Memories: Your Path Forward May Be In Your Past

Welcome to the next installment of my series on vision. Last time I landed on having an abundance mindset as a way to see better and see more. Today, we're going to go over what sits at the core of an abundant mindset: positivity.

What is positivity? For our purposes, can we agree that positivity is looking to move in a more positive direction? What I mean is if you’re in a good place, positive means you become even better. If you’re in a bad place, positive is getting less bad before you get to good.

I also want to note that positivity does not mean you are pretending to be good all the time and that you don’t have any problems. That becomes toxic positivity, and it is not good for your mental health. 

So, positivity is moving in a positive direction. When you’re struggling and suffering, it can be really difficult to stay positive. Do you want to know a quick hack to get there? You sure? 

 Ok, so to shift into a positive mindset, all you need to do is FEEL grateful. Notice that I said feel grateful and not think about something you are grateful for. The problem with thinking is you're still stuck in your head and your head is what got you suffering in the first place. If you feel grateful, it becomes emotional, which can bypass the brain. Also, not sure if you knew this, but it's impossible to feel upset and happy/grateful at the same time. 

How do you feel grateful? Think about something that makes you happy or brings you peace. I feel fortunate because all I need to do is think about my son: his smile and laughter, his playfulness, his growing and changing personality and sense of humor. I try to feel it with as many of my five senses as I can. I hear his voice, smell the experience (parents, you know what I'm talking about), feel what it's like playing with him, see the smile on his face, and sometimes taste the food or drink of the memory. This brings it alive and immediately moves me into a state of gratitude. 

I’ll admit I’m not perfect at implementing what I just described. There are days where I’m tired or focused on work, and I find myself getting annoyed with life in general. What I have found though is that by practicing gratitude, I get out of being annoyed faster than I did before. As a result, I’m much less likely to say or do something I will regret.

After you have at least one moment to put you in a grateful state, you’ll want to start building that memory base and find more memories like that… or start creating them. The more memories you have, your gratitude becomes like a muscle you train, and it becomes easier to flex. It starts to get really fun when you realize the moment you’re living in is a moment of gratitude and you get to live in gratitude.

Why does this help with vision? Simply put, isn't life easier to handle when you're feeling good about things? You're more positive about things working out or you feel more flexible with changes and setbacks. That's why this simple practice is so powerful. Nothing in the outside world needs to change for you to feel better about life. It doesn't change the outside situation, but you become better at making the shifts you need to make to actually change the outside situation. Does that make sense?

So what memory are you grateful for? If life has been tough, those moments are probably few and far between, but I bet there's at least one good moment that you can hold on to in the tough moments. Find it and spend as much time as you can with that memory and really feel all five senses in that memory.

I’d love to hear what your memories are. Please reach out and let me know at kevinkoocoaching@gmail.com.

Kevin Koo coaches people in personal, business, and leadership development while counting his blessings. To experience what he can do for you, check out (URL)