It's Officially POSITIVE DAY!

Positive Day is the brainchild of Jen's Diva Daughter over at Dust Bunny Hostage. Miss Diva is a wonderfully intelligent young woman who completely reached her limit of negativity in this world (click here for the full story on that) and decided that we all needed to be more positive. Hence, Positive Day was born!Personally, I think this is a brilliant idea. As some of you may know, our family has had a terribly rough year. We suffered the loss of my son-in-law, who was only 26 at the time of his death, and it was, obviously, a severe blow to all of us. Darkness, depression and despair hung over our heads like a heavy blanket after Russell was taken from us. Finally, around the middle of last month, things started to change a little bit. Our family seemed to begin the long road to healing and I saw a glimpse of sunlight somewhere up ahead of us. And I embraced that sunlight like nobody's business! I refuse to let it go now. I am determined to be happy and I'm determined to find the positive, any which way I can. When I read about Miss Diva's "positive concept" being celebrated with this campaign for Positive Thinking, I couldn't help but jump on this particular bandwagon. I hope you all will join us and post about something wonderful and positive in your lives today!

The quote on the above poster is so right! You have to focus on the good things in life - put your energy into cultivating the good instead of nursing along the bad. Since the day that Russell died, every morning when I wake up, I still have those nervous thoughts of, "Lord, will something bad happen today?" but now I make a definite and conscience effort to tell myself, "Life is good. Be happy. Embrace what we have and appreciate it". I can actually feel the weight lifting off my shoulders as I say these things to myself. It has truly given me a whole new appreciation for the Power of Positive Thinking! I love the quote in the picture below:

This next quote has meaning for me, too:

I've wasted far too much time coming up with reasons not to do things. Things like camping with the family. Yeah, something that simple. For years, I've resisted my husband's pleas to go camping. Oh, no sir. Not me. I want air conditioning, cable tv and a nice warm tub when I'm away from home. Then last month I had an epiphany. My need for "luxury" was costing me great memories with my family. So I found that "one reason" why I could go camping: to have some fun with my husband and kids. I was very positive that I wanted to do something all together with them and darn if it didn't turn out to be an absolute blast!

Another change for me is that I'm working very hard to think of "I can" instead of "I can't". I can maintain my weight loss. I can step outside my comfort zone and be happy about it. I can laugh at myself when I do something stupid or goofy (that one's still a little hard for me. lol). And I can go off and do something without it being planned down to the last detail. I'm positive that I can live my life by the "I can" rather than the "I can't" rule.

Not everything can be beautiful and happy. Sometimes, as the old saying goes, a little rain must fall. The trick is to be able to recognize the benefit of the rain. It's not always easy, but with the power of positive thinking, you can find the good in the bad. You can and you should find it. It's what makes those rough times bearable. Of that, I'm positive.
For all of you naysayers out there (and you know who you are!), do yourself a favor...stop with the negative thinking, stop looking for the "catch" in everything and stop spending so much time on the dark aspects of life. Reach for the light, reach for the goodness and reach for that which helps you become more positive. We can do so much more if we look for the answers instead of focusing on the problems. It does take a lot of energy and effort to be positive, that's for sure. But the rewards make it worth it. The ability to look forward to life with joyful anticipation instead of fearful dread all hinges on your willingness and desire to think positive. I want to be part of the positive change in the world. How about you? Together,

Now ya'll do yourselves a favor and write a positive post on your own blog and then head on over to Dust Bunny Hostage to get a load of all the other Positive Thinkers out here in Blogland. Share all this positive good will - let's make a difference in each other's attitudes! I'm positive we can do this!

P.S. Good thing I got all my negative mess out of the way with yesterday's post, eh? LOL