to replenish your body. Yoga also helps with developing flexibility and strength in your body. Meditation mainly focuses on your mind, but can really help you change how you think about things, especially if you combine this with the affirmations.

Smiling more can help, too, and is a simple way to help eliminate negativity. Studies have shown that you can even sense when talking on the phone to someone that they are smiling. Smiling is contagious and can help you feel more positive, and help those around you, as well.

Have you ever noticed that when you are in a good mood, and you talk with that one person who is always negative, it brings your mood down? Focus on people in your life who are positive. As much as possible, get rid of, or limit contact with negative people. Sometimes you can’t completely do this, especially if they are family, but try to limit as much as you can.

Playing victim keeps you in a negative mindset. By taking control of your life and your choices, you can eliminate a lot of the negativity. No matter how much it seems everything is out of your control, you do have choices. Even if you have disabilities, or health conditions, you can find ways to work around them to accomplish what you want to do.

You want your life to be impacted in a positive way, so use these tips to eliminate the negative influences and you will create a happier, healthier you.