I am a tried and true believer in keeping the faith. While the fake it till you make it concept does yield good results, I am at an age and at a place in my evolution that I need to allow and accept my hard feelings. Nonetheless, I don’t allow myself to unpack and stay there.

Positive thinking isn’t about walking around in perpetual cheeriness, ignoring life’s challenges, it means choosing to respond to them optimistically and purposefully. Since our mind is our greatest ally or opponent, the ongoing flow of thoughts that each individual contends with all day is the most powerful aspect of us. There is no possibility of having a positive life if our mind is negative.

Being a Mother to teens and a singer-songwriter can create an enormous amount of negative self-talk. If I’m not mindful I could easily allow myself to fall down a hole when I’m feeling discouraged at all of the closed doors and challenges. When we have negative thoughts it can be hard to stop them. Those are the moments that I get to work on my positivity. Here are some tools that I use to shift my mental space.

Prayer… whether you follow a religion or not, most of us have felt or experienced some kind of divinity. Prayer has been the cornerstone of my life, my respite and my constant. We are all worthy of receiving help, so ask ask ask away.

Writing… I am consistently focusing on writing down what I’m grateful for in my life. This practice grounds me also; there is no way that you can be grateful and negative at the same time. Meditation… Meditation is the key practice in controlling the mind. Investing in a meditation practice allows you to bounce back from negativity faster, lower your blood pressure, connect to your heart and body and stay present.

Surround Yourself Around Positive People… When I’m in struggle I call my most trusted level headed friends that I know will not feed any negativity and reflect back to me who I truly am. In closing, no one is perfect. We are all fellow students of this human experience, learning as we go. While we do have control, what we do with the lessons is totally our choice. Shifting our mind set towards the positive will undoubtedly shift your acceptance of others, yourself and create general ease.