Positive Thinking 
in a Negative World

Personal submission by Leigh

  here are times when the world seems to be a very negative place indeed.  The newspapers and television are chock-full of bad news.  People are eager to discuss the latest world tragedy, local horror, or neighborhood scandal.  It is easy to allow these negatives to permeate our lives and affect our mood and outlook.  If you are already feeling down or depressed, focusing on such matters will only further dampen your spirits.

 Living a positive life begins, in part, each and every day,  before you get out of bed.  Begin by thinking of three positive things in your life.  Get into the habit of seeing the positive aspect of all situations, no matter how dire things may first appear.

When I was raising my son alone, there were a couple of years that were extremely difficult.  I had no money, was alone with my little boy in a town far from home, was in a job I hated, and had no friends.

One night, I realized that no one else was going to come to my rescue and that, for my son’s sake, I had to find a way to make things better. One New Year’s Eve, I was alone as usual but decided that I was going to find something positive in each day - even if the only thing I could find was that my son and I were alive.

Each day, before I even got out of bed, I thought of three positive things. Sometimes, these were simply that we had something for breakfast, that we were alive, and that my son was healthy.

When faced with situations which appeared overwhelming, I tried to find positive things in my life on which to focus.  Sometimes it was a huge struggle to find something positive but I did. Sometimes they were outlandish, sometimes they were funny things.  ‘Boy am I glad I’m not wearing a purple dress with green shoes.’  But whether practical, outlandish, funny or just plain crazy, I always found something positive.  These positive things had only to make sense to me, not to anyone else.  Eventually, my positive outlook became visible to others and people began to comment on this positive outlook.   Me????  Positive outlook????  I sure had them fooled!!!

Soon, things in my life began to look up and go my way.  I looked at life differently and found myself instinctively seeing the positive in situations I would have formerly dismissed or seen as negative.

One thing I will always remember from that difficult year was having to come back early from a hunting trip with my cousins. I was angry and driving too fast and put my old car into a huge ditch on the expressway. The tow truck driver was so impressed with my sarcastic 'positive' attitude that he asked me out. That really turned the year around for me and was due, in no small part, to my changed attitude; my newfound positive outlook on life!