Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Easy English Podcast.
My name is Oliver and today we're talking about something that can truly change your life.
Positivity.
Whether you're learning English, dealing with challenges or simply trying to enjoy each day, positivity can make all the difference.
In this episode, we're going to explore what positivity really means, why it's so powerful and how you can bring more of it into your life.
So really about positivity, positive thinking.
So thinking positive.
And I think this topic is very relevant to learning English.
So stick around to the end to get all the best tips.
Let's get started.
So what is positivity?
What comes to your mind when you hear the word positivity?
Some people think it is about being happy all the time, but that is simply not true.
Positivity isn't about ignoring problems or pretending that your life is perfect.
Instead, I think it's about choosing to focus on solutions, opportunities and things that make you feel good.
Like, let's look at an example.
Imagine it's raining on a day that you planned to go outside.
This happens quite often in Northern Ireland where I live and in the UK in general.
A negative mindset might say, hmm, this is awful.
My day is ruined.
But a positive mindset could say the rain is quite peaceful.
Maybe I'll use this time to do something I enjoy indoors.
So positivity here is about changing your perspective.
And someone else might say, oh, it's raining outside.
I'll just put on a raincoat or I'll bring an umbrella, and they won't let it hold them back from doing the things that they want to do.
And this shift or change doesn't just help you feel better.
It can also inspire creativity and resilience.
So the ability to just keep going, to keep doing what you have to do.
When you focus on what's possible, you're more likely to find solutions to the challenges that you face.
So why is positivity so powerful?
Studies show that a positive mindset can improve both your mental and physical health.
It can lower stress, boost your immune system, and even help you live longer.
Can you imagine that?
We can actually live for a longer time just by being a little bit more positive every day.
But even beyond health, positivity also affects how you approach your life and your learning or studying.
For example, if you're learning English and you make a mistake, which we all do, so everyone makes mistakes, no matter how perfect you are at something.
A negative mindset might take this and say, I'm terrible at this, I will never improve my English.
But a positive mindset can really turn these mistakes around.
And you might tell yourself, mistakes mean that I'm learning.
Next time I'll remember this better.
Positivity doesn't mean ignoring these difficulties, these mistakes.
It's about finding the strength to face them with both hope and motivation or determination.
That's a great word, determination.
When you believe that you can overcome all of these challenges and especially all these difficulties with learning English, then you're more likely to take action, to learn from the mistakes and the difficult parts and to succeed.
So at this point, you might be asking, Well, how can I be more positive?
And maybe you're not.
Maybe you are a positive person.
But I think we can all learn something from this.
We can always be a little bit more positive to ourselves and to our learning and development.
So let's talk a little bit about how you can bring more positivity into your life.
It's not something that can just change or happen overnight.
But with practice, you can really train your mind and your reactions to focus on the positive.
And here are just a few ideas that I want to suggest to you.
Some of them are basic, some of them are things that you probably know, but it is worth reminding yourself and trying to consciously practice these.
Before we continue... quick ad break from myself.
So I just want to show you the Patreon.
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So to take time to read along with it, to go back and look at difficult words, and you also get a higher quality audio here as well.
But not only do you get that, you also get bonus additional series.
So news in easy English, where I read different news articles in English and highlight and teach you difficult words from those articles.
So you can see here difficult word section and I break these down and explain them.
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Check it out and subscribe if you want to support this project.
The first point I want to talk about is to practice gratitude.
So what this means is it's thinking and recognizing what you are grateful for, what you are thankful for.
To be grateful is to be thankful.
To think about all of the things that are good in your life.
It could be something big like your health or something small like a kind word from a friend.
And gratitude helps shift your focus away from what's missing and towards what's already good in your life.
With gratitude we can look at the progress that we've made with English and be thankful.
Thankful for what you've done, for the resources and maybe support that you've had, for the opportunities that you have with English and for what it is doing for you.
That's a great way to appreciate our language journey.
The next point is to really surround yourself with positivity.
So the people and the media that you interact with really influence how you think, even when we don't realize it.
So, for example, if you're reading the news every day, which isn't a bad thing, but if you're reading very negative articles, hearing lots of negative stories, your view and outlook of the world starts to become a little bit more negative.
So you start to think a bit more negative about the world and the things around you.
So the best thing that you can do is to spend time with people who uplift and encourage you.
And to listen to podcasts, watch videos or read books that inspire you.
We all love to be surrounded by positivity in different aspects of our lives.
And being surrounded by too much negative influence makes us feel pretty bad, and pretty negative too.
It's simple, but really, really true.
The next point is to really reframe your negative thoughts.
So to change your negative thoughts.
So, for example, If you're thinking like poorly or badly about how you're learning English, maybe mistakes that you've made, maybe your accent or pronunciation, instead of thinking like my accent is terrible, like my pronunciation is awful, I can't speak, try to reframe it.
Catch yourself thinking these thoughts and think, instead of saying I'm bad at this Try, I'm learning, and every effort is helping this to improve.
And think about how you can improve rather than just focusing on the negativity.
The next point I say all the time and it's so important.
Celebrate the small wins and victories.
Big successes take time.
But these small little wins and victories, with our language learning especially, happen every day.
Did you learn some new words in English?
Celebrate it.
Recognize it.
Did you manage to stay calm when speaking in English, for example?
Celebrate it, that's a win too.
All of these little goals and little things that we do help us to build confidence and build positivity.
And finally, take care of yourself.
Don't put your goals above everything else.
Positivity is so much easier when you're feeling good both physically and mentally.
Make some time as well for activities that relax and recharge you.
Those could be exercise for some, meditating for others, or even just spending time in nature.
It's not always about progress, about goals, about trying to do the best things ever.
And yeah, just focus on yourself too.
Like your health, your well-being, your mental health.
So to show how positivity works in real life, let me share a quick story with you.
I once met, when I was teaching, someone who struggled to learn English for years.
They had been learning it for years.
They felt frustrated, so they felt annoyed and thought that they would never get better.
But instead of giving up, they decided to change their mindset.
They started focusing on what they could do instead of what they couldn't.
They set small, achievable goals, like learning 10 new words a week.
And after a year, I really saw their confidence grow.
And they were able to hold conversations with even native speakers like myself.
And what changed in that person?
This person who has been learning English for years.
Their mindset changed.
Positivity gave them the courage, the motivation to keep going even when it felt difficult.
And I think we can all learn something for that.
Usually, at some stage in our English learning, we reach a stage or a point where it feels like we are not making a lot of progress, or it feels like that progress is very slow.
It's taking time.
It's taking a long time.
It's difficult.
So reframing, changing our mindset can really help us break out of this.
It can help us focus on these little wins and it can really motivate us to learn both harder but better, more efficiently and in a healthier way.
So do take a look at how you learn, at your process and how you think about things, whether you're positive or negative, because it could really change your life and change your language skills.
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It means a lot to me and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
So what can we learn from this overall?
Positivity, it's not just about feeling good, it's a skill.
So it's a skill that you can practice and improve just like learning a language.
And it can really benefit you in all these areas of your life.
So thank you really very, very much for joining me today on the Easy English Podcast.
And I hope you have an amazing rest of your day.
I will speak to you very soon.
Goodbye.
