Positive Thinking? You choose.

I think one of the coolest things about living right now, in this time and space, is that we are learning how powerful our minds really are. We are grasping at a whole new level our ability to shape our lives and to create our experience on a moment by moment basis.

Take the idea of positive thinking. Isn’t it easy to poo-poo it as the stuff of ‘overly happy people’? Have you ever been around someone who seemingly always sees the positive side of things? Annoying, isn’t it?

Well, I am one of those people. I confess. I am a positive thinking, habitually happy person. There, I said it.

And I want to let you in on a little secret: even positive people have bad days. Take last last week, for example. I was sooooo not in my groove. And choose to let loose and wallow in all the frustration, irritations, upsets, and the ick I could think of. I cried and cried and cried, wadded up in a ball on my bathroom floor at 1:00am. I was whaling into a towel – you know, huh-huh-huh-huh-waaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! - and totally committed to being a crying mess. Then I stopped. I decided I was being a little over the top, and I chose to get into gratitude.

Ah, gratitude. The ultimate emotion.

I believe positive thinking is grounded in and can be found by choosing gratitude. Being thankful for what we have is the most powerful way to train our brains to be positive. And for me, it’s the fastest way to shift from stinky experiences to ‘damn, I have a great life.’

So today, in honor of all happy, positive people (and the great things they are doing to impact the world) let’s get into gratitude and see what happens!

This post is part of the The Power of Positive Thinking Group Writing Project organized by Kirsten Harrell of the Positive Thinking Blog.

Life is good.

Comments

[Kirsten Harrell, Psy.D.]

Hey Kristen,
Thanks so much for participating. You are so right... gratitude is a great way to get back to the positivity. When I have those bad days I like to think one positive thought at a time. One thought by one I can get myself back to my naturally positive self.