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Paying attention to the Positives


11 years ago 0 177 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Hi Shari,

Thank you, I couldn't not smile at the kookaburra. Their laugh is so funny :) Your Dad's right, the worst that will happen is you'll be super tired the next day and as uncomfortable as that is, it won't hurt in the long run. I read that somewhere haha.

The friend who asked that always comes up with the funniest of things. I've known her since we were both 7 :)

Kaitie.

P.S. I love your little sausage dog photo!
11 years ago 0 1071 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Hi Kaitie,

I love how positive you are.  You can turn negative into positive, like having insomnia, but looking on the bright side, that if you weren't up, you would have missed the Kookaburra Bird :)  I used to get really upset if I couldn't sleep, but my Dad told me, "Your body will get sleep when it needs it.  So, don't add pressure to yourself and worry about it."  So, you're doing great!  I love the "gloves" story - that was so funny!!!  Thanks for starting my morning with a good Kookaburra laugh 

Shari
11 years ago 0 177 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Hi Shari and Matt,

This is definitely something we forget to do too often. My biggest downfall was not focusing on the positives. My senior years of high school were the most stressful ever. I found myself finishing an assignment, but rather than rewarding myself for actually finishing the assignment on time, I would start to focus on all those other assignments I had left to do. I should have given myself a reward, like the rest of the night off or a long bath, and then the next day start focusing on those other assignments.

Lately my insomnia has been pretty bad. I sleep solidly, and almost exactly, for 4 hours and then am awake for about 2-4 hours before going back to sleep for another 4 hours. Intitially when I wake up, I'm afraid. But I always keep my iPod beside my bed so I can play a game, listen to music or a relaxation, or type in whatever is worrying me so I'm the only one who can find it. I also open my window so I can feel the fresh air. It's summer here so the sun starts to rise before 5am. This morning I was watching the sunrise, when the kookaburras in the trees across the road started laughing. Australia has the weirdest animals, I swear. Their laughing never fails to make me laugh, and one even flew over and sat under my window eating a worm. It was one of those random events that you can't help but smile at. If I wasn't awake, I would've missed out on it.

Shari, a good idea is instead of saying you had a bad day, you can say it was a long day, or exhausting, and you're glad to be home. Although 'exhausting' isn't necessarily good, it's not too 'bad' either.

The thing I loved most about school was that there was always a funny moment. Some days I never stopped laughing at the silly things my friends and I would do. One time in science, when we were doing a worksheet, my friend turned to another friend of ours and said, "You know those toe socks you can get with the individual sections for your toes? Can you get them for your hands?" to which the other girl replied, "Yes, they're called gloves." Hahaha

Kaitie.
11 years ago 0 1071 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
This is a good reminder Matt!!!

I have been practicing this a lot.  I guess how I become aware of it, is that one negative thing will keep reoccurring in my thoughts and that's when I stop and sit down and take out a piece of paper.  So, I write all the negative things that happened during the day and then I list the positive.  A couple of times I've had 10 negatives and 1 or 2 positives.   Then I put a big X through the negative events and circle the positive(s) and then every time a negative event of the day pops up in my mind, I say, "No. This good thing or things happened."  I am happier, because my focus is on the good thing(s) that transpired and I ignore, or let the bad things go.  Sometimes you need to get negative things out and talk about them, but I've also found, by doing this, you are reliving them as well and sometimes if I had a bad day, and someone asks how my day went, I just say it was bad, but it's over and I'd rather not rehash it.  Sometimes it's better to move forward and go on.  I know telling one person your problem, then calling another person and repeating it, keeps you in the negative talking about your problem.  I like focusing on the solution.  

Shari
11 years ago 0 218 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Hi Everyone,
Many individuals tend to pay a lot of attention to certain kinds of information and no attention to other kinds of information. Most importantly, when people are feeling down, anxious or stressed, they tend to pay more attention to information that confirms their negative thoughts than to information that challenges their negative thoughts. For example, an individual may pay more attention to the one person who doesn’t have time to talk to them and less attention to the five people who stopped to talk to them.
 
So the challenge is to try and start paying attention to the positives. This is a strategy to help increase positive thinking and is transferable across many life contexts.
How many times have you focused on the negative? Have you caught yourself doing so?
 
Feel free to comment on this and how you have been tracking yourself.
 
Think positive, a lot of good things happen in our day to day life, we should start paying attention to them. 

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