How you manage your energy and emotions shapes everything: your relationships, your performance and your mental wellbeing. As a high school motivational speaker, I have seen firsthand how students who master their inner world consistently outperform those who don’t. This article explores three practical strategies to help you take control of your thoughts and create positive energy wherever you go.
“You are responsible for the energy that you create for yourself, and you’re responsible for the energy that you bring to others.”
Oprah Winfrey
Have you ever walked into a room and felt the bad mood in the atmosphere? Or walked over to a group of friends and sensed tension, even though nobody had said a word? We have all experienced this. We instinctively know that our thoughts have presence, like radio waves moving through the air, invisible but felt by the “human antenna”.
Your attitude is always being sensed by those around you. Negative energy lingers and contaminates any environment, poisoning creativity and dampening motivation. However, the good news is that you have the power to choose differently. In every school wellbeing program and wellbeing incursion I deliver, these three strategies form the foundation of emotional intelligence for students.
1. Fix Your Focus
What makes a thought felt is the attention you bring to it. Remember: you have thoughts, but you are not your thoughts. Focusing your attention on negative thoughts causes them to grow and sometimes spiral out of control. However, fixing your focus on a more empowering thought enlivens positive emotions and changes your entire experience.
What you focus on creates your reality. Self-regulation can be a hard-won battle without a practical pathway. Specifically, fixing your focus gives you a concrete way to forge more optimum levels of consciousness and emotional wellbeing.
As Robert Frost wrote in his famous poem The Road Not Taken: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.” Take the road less travelled. Try not to allow your emotions to run the usual gauntlet to despair and anxiety. Instead, catch your negative thoughts mid-air and replace them with words that catapult you to more empowered ways of thinking.
As philosopher William James put it: “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.” We can truly remake our lives by remaking our thoughts. Moreover, this is precisely the message that a youth motivational speaker I bring to schools: the choice of where to focus your mind is one of the most powerful choices a student can make.
2. Be Mindful
Mindfulness is not just the work of yogis and gurus. It is an accessible tool that every student can use as part of a student resilience program. The aim is simple: instead of living mindlessly on autopilot, you choose to live with deliberate intention and awareness.
Mindlessness is what most people default to. Metaphorically speaking, they have jumped in the back seat of the car and are letting their thoughts and emotions drive. In contrast, mindfulness puts you back in the driver’s seat. Therefore, instead of reacting blindly or overreacting, you respond to life with a greater sense of empowerment and choice.
NBA coaching legend Phil Jackson, who coached greats like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, had his players sit in silence and breathe in unison. He said it “helped align them on a nonverbal level far more effectively than words.” Just as exercise builds muscle, meditation strengthens neural connections and allows us to think deeper, foster awareness and make better decisions.
Why Mindfulness Matters for Students
Similarly, mindfulness being a core part of a student wellbeing speaker‘s toolkit makes sense, because being mindful helps synchronise your thoughts and creates the internal conditions for peak performance. It reduces stress and combats anxiety and depression. As Jon Kabat-Zinn said: “Mindfulness is not the answer to all life’s problems. Rather, it is that all life’s problems can be seen more clearly through the lens of a clear mind.”
To be more mindful, start with three 10-second pauses throughout your day and focus on being totally present. Once you master that, try savouring every bite of your meals with full attention. These moments of presence will keep you anchored, calm and clear. Ultimately, this is one of the most practical tools a motivational speaker for schools can teach, and one of the simplest to begin.
3. Defuse That Thought
Never allow a negative thought to push you around or beat you up. Having a thought like “I’m incompetent” gives you no energy to bring your best self to any task. Those words are loaded and self-destructive. However, consider saying to yourself instead: “I notice I am having the thought that I’m incompetent.”
By reframing your approach, you become dynamically self-aware. You open up a gateway for debate. You can ask yourself: “Where did that thought come from? Have I displayed competence in other areas? Am I overstating the case?” Furthermore, by questioning the thought rather than accepting it, you defuse it, and open yourself to take the next action with more clarity and confidence.
Being aware of your thoughts unlocks deeper and more productive thinking. Rather than blindly accepting the first thought that surfaces, you respond with wisdom and prudence. Indeed, this kind of cognitive reframing is a cornerstone of any effective mental health speaker for schools program and a key part of building resilience in young people.
How to Stop Negative Thinking in Its Tracks
We don’t need to suffer under the weight of negative thinking. The stories we tell ourselves drive our actions. If you think you are pathetic and never question it, your actions will fulfil that narrative. Therefore, try becoming aware of self-imposed obstacles in your imagination. End the catastrophising. Observe your inner chatter in a non-judgmental way. Specifically, by questioning your thoughts, you gain deeper wisdom and insight, and you take back the power that negative thinking was stealing from you.
As a resilience speaker for schools and guest speaker for high schools, I have seen this transformation happen in students every week. Michael Jordan‘s story from the Netflix series The Last Dance illustrates this perfectly: one man’s bubble of confident expectation began with himself and extended to his team, his city and ultimately the world. In contrast, those who never challenge their self-doubt remain stuck. Of course, the good news is that you can choose differently, starting today.
As Maya Angelou said: “People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.” Become aware, alert and attentive to your thoughts and how they impact the world around you. In doing so, you will create a ripple effect that positively influences everyone in your circle.
Looking for a high school motivational speaker or school wellbeing program? I deliver powerful wellbeing incursions to students across Australia. Book a school presentation or visit The HopeFULL Institute to learn more.