4 Ways To Boost Positivity in 2017 | Self Care Sunday

{ Self-care Sunday, volume two }

Something I struggle to maintain is the feeling of positivity. I'm not sure if it's just a bad habit or if it's a trait hard-wired into my DNA but I can be quite a negative, cynical person and I know it's hurting me a lot more than it's helping. Over the next few years I hope to take significant steps towards becoming a more positive person and today, for my next instalment of Self-Care Sunday, I thought I'd share a few little things I'll be trying this year to aid that.


The Happy Jar.
I've only kept up with a Happy Jar once in my life (after seeing it on Daisybutter way back when) but it's something I want to fit into my night routine from now on. The premise is simple: just get a jar (mine's from Ikea), some paper and a pen and set it up on your dresser / bookcase / windowsill. Each night take a slip of paper and write down one happy thing that happened that day, fold up the paper and pop it into the jar... and continue doing that every day until New Years, when you'll empty the jar and read through all of the happy memories!

Journal.
You can interpret this point in whichever way you'd like. I personally like to keep up with a habit tracker & mini calendar that I scribble, bullet-journal style, into an A5 notebook, but you could fully commit and write a reflective paragraph about your day each evening. Other ideas for journals include a "Things I Wish I'd Said" journal or a "Negative Things" journal in which you'd jot down every little thing that annoyed you or upset you in order to relieve yourself of it. Getting it out of your mind and onto paper where you can safely stash it away means it'll take up less space in your now.

Never go too long without watching a sunset.
Quite straight-forward, really, but I find watching sunsets a very humbling and grounding experience. Just take ten minutes out of your day to watch nature do it's thing and appreciate, in awe, the beautiful colours and the quiet, even if it's out of a window. My favourite place to watch the sun set is on the beach (the Burnham or Brean Sands beaches specifically) but they're not massively convenient for me and I only get to watch it there once or twice a year. Instead I've been wandering my local area to find the best spots and it's been going pretty well, as you can see from the photo above!  

Make your bedroom a nice place to be.
This is the most difficult thing for me to keep up with but it's something that drastically effects my mood. If my bedroom is messy, there's clothes on the floor, my bookcase is disorganised and I've left glasses of water in the window I literally cannot stand to be in there other than to sleep. My mind is constantly whirring thinking that I need to tidy up when I should instead be relaxing and because of this I avoid my bedroom most of the time. I've worked really hard on my décor the past few years and make an effort to surround myself with photos of my family and Luna, as well as pretty quotes and art prints. I find my décor incredibly inspiring but I can't channel it when my room's a mess! I also like to have pretty bedding and comfy, cosy pillows and blankets to burrow under when I'm sad and a few nicely scented candles to light on an evening.

Well, those are some ideas to get us all started! I actually had so many ideas for this post that I had to split it in two so there will be another round of positivity coming your way sometime in the near future. In the mean time allow this Self-Care Sunday post to inspire you to set aside at least fifteen minutes for yourself today - you deserve it, b.

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