Monday Mindset Motivation: Make Space for the Positive

The Monday Mindset Motivation series is our way of getting the week started on a positive note. Results – inside and out – begin first in the mind. If we can get our minds strong, everything else will follow. This week’s mindset motivation is about positivity and why it’s so stinkin’ important.
I’ll be the first to admit that positivity is a word used so often today that it loses is bit of it’s luster; let’s revive it’s importance!
I once heard someone say that there is no such thing as “positive” or “negative” in terms of life events and experiences. Rather, we assign meaning to circumstances and label them positive or negative. Woah… that will get you thinking! To be honest, I’m still perplexed by that, but one thing I really like about that thought is that the labeling of something as positive or negative is under our control.
When I was traveling a week or so ago, I was supposed to catch a flight from Milwaukee to New York City on Monday evening so that I could spend Tuesday through Thursday in NYC for work before catching my Thursday flight home to Houston.
As we were pulling into the Milwaukee airport, I received a text message from United, noting my flight to NYC was cancelled and rescheduled for Tuesday due to windy weather on the East coast. Initial thoughts and label… majorly NEGATIVE!
On the drive from the airport to our NYC hotel that next day, I was reading and responding to emails and happened to see a flight confirmation email from United. I nearly stopped breathing when I saw that I accidentally booked my return flight on Wednesday afternoon instead of Thursday afternoon. I was in NYC for work and the culmination of the work trip was to attend an event on Thursday morning! I let out a big “ugh” knowing that changing my flight as well as Anthony’s flight would cost $400 f because I just had to do that at the beginning of the trip!
I called United to check flight availability on Thursday afternoon. To my absolute surprise, the customer service rep saw that our prior flight was cancelled and offered to waive the change fee! POSITIVE! How funny that the cancelled flight I labeled as negative just the night prior now resulted in the most positive surprise of my day!
I’m sure you can think of several similar experiences: something you initially felt to be negative and upsetting in the moment turned out to be beneficial down the road. Here’s the thing about getting wrapped up in labeling things “negative” – they drain our energy! They take up too many of our thoughts! They waste our time!
When my flight was cancelled, I huffed and puffed in line at the ticketing counter. I could feel my blood boiling as the United employee told me the earliest flight available the next day. I made a serious commitment to give space to negative thoughts and feelings. Did it help in the end? No and it rarely ever does. In my case, the “negative” situation itself benefited me the following day.
I like to think of my thoughts and emotions as if they’re filling up a container within me. There’s only so much space for all that I’m thinking about and feeling. If we make space for emotions like bitterness and anger, we are literally taking up space that could be used for feelings like love and appreciation. If we are allowing ourselves to think thoughts like “I’m not good enough” or “I can’t do that” then we are blocking positive thoughts of “I am perfect just as I am.”
Here’s something I often visualize and maybe it will help you too. Close your eyes for a second and imagine this… you have a plastic container in front of you. It’s about 5 inches tall and 10 inches wide. In your hands you hold 2×2 inch blocks; each block representing a different feeling from all over the spectrum. Only 10 of those blocks will fit into the container. What are you choosing to put into your container?
Surely, we would consciously decide to put in positive emotions and thoughts… love, hope, gratitude, security, confidence, encouragement, happiness, optimism, courage, self-worth. In real life situations, it’s not always that easy. It’s not realistic to think negative emotions won’t ever come up. We just have to make the decision not to put energy into those negative things that arise.

I’ve learned that the more we empty out the negativity, the more space there is for the positive to exist. We just have to make the decision! It takes time. It takes practice. Even this “mental exercise” with the container example is something I find myself thinking about when I’m in the midst of moments that aren’t always so pretty. The next time you feel yourself focusing on a negative thought or feeling, think to this container example. What are you giving space to? This week, let’s make space for the positive to invite even more of that into our lives.