Kristen Butler, aka Positive Kristen, is the founder and CEO of Power of Positivity. Kristen is passionate about helping people turn negative thoughts and feelings into a more positive mindset and lifestyle. She recently published her first workbook, “3 Minute Positivity Journal: Boost Your Mood. Train Your Mind. Change Your Life.” in 2021. Since then, it’s remained a bestseller. Kristen has been inspired to share her personal experiences and struggles to help uplift others.
“I’ve always been a writer, and I’ve always loved quotes about inspiration. And in my 20s, I went through a really hard time, and I hit rock bottom, my own personal rock bottom,” Butler said. “I was depressed and anxious, and my mental health was very low. And what got me out was affirmations, positive thinking, and self-care.”
Taking care of yourself can be challenging, especially when you have a lot of different things going on in your life from work, school, family issues, etc. But, Kristen took the first step.
“It was a slow process, and as I built myself back up, I told myself, this is what keeps me whole. I need to share this,” Butler said. “So, I founded a community for people who strive to be positive thinkers. There wasn’t really a positive community that I was aware of. And that’s why I started Power of Positivity. I wanted to see only things that inspired me. I wanted to pass it on to other people. Then, I started creating my own content, and it started to grow from there.”
Kristen uses social media to connect with her audience. She warns how social media can misguide people with a false sense of reality.
“Before social media, we had more authentic connections, whereas now there’s this need to be perfect,” Butler said. “And, that’s where it’s important to highlight mental health because some days you’re gonna have good and some days you’re gonna have bad, and we don’t have to just put our highlight reels online. That takes away that authenticity. Show up as you wish, but either way, don’t compare your day to someone’s highlight reel. Social media can be very inspiring and uplifting to connect as long as we don’t play the comparison game.”
Kristen’s perspective about becoming a social media influencer has changed since she started connecting with her audience online.
“At the beginning, I never anticipated it being this big. But at the same time, I set intentions, like I would love PoP to be a household name,” Butler said. “I was surrounded at the time with a lot of negative thinkers. And I wanted to connect with other people who may not even consider themselves positive thinkers. Still, they wanted to be, or they wanted to see more positive results in their life. In my mind, I wanted PoP to be bigger to help inspire more people.”
COVId-19 took a toll on Kristen, like many of us, and pushed her to work on her mental health and well-being daily as doubts crept into everyone’s minds.
“People have spread messages around toxic positivity because of the pandemic and some situations. Being on the other side of rock bottom, I understand the whole spectrum coming from that, and I understand their perspective,” Butler explains. “But I also know that positive posts are very uplifting. People need that inspiration and hope. Staying positive is not pretending everything is okay. It hurts my heart because it is hard to have a positive outlook when you’re going through something traumatic. You need to set time out for your emotions, but you don’t want to get stuck there.”
We must be okay with caring for ourselves through difficult times and challenges to help us get through our struggles.
“I think the best thing to do is affirm that self-care is not selfish. That is the first thing you must do for yourself because that’s how you got to where you were, even if it’s hard to look at it like that. I didn’t care for myself like I should have when I was at rock bottom. I was trying to care for other people. I thought I was serving and truly wasn’t because I wasn’t serving myself. So, it’s not selfish to take care of yourself,” Butler said. “Take care of yourself, even if you start with just going for walks. The most important ways we can care for ourselves are free.”
Kristen warns that isolating yourself when you are feeling down or depressed could make you go into a more profound depressive state and downward spiral.
“It’s important to connect with at least one family member, and a lot of people want to isolate themselves right now,” Butler said. “And, it feels like that’s the best thing to do. But it’s not. You need to talk to people and nourish yourself with some level of healthy relationships, whatever that is for you.”
Taking baby steps and doing something that feeds your soul is the correct medicine to get back to a healthy balance within yourself.
“Do something you are passionate about and make you happy. Leverage your creativity and skills to create something. It all comes back to practicing self-care that nourishes the holistic part of yourself. There is a full spectrum of untapped wellness. It is hard when you are in a dark place, but that is when you need it the most.”
One of Kristen’s most significant steps was losing weight and regaining her self-confidence. “I used to be 331 pounds and lost half of myself,” Butler said. “And people were curious, how did you make such a huge positive change? Believing yourself is the biggest key to doing anything in your life. Even when those negative thoughts are attacking your progress.”
“Most of the time, I needed to believe in what I knew could be possible, even when it seemed like it couldn’t. When it was hard, I would remind myself to take one day at a time.” Butler said. “Try to take one day at a time and keep going no matter what happens. You will have bad days, even weeks, but continue to make that step every day. That consistency is what builds your self-esteem and confidence to improve the circumstances in your life.”
Holding yourself accountable for yourself will help you keep on a positive and clear-minded path for personal and transformational improvement.
“Writing in a journal will help people hold themselves accountable,” Butler said. “I wrote things down and was consistently doing. That helped me get out of my rock bottom.” Kristen created a journal that everyone can use daily, and it’s a quick check-in with yourself for the day.
“My 3-Minute Positivity journal is about taking three minutes daily in the morning and evening. It’s a little checkmark to remind yourself of the things that will get you where you want to be. You can use it to check in with your mood and use affirmations to guide your progress,” Butler explains. “Three priority things you want to get done that day, like just the things I know helped me.”
Genuine self-awareness within ourselves will help us connect on a deeper level and create meaning and purpose in our lives and with each other.
“In the future, we will further humanize this platform for everyone. This movement of positivity works and will get you out of the tough times,” Butler said.
“It’s the only thing that will get you out of the tough times, positive thinking!”
“Mirror work is amazing. Even if it doesn’t feel like things are changing daily, just keep going. For me, affirmations and mirror work and – reading something every day that’s inspiring, whether it’s books or articles. Because when you look back, along your journey, week by week, month by month, or year by year, you’re going to see a difference if you commit to a positive lifestyle.” Connect with Kristen on her personal Instagram to learn more about what it means to use the Power of Positivity.Â
