I get told a lot that I am a very positive person. I absolutely adore that comment. They always follow up by asking how I do it. How am I always smiling or looking for the bright side of things. Personally, I think I was lucky and was born with this innate ability to be optimistic and always look for the best in a situation. For other people it takes a lot of hard work to rewire your brain into thinking this way. I wanted to think of my top 5 little things that you can do everyday to add more positivity into your life. I slowly narrowed it down to these 5 tips to add some “Daily Sunshine” into your life.

Celebrate every small win. Whether you aced a test you studied for weeks for, or you squatted 10 extra pounds at the gym today. Both of those deserve a celebration. You can have an extra scoop of ice cream after dinner or watch an extra episode of the TV show you’re watching, reward yourself girl you deserve it!

DON’T LISTEN TO SAD MUSIC! Why do people even do this, it makes you SAD and nobody likes to be sad. Music has such a huge effect on your mood, listen to music that makes you want to jump out of your chair and dance all night long. Even when you’re sad and want to wallow in your self pity, don’t! It wont help, it will make you feel worse. Trust me, every time I used to cry I would want to put on “Big girls don’t cry” by Beyonce and stare dramatically out my window. Now, I will throw on old school Justin Bieber and scream my lungs out, its free therapy take advantage of it.

Take time to do little acts of kindness everyday. Being kind and doing nice things to other people makes you feel good about yourself. Nothing is better than knowing that you impacted somebodies day in a positive way. Hold the door for somebody behind you, pay for the mans coffee behind you at Dunkin’, its the little things that mean the most.

Surround yourself with positive people who inspire you. Other peoples negativity can weigh so heavily on you if you allow it to. That’s why it is so important to surround yourself with people who you admire, whose attitudes don’t make you feel like you’re carrying a ton of bricks on your shoulders. You want to surround yourself with people that feel like sunshine, that inspire you to be a good person and live life to the fullest. I pray everyday that I am that person to somebody. Even if just one person feels that way about me than I have succeeded in life.

Guys.. This is the most important tip of all and if you were to take anything out of this post please let it be this one. Smile into every mirror/window you walk past. DON’T MAKE FUN OF ME!!! I do this every single day. You are your own hype man. If you look into the mirror in the bathroom and smile like you just won a Grammy, I guarantee you that you will feel a teeny bit better. Scientists have literally found that smiling on purpose can change your brain chemistry to make you feel better. So get smiling guys!!

Anthony J D’Angelo once said, “wherever you go, no matter what the weather, you always bring your own sunshine”. Learning to rewire your brain to turn yourself into an optimist is hard, but all things worth having do not come easy.

xoxo Em