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Accentuate the Positive!

A while back, I mentioned that I would be adding specific posts to my blog.  One is the Aloha Peaceful Life series that Momma’s Soapbox and I began when she was in Hawaii for a month.  It’s on haitus at the moment (very temporarily) until she gets her life back (smile).  With college campus visits, house, kids, blah blah blah, she’s holding her own but hasn’t been able to blog!

The other topic I planned to start a semi-series on is gratitude.  Since we are entering, or in, that season where the American people are more apt to focus on thankgfulness, it is a perfect time to start.

Lately it seems as if everyone I’ve run into is – hmm, how to say this – negative, whiney-hiney, pessimistic, worry-focused, seeing the glass half empty, seeing the worst in every situation – oh I don’t know – but they sure have been downers. 

I’ve been accused of being an ostrich, living with my head stuck in the sand and not facing reality.  Isn’t that an awful thing to say to someone simply because they won’t join into the worry-wart game?  Well, I won’t.  When people focus on negative, on putting others down, on judging, on cursing, on tearing up the government, on pointing out others’ faults, on anything that, instead of being a thoughtful commentary, ends up being a major gripe session – I don’t join in.  My mind and I are not a garbage dump.

It is my responsibility to watch what goes into my ears, eyes, and mind.  Just as I won’t watch horror movies because I don’t want to be filled with those images and fear, I don’t have to allow someone’s words to paint pictures of things I just don’t need to hear, see or think about.

So how is this about gratitude, you ask??  Well, I know I’m doubly glad for uplifting bloggers and will be posting links to them in future Gratitude posts (today is Momma’s Soapbox who fought the big C and won and is a very positive person).  I appreciate people who are encouragers.  I love those who focus on the positive instead of the negative.  Why? Because no amount of worrying or griping changes a thing.  I believe that negativity actually makes your life more miseable.  How can you be happy if you look at life that way?

Oh and before you get all twisted up and huffy, you don’t know where I’ve been or what my life has been like.  You don’t know if I’ve always walked the primose path or dodged the landmines and lived to tell about it.  You know zipola about me but I can say that if I’ve chosen to live positively, anyone can!  And I know so many others who have had horrid things happen in their lives or that have happened to them, and they are still upbeat and living life to the maximum. 

I used to be a champion negative person and a supernatural worrier.  Oh man, I was so good at it, I should have been given an award.  One day, things happened that caused me to stop and look at my life.  I chose to start learning how to be positive, to quit saying what I didn’t want to happen in my life, to start being more upbeat and positive.  To laugh more than whine, to sing more, to ENJOY.

Why not enjoy life?  It is the only one you have and how it goes is in your hands.  Why not look for the good in things?  Fretting isn’t going to change anything so why not??  Why not learn to focus on the positive?  It isn’t easy at first, but you can do it!  Why not learn to speak life and joy instead of worry and unhappiness?  It not only affects the atmosphere around you, it affects the people, too.

Let’s not be like everyone else!  Let’s focus on joy, happiness, the best in everyone and everything!  Let’s dance though life!  Let’s swirl and twirl, jump in mud puddles, pick wildflowers, walk in the moonlight, sing at the top of our lungs, and say THANK YOU all the time.  As the song says, let’s accentuate the positive, OK? OK!

9 thoughts on “Accentuate the Positive!

  1. Hey, Ms. Nan! You’re so very right! I get teased for being naive and unrealistic. But you know what? It’s better than being Sad Sally. And I firmly believe that you get what you think about, so I choose to think good thoughts.

  2. I hear ya Nan. Hmm, I’m not sure if I’ve ever sounded negative all the time. But I do guess that there are times. However, since meeting my husband his philosophy has always been not to worry, get mad, angry or pull your hair out over the things you cannot change.

    This has helped me a lot over the years. I employ this approach now but there are times where it leaves me feeling kinda helpless. I’ve always tended to over analyze things and I prepare for the worst. So when/if the good comes I’m even more excited and happy. Strange approach I’m sure, but that’s me. 🙂

    I’ve also gotten into the habit of “avoiding”, if you will, those who have a perpetual negative attitude towards life and themselves.

  3. Oh well said. I am the type that gets really burdened by the “what could happen” scenarios, and I try consciously now to live with a far more positive attitude and outlook.

    1. Miss Cate – I used to see the glass half empty and imagine the worse sceanarios in every area of my life. Darllink! If I can change, ANYONE can change! And it is so much more fun this way!

  4. Oh I LOVE this post. It is all about the joy, eliminate the negative, accentuate the positive. I don’t watch news on TV b/c I refuse to let someone else choose the negativity that is fed to me. I am the luckiest woman in the world, and want to live as much as I can by the simple motto “Lend a smile, spread some cheer, let’s be happy while we’re here,” because here is SHORT.nOh, and if Nan can focus on the positive instead of whine about all she has been through, then everyone else should get off their tushkies and give it a shot!

    1. Pamela, I really like that motto – very uplifting! And you, too – if you can be positive and overcome, instead of whine, everyone should get up and walk joyfully like you!

  5. Amen. and Amen. You’re right, I don’t know zipola about you, but I think I love you…..well, I love the way you approach life as it is the only healthy way, in my opinion. You can go through a lot of crap, but you don’t have to exacerbate everything by whining. Doesn’t do any good, and certainly doesn’t make you any friends. So … DANCE. That’s what I’m talking about!nYou ROCK.nTerri

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