We constantly receive internal and external messages. Do they help or hurt you? Have you heard of the 5:1 magic ratio? Research suggests to counteract the sticky Velcro-like negativity bias, it takes approximately five positive encounters, thoughts, or experiences for every negative one.

Consider fortifying your Personal Positivity Bank by making regular deposits. Here are a few ways to build your reserves:

• Create a “Feel Good” file with positive emails, notes, or letters you received from family, friends, clients, or colleagues:

• Keep an ongoing gratitude list

• Connect with nature

• Prioritize self-care

• Spend time with people who energize and uplift rather than drain you

• Display positive reminders in your environment

Today, I am focusing on that last one, the visible messages you see every day. I’m sharing several of my favorites below. I’ve written before about the fidget bowl on my desk. This fun collection of miniature objects combines word reminders, trinkets from places visited, old toys, and visual and tactile delights. Playing with the tiny pieces while I’m in meetings helps me focus. Having uplifting messages front and center enhances my well-being. What encouraging messages will you surround yourself with?

7 Ways the Reminders You Display Will Help You Each Day

1. Bloom Where You’re Planted

Bloom where you’re planted encourages me to embrace the growth mindset anywhere, anytime. Every encounter, action, observation, experience, success, and failure are opportunities to learn, expand, and blossom.

2. Head & Heart

Navigating life’s hiccups and choices can be stressful. “Head & Heart” reminds me to use my cognitive and sensing gifts to support positive decisions and outcomes. While not included in this purple pin, my gut is another guiding element. When I listen, it leads me with a distinct “yes” or “no.”

3. Nourish

My Word of the Year is nourish. This essential encourages me to feed my heart, mind, and body so they feel nurtured, positive, and supported to thrive. My heart wants connection. My mind needs stimulation, and my body wants loving care.

4. You Are Here

While these words are often found to locate yourself on a map, to me, they embody presence. Especially when my mind is racing, and even when it’s not, this message prompts me to pause, notice, and ground myself with where I am, what I’m doing, what I’m feeling, and what I’m experiencing. When distracted, I use these words to gently bring me back, reset, and move on.

“Fortify your Personal Positivity Bank by making regular deposits.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

5. Oy Vey!

Years ago, I gave my dad this blue “Oy Vey!” computer key. It became a favorite inside joke between us, and one of the many things that connected us was our shared sense of humor. This message reminds me that things in life have the potential to go sideways. However, my sense of humor can bring a brighter perspective and allow me to laugh at myself during difficult situations.

6. Radiate Positivity

According to the CliftonStrengths assessment, one of my top strengths is Positivity. Seeing the “Radiate Positivity” button helps me with several things:

• It reminds me to continuously develop and live from my strengths.

• My natural inclination towards positivity helps me be resilient and growth-oriented.

• Positivity is ‘catching,’ so my mood can have an encouraging effect on others.

7. Exhale the Bullshit

This new pin has quickly become a favorite. We all experience life ‘stuff’ (aka difficult situations, conflicts, threats, bullshit). During those challenging encounters, you can experience emotional hijacking. Stress triggers are sent to the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for emotional processing. Your automatic warning system goes on high alert, and your body wants to protect you. Your heart races, your palms sweat, your face flushes, and your breathing turns rapid or shallow.

“Exhale the Bullshit” reminds me to take a deep breath through my nose and a longer exhale through my mouth. Repeating that several times, I soothe my system, access the rational part of my brain, and am better equipped to respond calmly to the circumstance.

How does having positive visual reminders help and influence your day? What helpful messages are in your view? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

Life encompasses an array of emotions. We experience joy, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, love, and many nuanced emotions. We can change our state of being by altering our actions, breath, or thoughts. Switching gears amid powerful emotions can be challenging. However, it’s possible. Bringing mindful awareness to what you’re feeling and doing is one path to get there. With that awareness, opportunities to experience more happiness will increase.

When you live in the land of ‘wishing,’ you’re focused on someday. While it’s essential to dream and future-think, this can detract from current experiences. You can miss opportunities for happiness and mindful moments if you’re too intent on what will be versus what is going on now.

I’m a quote collector. I have several favorites on my desk, including one from Walt Whitman. His thoughts beautifully weave a connection between happiness and mindfulness. He said, “Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour.”

What does Whitman’s message encourage? It reminds me that happiness is always available to us. You don’t need to postpone joy for some future time when your project is complete, or goals are reached. It’s possible to experience happiness as part of your daily journey. Develop a mindful awareness of what is happening now and what senses you are noticing.

