Positivity

Positive thinking has always been a challenge for me, especially when I'm going through a difficult time. I tend to want to act like a turtle and retreat to my shell to be sad for awhile, which I suppose has its value as well.  But once I'm done indulging in some momentary self-pity, I realize that facing hardships squarely with positivity is surely the key to rising above the challenges of life.

My mother, who passed away six years ago, was a big fan of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, a minister, author and speaker who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking. This book was, I think, my mother's guidebook for surviving adversity in her life, and once she had overcome something (death of a child, cancer, financial challenges), she became a source of strength for others.  I miss her everyday.

So today, to honor my mother, I will share some of Dr. Peale's insights in this space:

•  A positive thinker does not refuse to recognize the negative; he refuses to dwell on it. Positive thinking is a form of thought which habitually looks for the best results from the worst conditions 
• Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel there is something special in them. Look at the sunny side of everything. Think only the best, be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger. 
•  The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.   
• If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself.
• Remember, there is no situation so completely hopeless that something constructive cannot be done about it. When faced with a minus, ask yourself what you can do to make it a plus. A person practicing this attitude will extract undreamed-of outcomes from the most unpromising situations. Realize that there are no hopeless situations; there are only people who take hopeless attitudes
• Faith is the one power against which fear cannot stand. Day by day, as you fill your mind with faith, there will ultimately be no more room left for fear. This is the one great fact that no one should forget. Master faith and you will automatically master fear.   

  Change your thoughts and you change your world.

-Norman Vincent Peale

As I read these over, I realize that my Mom really did exemplify these qualities in her life.  She tended towards pessimism, but always fought that tendency and made a special effort to be cheerful and positive. She overcame much and left this earth with many dear friends mourning the loss of her kind, strong spirit.  She was the gravitational force holding our family together and we will never really stop grieving or be able to fill the hole left by her death.  But I can remember what she taught me about life and in that sense she continues to live here on earth, as her spirit surely does in Heaven.

 For today, I will focus on these lessons of positivity, moving out of my turtle shell and following my mom's example.  I may even re-read that book!

 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy
-think about such things.    Philippians 4:8

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