Feeling bad vibes can ruin pretty much anything, be it an important presentation, a date with an online crush, or even your efforts to invite a little more luck into your life this year. While you can’t always control whether or not you’re stuck near a Debbie Downer or a Negative Nancy (the worst!), you can definitely keep what *you* project in check, helping bring a refreshing dose of positivity to yourself and everyone around you. To get the deets on how to do it, we chatted up Tory Dube, a holistic nutritional specialist, certified life coach, and hypnotherapist. Read on for her top five feel-good tips and you’ll be ready to banish bad vibes forever.
1. Declare your willingness. According to Dube, there are three key steps to making any change, big or small. Whether you want to completely overhaul your life or simply change your mind for a minute, you’ll need to go through a cycle of “willingness, to awareness, to making an informed choice. Willingness is the essential element where you surrender and actually allow space for movement. Without this softening, nothing is actually going to budge.” In order to rid yourself of bad vibes forever, she says you must declare your willingness to allow it to happen. Not sure how? “Write it out, speak it aloud, share with a friend. Solidify it in your psyche so you can hold yourself accountable.” Boom.
2. Get cozy in your “ecosystem.” “Everything that you come into contact with (food, conversations, relationships, your work environment, social media) is metabolized by you and affects your reality moving forward,” Dube says. She uses a soup analogy and says, “All of these outside forces are essentially ingredients [in] your ‘You Stew.’ Once added to the mix, they affect the state of the whole.” She says to think about this idea like the ecosystems you learned about in high school biology — it’s the same exact system of living and breathing parts that contribute to your health and happiness of the whole. Once you learn how to build your perfect ecosystem, Dube swears that you’ll be well on your way to purge bad vibes from your life forever.
3. Create a tool box. We share the world with more than seven million humans, and sometimes, no matter what, we can’t actually curate every moment of our lives. “It’s not always possible to avoid bad vibes and, most likely, you’re going to create some stinky vibes yourself some days,” Dube says. The main difference is your ability to deal and power through. “When I say ‘tools’ in your toolbox, I mean tried and tested techniques or actions that can help you change your perspective from lack to love,” she explains. “We’re all different and require different approaches, but the trick is learning and implementing what works for YOU.” To begin creating your toolbox, Dube suggests coming up with a list of at least 25 tactics to try when things don’t go as you hoped or planned. Talk about a solid start!
4. Incorporate conscious living rituals. “If your toolbox is for ‘sick visits,’ consider [adding some] conscious living rituals to be like preventative care for your vibes,” Dube says. “Basically, these are little moments throughout the day where you consciously do something positive for yourself.” Practicing this will help you maintain good vibes and slowly strengthen your “living-in-the-present muscles.” Get started right now by adding a conscious living ritual to your morning before fully starting your day. “This could be breath work, meditation, prayer, a dance party, a nourishing breakfast without television or your cell phone — whatever feels best to you,” she says. Next, incorporate other little rituals throughout the day, like eating lunch alone in the sun or writing down things you’re thankful for at night. “Your goal is to work up to a fully conscious day,” she says.
5. Vow to celebrate *something* every day. “You’ve gotta pick yourself for your own team,” Dube says, adding that she sees tons of people who set themselves up for failure by measuring daily success against impossible goals or metrics. “Instead of measuring your self-worth by whether you stuck to your diet, got a raise, published that blog post or had a good date, shift your measurement system!” Good alternate focus might be whether you lived in alignment with your values, used your authentic voice, or practiced kindness and patience all day. To take it a step further, Dube says she loves to celebrate a single mini success. “The celebration can include a candle lighting, a slow dance with your partner, a nourishing dinner, a high kick — you get to pick!” She tells us that adding a physical component to the emotional process solidifies the victory within your psyche, encouraging even more positive vibes.
How do you stay positive? Share your negative vibe ditching tricks with us on Twitter @BritandCo!
(Photos via Getty)
