Last week I defined positivity and explained several ways to determine whether you typically experience more positive or negative thoughts and emotions (click here to read last week's newsletter). Once you know your starting point, you can introduce specific activities that have been shown to decrease negativity, increase positivity and put you in an upward spiral to live a flourishing life. I have created a "Top Ten List" of activities that are effective in increasing positivity. Try them out to see what works best for you.

1. Create a vision
Imagine yourself as if you are living your perfect, happy life. How is your health, your career, your surroundings and your relationships? Visualize where and how you would be if all your dreams came true. Write it down and make sure it resonates with you. Then craft a vision statement from what you have written. Make it short enough to memorize and let it serve as your guide.

2. Be grateful
Notice the good things that happen to you. If you are the journaling type, keep a gratitude journal and write down the things which you are grateful for each day. To increase positivity even more, describe why each good thing happened.

3. Savor the good things in life
Savoring is about being "in the moment." The great thing about savoring is that you can do it before an activity by happily anticipating what's to come, you can do it while you're enjoying the activity, and you can savor your memories afterward. One client described savoring as "having a contest with my sisters when we were kids to see who could eat their ice cream the slowest!"

4. Practice mindful awareness through meditation
Meditation improves health, reduces stress, and enhances concentration and creativity. But it also brings about happiness and peace of mind. Whether you sit quietly focusing on your breath or a mantra or follow a guided meditation on loving-kindness, positivity improves with practice.

5. Connect with nature
Spending time outside when the weather is nice boosts positivity. Find places where you can enjoy the grass, flowers, trees, forests, rivers, lakes, or oceans and explore them thoroughly.

6. Create positive relationships
Truly connecting with others feels like a breath of fresh air- it recharges your energy and your vitality and makes you feel good. Spend time with people that energize you and cultivate high-quality relationships where none previously existed.

7. Create flow
Flow is created when we are absorbed in an enjoyable activity. Reading, playing chess, gardening, learning something new, and exercise are some activities that my clients describe as creating flow. Create a list of activities that demand your full attention to the point that you become lost in what you are doing (time seems to fly) and pick one to do when you need a positivity boost.

8. Learn and apply your strengths
Research shows that spending time doing the things that we do well increases positivity. You can identify your top  strengths by taking the VIA Survey or Brief Strengths Test at http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu.
Then deliberately and creatively build on your strengths by using them in a new way.

9. Dispute negative thinking
Identify your negative thoughts and then come up with the facts to dispute them. If you always tell yourself that you aren't good at your job, think of the projects that you've done well, the praise you received from co-workers, or the last raise or promotion you received. Disputing negative thoughts when they occur is a great way to nip them in the bud before they have the chance to take you in a downward spiral.

10. Perform acts of kindness
Set a goal of performing five new acts of kindness on a single day. Aim for actions that make a difference in someone's life and that come at some cost to you (donate blood, help a child learn to read, drive someone to their doctor appointment). Notice the good feelings that you get and aim to make performing acts of kindness a recurring ritual.