“Happiness, not in another place but this place...not for another hour, but this hour.”

— Walt Whitman

Which recent experiences made you happy? Here are a few of mine:

• Seeing the bouquet of yellow-orange flowers in the purple vase

• Feeling the cooler fall air on my skin

• Smelling the pine-scented sachet in my dresser drawer

• Eating a delicious frozen dark chocolate dipped banana pop

• Hearing the sound of my husband’s voice on the other end of the phone

• Picking fresh basil from my mini-garden for my salad

• Walking along the Hudson River

• Folding the clean laundry

• Taking a yoga class

• Sweeping the front path

• Learning from Nest Advisor colleagues

• Watching the birds enjoy the birdbath in our backyard

• Engaging in deep conversations with my friends, family, clients, and colleagues

• Creating images and a promo video for my upcoming clutter workshop

Tiny happiness moments are accessible and can be enhanced when you pause to savor them. What are you noticing? How do mindfulness and happiness show up in your life? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

Clutter is part of our lives. Have you ever thought about nourishing vs. unproductive clutter? One standard definition of clutter is “to fill or cover with scattered or disordered things that impede movement or reduce effectiveness.” Unproductive clutter drains us. What if instead, we reframed the concept of clutter and only pursued clutter that yielded a positive outcome? What if we only sought out good clutter?

Nourishing clutter has a rejuvenating effect. It fills our lives with family, friends, meaningful work, experiences and downtime. Instead of our homes becoming overrun, we trade the excess stuff that drains our energy for experiences and people that replenish us. By shifting the focus of our collections away from things, we can alter our relationship to our possessions and become more vibrant.

What would be possible if you filled your life with nourishing clutter?

Preparation is essential when it comes to letting go. It’s being in a state of readiness. I became acutely aware of the connection between preparation and letting go on my recent trip to San Diego. I was away for almost a week as an attendee and exhibitor at NAPO’s annual conference for professional organizers. I didn’t just walk out the door. I needed to get ready both mentally and physically in order to leave my normal routine and enjoy the adventure ahead.

This idea of preparing to let go resonated with me. Many of us experience challenges in this arena whether we are letting go of places, people or things.

8 Ways to Prepare to Let Go

If you are having difficulty letting go, perhaps some of my thoughts about preparation will help you to move forward.

1. Plan – To leave things behind, it helps to know that they are in good shape. This might involve organizing our papers, arranging our family’s schedules, or finding resources to donate our treasures. Knowing that our affairs are in reasonable order helps prepare us to move ahead.

2. Focus – Be in the moment. It’s so common to dwell on the past or worry about the future. Focusing on where you are enables you to enjoy the present and let go when the time comes.

3. Embrace – While being in the moment is important, preparing emotionally to embrace the joy that will come from change is key. Letting go can be painful, but presents us with wonderful opportunities that we couldn’t have imagined otherwise.

4. Emote – When letting go is involved, our emotions will be too. Expect a range of feelings from distress to elation. These and everything in between are normal. Allowing yourself to feel along the journey is key in letting go and processing your experiences.

5. Dare – Helen Keller said, “Life is a daring adventure or nothing.” Bravery is required to let go of the familiar and forge ahead to the unknown. Take a deep breath and tap into your brave side.

6. Control – The opposite of letting go is control. For many of us, the unwillingness to relinquish control prevents us from moving forward. Interestingly though, by giving up some control, we allow ourselves and those near us to flourish.

7. Rejuvenate– Leaving behind our schedules, lives or clutter can renew our energy, increase our focus and move us in new directions. Letting go rejuvenates our spirit and gives us a chance to look at things from a refreshed perspective.

8. Dream – Imagine the positive for what our lives, spaces and relationships will be like when we allow ourselves to let go of the things that are holding us back. While none of us can predict the future, filling our thoughts with positive expectations can motivate us to let go.

Let’s return for a moment to my San Diego trip. Before I left there were many things I had to let go of.  I focused on the word “reasonable,” while I negotiated between the fantasy and reality of what I wanted to accomplish before leaving. This blog post was one of those items. I ran out of both time and energy to write it before leaving. Instead, I renegotiated with myself about what was possible. This allowed me to let go of the “shoulds,” find satisfaction in the “dids,” and enjoy the “what ifs.”

I’d love to hear from you. What helps shift you into a state of readiness?