FLIPSIDE OF MIDLIFE®: Small Ways to Nurture a Positive Mindset

Do you think of yourself as a pessimist or an optimist? Either way, there’s something for you inside this episode.

I invite you to keep an open mind as you listen. A willingness to hone your positive mindset allows you to become more aware of the beauty and possibilities residing in this season of life.

🎧 Press play to explore a few small shifts that can make a surprisingly big difference in how you experience midlife and beyond.

xo Karli

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Visit my new website focused on my private one-to-one services. I’d love to guide you as you honor where you are and explore what’s next!

📩 Got thoughts? Email me at karli@flipsideofmidlife.com.

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Transcript

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When you hear the words positive mindset, what comes to mind? Do you feel an eye roll coming on or hear a doubtful, cynic in your head? Or are you someone who tends to see the glass as half full already? Either way, this episode has a takeaway for you. Keep listening. Hi there, my friend. It's me, Karli, your favorite Gen X dealer of positive vibes, Life and Wellness Coach, and founder of FLIPSIDE OF MIDLIFE®, a community for women in midlife and beyond. Thank you for being here with me today. I love knowing you're here listening and adapting what I share to fit your life. This episode will feel a bit different, more off the cuff than usual, and that's intentional. I love talking about positive mindset. It's one of my favorite things to help women hone. So, I'm approaching the next few episodes more like a conversation you experience when you work with me as your personal Life and Wellness Coach. I want to share a quote by Joyce Meyer with you before we move any further. Joyce says, "You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind." This quote jumped out at me oh, a week or two ago, and it really resonated with me, because our thoughts are so powerful. What we're thinking, what we're saying out loud, what we're saying to ourselves is so critical when it comes to how we feel about our well-being, especially here in midlife and beyond. The information I share today may be a reminder for you, which, hey, who doesn't need reminders? Or this might be something you haven't heard before, and that's amazing, too. Either way, I hope that you can take what I have to share with you and use it in your life. Now before you let any overwhelm or doubt creep in, let's get into the small ways you can start to hone or deepen your positive mindset. The first small way I want to share with you is to notice specific gratitudes. You've most likely heard to practice gratitude, that it helps you shift your mindset, and that is true. You can really zoom in on your gratitude to something very specific. Here's an example. Rather than saying, I am so grateful for the life I live. Dig a little deeper, my friend. Notice the details and be grateful for those. I am so grateful for the gifts of movement. I am grateful for the birds singing in the morning. I am grateful to feel the sun on my face. I am grateful for the people that love and support me. When you can get more specific about your gratitude, it really shows you the multitude of gifts that are in your life. There is truly so much to be grateful for. Another small tool you can use is to curate your connections. This is about surrounding yourself with people who lift you up. This is about staying engaged in conversations that are positive, that celebrate others or maybe even yourself. We're gonna talk about that here in a little bit. Curating your connections involves some boundaries, and some stepping out of your comfort zone, too. If you find yourself in a conversation that is full of complaining or spinning, spinning, spinning in the negative zone, how do you extract yourself from that conversation? If you have a friend who calls and likes to dump on you, don't answer the call. Let it go to voicemail. Select a time when it is appropriate for you to talk to that person and decide what you're going to say to reframe how that person engages with you. I know, not easy in all situations, but having an awareness of how people around you affect your mood is a really great start. Another small tool you can practice is to experience awe. Now many of us find that in nature. You might find that within music or art. What helps you feel that sensation of awe? That feeling that you are a small, tiny part of a much larger universe and all of the wonder that surrounds you. Those feelings of awe are expansive, are positive. How do you find your awe? Do it on a regular basis, my friend. I mentioned celebrate yourself earlier and we're gonna talk about that right now. Give yourself a pat on the back, a high five, cheer for yourself, tell yourself how amazing you are, celebrate you. This is a really fantastic way for you to hone your positive mindset. It helps you notice and become more aware of the very unique and special person that you are. The gifts that you share, the talents that you possess, the difference you make for others. The impact you make on your workplace, in your family. When you celebrate yourself, you are reinforcing the positive aspects of you, of how strong you are, how resilient you are. Celebrate you, my friend. I challenge you to do it every single day. The last small way to foster your positive mindset is to move your body. Yes, my friend, movement is a mood booster. It helps get the endorphins going. It doesn't have to be a "workout", and I'm saying that in quotes. It could be cleaning your house. Vacuuming, mopping, dusting, all of those things count as moving your body. If you're a gardener and you like to be outside digging in the dirt, that counts as movement. A walk around your neighborhood. Walking is so, so, so underestimated. As we get into midlife and beyond, moving our body is even more important than ever before in our lives, and it will continue to stay that way too as we age. Why not start now? If you are new to movement, what can you do that works for you? What are you capable of? Is it chair exercises? Is it walking to your mailbox and back, extending another two minutes every day to build up to the amount of time that you want to be walking? Is it dividing 15 minutes of movement into five minute segments, getting up from your chair regularly as you're working and putting on a favorite song and moving your body to that? Find a way to move, my friend. A way that feels good for you. Don't let yourself get bored with it. Find the things you love to do that make you happy and that feel really good. Now before I part today, I do want to mention toxic positivity. You've probably thought about this. Maybe that was one of your thoughts at the top of the episode when I asked you what you thought of when you heard the words positive mindset. Toxic positivity is false. It's covering up the hard stuff, and that is not what I'm here to ask you to do, my friend. We need the darkness to see the light. We need the negative to see the positive. You have a choice. Both exist at the same time. So, which one do you choose to focus on? Do you choose to focus on the negative or do you choose to focus on the positive? I'm asking you to lean to that 55% mark over to the positive side. It's not about pushing down any of your feelings or negating any of your feelings like anger or sadness or grief or hurt, any of those. They're important to notice and to feel, and in time, to be able to see the lessons within those experiences, the tiny glimmers of hope or gifts within those experiences, and to notice how you are maneuvering through them. Because, my friend, you are strong, you are resilient. You can do hard things, you will get through the tough times. You've done it before in your life and you will do it again, and you will continue to do it. Midlife and beyond is full of challenges, that is very true. But it's also full of so many gifts. When you hone your positive mindset, even in these small ways I talked about today, you will notice the gifts. You will become more aware of the beauty and possibility that resides in this season of life. I hope you find these small tools valuable as you get into the groove of a positive mindset and deepen it. Notice how your mood and your feelings of well-being shift as you use these over time. Please join my email list at the link in the show notes and transcript to get my emails that align with my episodes. And depending on what box you check on that form, you can also learn more about my events both online and in person in Phoenix, and my ELEVATE membership, too. This community of women and midlife and beyond is here to embrace you, my friend. Thanks again for joining me here today. I'd love to know your thoughts about this episode and the small ways you're fostering a positive mindset. Reach out to me at karli@flipsideofmidlife.com to share. Join me right here on Wednesdays for bite-sized episodes you can apply to your midlife and beyond, and every other Sunday for guided meditations and visualizations. I look forward to meeting you here for all of it. Take care and be well, my friend.