Amazing Day #22: Positivity - Part Two

Sometimes I "worry" about the things I post.

I worry that they may seem braggy. 

I worry that I might be making my life sound way more exciting than it is... 

But then isn't that what we all do on social media?!?

We're supposed to do that; right?

But I do want to be honest.

I do want to give an accurate picture.

After all, not everything is fine and dandy.

It's not all beauty and wonder.

I don't want to be always gushing about how AMAZING everything is.

There is loss.

There is sadness.

There is fear.

There is yuckiness.

There is hard stuff.  

All kinds of hard stuff.

I guess I could write about those.

But wait; I DO write about those some of the time.

I do my share of grumping and moaning and groaning.

And downright complaining.

I don't think I'm in denial - at least not most of the time.

I do take time to mourn my losses. 

I want to grieve with those who grieve.

I want to give others time to mourn their losses. 

I don't expect others to be happy all the time.

 

Yes, I will face the not-fun stuff and deal with it when I need to.

And yes, I will write about that stuff.

However I don't want them to be my focus.

...

Here's the thing.

It is easy for me to be negative.

To get stressed out.

To feel overwhelmed.

To be frightened.

To panic about worst case scenarios.

Yep, worrying comes quite naturally for me.

Irritability and grumpiness often seem to be my default settings.

It takes effort and intentionality for me to focus on the good stuff.

The first step in that process is to find it.  

To look for it.

To notice it.

Then I guess the second step is to celebrate it.

To appreciate it.

I discovered that I need to practice.

To start searching and noticing and celebrating.

One year I decided to celebrate Thanks-giving EVERY DAY during November rather than just on one day.  I decided to look for one thing that I was thankful for every day that month.  And then one year I decided to continue my Thanks-giving by setting aside every Thursday as a day to be thankful - for something.  

Then there was the year that I accepted the 31 Amazing Days challenge - seeing if I could find something amazing every day during the month of October and to write about it.  Or maybe I could make something amazing happen!  And here I am doing that challenge again this year.

These are things I choose to do in order to build a habit of gratitude.  

To be more positive.

To focus on the good stuff more than the bad - or at least more often than if I didn't try.

To lift my eyes from the bad news and look for good news.

...

In summary...
Some people are naturally positive.
Some work at being positive. 
Then again some people are naturally positive, but they also work at being positive.

Yes, positivity and negativity are often personality traits.  

But...  

I believe that there is something we can do about our natural tendencies.  

I think that we can build good habits.  

I think that we can practice noticing good stuff.  

I think that we can choose our focus - at least more often than we might realize

Will it be easy?  

Will we always succeed?  

Nope.  But we can keep practicing.

Keep searching for the good stuff.

Start noticing and celebrating.

...

Cultivate gratitude.

That's what I want to do.

That makes sense to this farm girl.