The following are four ways you can shift your thoughts so you can feel freer, lighter, and happier in your life instantly.

1. Don’t take anything personally.

Each person’s opinion is solely the product of their own life and reality.

It’s hard to imagine this. It’s way easier to get offended or mad or to internalise and believe what they said. Rather than getting consumed by it, obsessed over it, and letting it affect you, just let it go. Hear what they say, accept that it is a reflection of their world, and poof. See the thought disappear.

2. Don’t be a victim.

It’s easy to think that the world is against you. Have you ever had one of those days where everything goes wrong? It happens. There are things in our control and out of our control. You can’t control the world around you, but you can control how you react to things. Don’t fall into the downward spiral of the victim trap.

3. Be gentle, kind, and compassionate with yourself.

As the awareness behind your thoughts, acknowledge what you say about yourself. Are your thoughts kind? Or are you your own worst critic? When you look in the mirror, do you see pure beauty, or do you pick yourself apart?

Work on shifting your thoughts to ones that are more loving and kind. Every time you think something negative about yourself, replace it with a positive. Focus on the good things and give attention to your awesomeness. Eventually, you will start believing them. Doing so allows you to have the freedom to just be you.

4. Practice forgiveness.

The powerful F word. Oprah said it best: “Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past can be changed.” Forgiveness isn’t about saying that whatever happened was okay, right, or just, but about letting it go.

Forgiving is releasing the power that a certain event has on you. By not forgiving you are keeping your mind in the past, thinking and wishing that things could have been different. This traps you and makes you feel powerless.

Forgiveness puts you back into the present—the only time that truly exists—where you have the power to live free and happy.