15 HABITS TO HELP YOU LOOK THROUGH A POSITIVE LENS 

“We create our habits and our habits create us back”

Habits are the foundation of wellbeing or ill-being. They enable us to get things done without engaging too much mental energy. That’s why we can drive to work whilst listening to the radio all at the same time! The downside, and there’s always a downside, is that once a habit is hard-wired, it’s very hard to break that habit unless you bring awareness to the behaviour and consciously decide to change. These hard-wired habits become our Normal.

During times of change and uncertainty, we can’t change the events around us, but what we can do is change the way we react to those events to help us keep a positive mindset.

Here are a number of healthy habits you can do to help. If you do these things consistently, it will cause a ripple effect throughout your life:

1. Accept: Focus on what you can do, rather than what you can’t do. We’re in a very volatile situation, but feeling angry, frustrated and anxious isn’t going to help change things. Only when we accept the situation as it is, can we move forward. 

2. Self: Prioritising your own resilience and wellbeing is critical. Dial-up every aspect of the things that make you feel sustainably good as you are the lynchpin in your life. Never forget this.

3. Food: Food is a fundamental part of that. It’s a life-force energy, so eat the healthiest foods available at this time: whole, fresh, predominately organic, plant-based foods, and fermented food to support your digestive health. Avoid, dead, highly processed foods that will compromise your immunity system, and prepare by making sure you have dried goods in the cupboard and candles just in case! Being prepared is the way to avoid anxiety. 

4. Be Prepared: Put in place your own ‘disaster recovery plan’ by making sure you have dried goods in the cupboard and candles, just in case! Being prepared is the way to avoid anxiety.

5. Movement: Move your body every day. If you’re confined to your home, there are lots of exercises you can do to bring in movement and raise your heart rate. Look for online workouts – many can be done even in the smallest of spaces, some right from your chair!

6. Sleep: Maintain a healthy sleep ritual to get sufficient rest to enable your body to detox during the night and maintain resilience.

7. Mindset: Meditate for 20 minutes a day to help gain perspective and create a calmer internal world. When our internal worlds are calm, we can cope far better with everything that the external world throws at us. 

8. Finances: Think of your whole life as a business and start by getting clear on expenditure. Whilst analysing credit card bills and bank statements may not be everyone’s favourite activity, the insights will give you the truth, and with the truth comes freedom. Armed with the ‘truth’, you can decide what to cut back on. Managing spend = an important habit. . 

9. Time: Take control of your time, starting by taking your calendar and organising it into named chunks. I use ‘Exercise Time’, ‘Family Time’, ‘Desk Time’, ‘Study Time’, ’ Tidy Time and ‘Play Time’, but use whatever categories make sense to you.

10. Create: Put time into a creative pursuit that you enjoy. If you like to draw, draw consistently. If you like to write music, write music regularly. Innovation loves constraints and we have quite a few constraints to deal with right now!

11. Connections: We need social connections to survive. Connect with the people that energise you every day via phone, text, social media and video conferencing.

12. Learn: Tune into the many free online events taking place. It’s a great opportunity to learn from others and gain different perspectives.

13. Music: Listening to uplifting music will also impact your mindset.

14. Journal: Buy a journal and start writing. I do this every morning after meditating. It takes me 15 minutes and I use it as a tool to reflect on the day before, both the successes and the learnings, helping me decide what I need to do next. It has really managed the overwhelm and stress that comes from working on multiple projects at the same time, whilst also trying to balance my personal life and wider issues that are affecting the planet and the economy.

15. Team & community: We are not islands, and though we may feel at times like we are at the mercy of the sea, the truth is that we are all surrounded by people that want to help. You can tap into your local or global communities through the wonders of social media, to help you feel connected and gain and share insights, perspective and ideas. This period of forced stopping is also an excellent time to reflect on the people who have helped you and contributed to the person you are today. Take the time to express gratitude, love and kindness. A simple text message of appreciation could have an enormous impact on the mental wellbeing of another person, which will create a positive ripple effect.

There you have it. 15 healthy habits that will help you sustain a positive mindset whatever is happening around you. Wherever you are on your life journey, remember that you DO have a choice. No one decides how you feel, but you. So decide to feel good, no matter what your external situation looks like. I can assure you that there will always be plenty of reasons to feel miserable and fearful. The media reminds us of this on an hourly basis! But there are also many reasons to be joyous:

  • A beautiful sunset
  • A flower in bloom
  • A bird stretching its wings
  • A baby smiling
  • The feeling of sand or grass beneath your toes
  • Swimming in the ocean
  • The simple connection of another human being (even on a screen)
  • Finding something that you thought was lost forever

About the Author

Lawrence is the Founder and Creator of RAW Energy that helps people build Resilience, Authenticity and balanced wellbeing. RAW Stands for:

Resilience Life is full of ups, downs, twists and turns. Resilience is all about building a core inner strength so that you can bounce forward.

Authenticity Each of us has natural strengths and areas of development. Deep self-knowledge enables us to put ourselves in environments that help us thrive.

Wellbeing Harmony and balance in all areas of life. The RAW Energy Total Wellbeing model has 5 pillars which each represent a segment of life and provides the framework to take positive and consistent action to upgrade.