Negative situations happen all the time. We can’t avoid them, so how can we counteract their negative effect on our lives and our attitudes?

Here are 5 ways you can achieve this:

1. Have a positive support group.

Surrounding yourself with positive people will help you stay positive when in a negative situation. There are plenty of negative people out there—avoid them! Their negative attitudes will only bring you down.

2. Express what you are grateful for.

Even in the worst of times, most of us realise that we still have things in our lives for which we are grateful. Voice those blessings! Practice gratitude. Keep a gratitude journal to capture the thankfulness you feel for what you have on a daily basis. Actively acknowledging what you’re grateful for will help you to always have a grateful mind and heart, even when bad things happen.

3. Retrain your mind.

Are you a person who continually beats yourself up mentally? Do you constantly question your actions?  Retrain your brain to stop doing that to yourself. The more you talk negatively to yourself, the more that negativity will become a part of you. Instead, practice the power of positive thinking. Any time a negative thought comes into your mind, replace it with a positive one. At some point, this will become more natural as your brain automatically turns a negative into a positive.

4. Exercise your body and mind.

We know that exercise is good for our bodies, but what about our minds? Sure, it is! It releases those natural endorphins in our brains that make us feel better. Exercise has physical as well as mental and emotional benefits.

5. Accept and find solutions.

Many of us are resistant to changes in our lives. What we must do is learn to accept that change will happen. Haven’t you heard that “the only constant in life is change”? There is a lot of truth to that, as we continually go through changes, whether good or bad. Accepting that changes are a part of life can help us to relax and be more accepting.