Having a positive attitude while living in this world is essential. While it is essential, it is often difficult to maintain a positive outlook. We are bombarded with negative news all day long. We cannot turn on the television, the radio, read the newspaper or a magazine without hearing or reading some bad news. Be that as it may, we can still have a positive attitude. A positive attitude starts with us. It is something that in the beginning we will have to make a conscience effort to do.

Recently, I have been trying to have a more positive outlook on life. Some days I am more successful than others. One thing that I am trying to do is to be more grateful. I believe that a grateful heart will see things more positively. Each morning when I wake, the first thing I do is to thank God for the beautiful day and for giving me another day to live my life. This is something that I used to do all the time a few years back, but I stopped doing it due to difficult situations in my life. I realize now just how much good it did me. If our first thought of the day is positive and one of gratitude, then we have a better chance of maintaining that positive attitude throughout the day.

Another thing that I am trying to do is to laugh more. Sometimes this may mean that I am the only one laughing. Second and third graders do not seem to get my sense of humor, but it doesn’t matter. Laughing makes me feel better. Plus, in this life, there is always something to laugh about. My grandma often says, “Garbage in, garbage out.” It is something that she says so often that I have gotten used to hearing it and really didn’t think much about it, but when we stop and examine those words, we will realize that there is a lot of truth in them. If we allow the negativity of the world to cause us to have a negative attitude, it will undoubtedly show in our interactions with others.

We all know people who are always positive or always negative. If you take a minute and watch those people, you will soon realize that the positive person often chooses to surround himself with other positive people and the negative person often chooses to surround himself with other negative people. Our attitude is contagious. Something else my grandma always says is, “Love them to death.” I believe that she means if you are positive with a negative person, her or she will have no choice but to eventually become positive too.

I recently went to my niece’s production of Peter Pan. While the show was very good, I was struck by one scene. It was the scene where Peter is teaching Wendy how to fly. He tells her that in order for her to fly, she has to think sweet thoughts. Wendy does as she is instructed, and soon she is flying around the room. I couldn’t help but think how true this is. If we think positive thoughts we will fly. Now I am not saying that we will fly around the room like Peter and Wendy did, but we will feel lighter, happier, and more at peace. Our spirits will soar. The negative things that happen to us everyday will not have as much power over us. In some ways, we will fly above them.

So, let’s make a pact today. We will do our best to have a positive attitude everyday. We will begin our day with a grateful heart and believe that this is going to be a wonderful day. It really can be! We just have to look for positive things throughout the day. Once we start finding them, we will start seeing them everywhere. I know if we can do this, we will soar through the day and soon we will be flying with our friends, and we will begin to see a change in the world. Having a positive attitude will bring us peace, and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~