What kind of things do you do to stay positive in life?

[Hello55]

What do you tell yourself to try and keep positive in life? How do you train your mind to do this? Tia x

My dd has a life limiting progressive illness I.e.she probably won't live a full life span. She's not properly potty trained (I have another thread running on this) and I left her dad when she was 11 months old.

But I'm pretty positive generally (though not constantly I am only human). Leaving my selfish ex has a LOT to do with it. Every day I wake up and I'm glad I'm not dealing with him.

I've found when I get down is when I don't get enough downtime. I prioritise being lazy as much as I can do no guilt for just sitting watching tv when dd is at school (I do work but part time that helps too). If I catch a break at all e.g. dd wants to go to bed early then I don't try to be productive in that time I rest.

Weirdly the other thing that helped was getting loads of storage in my house so now I can actually get the place looking tidy. I try and run the "put something away before you play with something else" rule with dd to stop stuff getting overwhelming.

Also get off social media (I realise mumsnet is social media). Comparison is the thief of joy truly and not looking at instagram and facebook which are basically a highlights reel of other peoples lives is the best thing I've ever done for my mental health.

Hope you're ok OP. Sometimes life is a fucker. I remember on some tv show they mentioned looking for the pockets of joy when you're going through a hard time. I had to do this when dd was being diagnosed at the same time as getting divorced. Focus on any nice thing that happens in a day (eg a peaceful cup of tea) and pray at some point your days will tip into having more joyful stuff in than shitty stuff xxx

I think I will take your advise about limiting mumsnet only just joined a few days ago and already I can see there are alot of people that like to debate, argue or judge you on here... Thank you for this

I can't change the big things so I look to making the everyday little things as nice as I can. I try to take pleasure from the small things which I can control.

Spend time with people who make you feel happy, get outside as much as possible, lots of walking, treat yourself to little things like a fancy coffee/get your nails done or whatever you like. Best thing I ever did was to keep a positive journal and write down one thing that made me happy every night - amazing to look back and realise that things are much better than you think and also ends the day on a positive note. If you can afford/access it then look into coaching, really helps you learn how to see the positives and change your outlook in life.