True Positive: Day Five – Thankfulness

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Want to become a more positive person? Begin a daily routine of giving thanks, and it will change your perspective and outlook on life. When you take a moment to consider the blessings you have encountered over the last 24 hours and reflect on the things you can be glad about, you begin to see that life isn’t as bad as it may seem at times. There are good things happening to us each day, but we have to be looking for them.

Harvard Health Publications from Harvard Medical School wrote this:

In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.

For me personally, I write in a journal every morning while I enjoy my first cup of coffee. I intentionally make a list of at least five things I can be grateful for – but my list always goes much longer than simply five! Once I start recounting all the Lord has done or recalling the people I encountered, I can’t help but smile. If I am facing a challenge, I try to consider one thing I can be thankful in the midst of the challenge. This practice can literally transform a grumbly person into a happy one -I know, because that’s what it did for me!

True Positive Day 4 – Stay Healthy

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Our physical well-being plays a part in our attitude toward life. A recent USA Today article entitled “Foods that Make you Happy,” reminds us that diet and exercise play a vital role in maintaining a positive disposition. Not only does exercise provide benefits for our physical bodies, it also releases chemicals called endorphins, which help reduce pain and increase feelings of euphoria. As we consider all the aspects of being a sincerely positive person, we can not ignore the importance of eating healthy and getting proper exercise and rest.

As followers of Christ, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we should honor God with our bodies. Think about the construction of Solomon’s Temple in the Old Testament, and how it was handled with precision, honor and care. Let’s pay attention to how we are maintaining our bodies and carefully consider what we put into our mouths, as well as how we maintain our fitness and health. You’ll be glad you did – literally!

True Positive: Day Three – Hope

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Despair comes easily when we find ourselves in a difficult situation. Generally speaking, it is a basic human tendency to defer to the negative. It takes a deliberate effort to look for hope when circumstance seem bleak, but that’s what positive people do. We must be honest and realistic about our pain, but through our grief we can look for glimmers of hope.

There is always hope. It may seem like a small sliver, but God can bring good even through the darkest night. Hold onto hope as you cry out to God. Trust the God of all hope to bring you through and ask Him to infuse you with hope. When Jeremiah lamented his own troubles, he made an intentional turn toward hope. He wrote, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end (Lamentations 3:21-22).”

As we focus on God’s unfailing love, let’s ask Him to give us a bigger picture of hope through the power of His Spirit at work within us. As Paul wrote, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope (Romans 15:13).”

True Positive – Day Two – Being Real

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It may seem ironic to say that one of the most positive steps we can take is to grieve and cry – to be real with our emotions. Grieving and crying is a way to feel the pain and release the hurt that is going on inside of us. Solomon said, “There is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” Paul encouraged the Roman church to “weep with those who weep.”
Scientific research on Post Traumatic Growth (PTG as opposed to PTSD), reveals that those who feel their pain deeply and are realistic about their difficulties are actually able to grow from them. The key is to grieve well, but then not to stay in the pit. Eventually, we must climb out of the pit and consider what we can learn from our challenges.
True positive means being honest with our hurt and pain and working through it rather than glossing over it or numbing ourselves in it. As believers, we need to feel the pain, and recognize that God has not left us to fight our battles alone. There is always hope (which we will talk about tomorrow).

 

True Positive – Day One

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True Positive - day one

FOCUS

Solomon said, “As a man thinks, so is he.” What consumes your thinking? If we dwell on fears and worries, we will most certainly become an anxious person. If we focus on hurts or frustrations, we soon become bitter and angry. Perhaps this is why the Bible encourages us to direct our minds and hearts toward what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. The apostle Paul encouraged believers to set their hearts and minds on things above. When we turn our focus toward the God who loves us, we begin to see life from a different angle and discover hope and peace in the process. Isaiah wrote:

“You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.  Isaiah 26:3,4

Today, consider what you are allowing your mind to dwell on and turn your heart and mind toward the God who is bigger than your worries.

Click the “Follow” button and join me every day for the next 21 days as talk about what it means to be sincerely positive.