Smiling

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile,
but sometimes your smile
can be the source of your joy."
--Thich Nhat Hanh

Physiologically, it's been shown that smiling can make us feel happy, even if we are forcing the smile deliberately. Regardless of the science, it makes sense to smile, whether we feel like it or not. A smile energizes our brain as well as our muscles. And we don't want our face to settle into sadness.

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*Regina gave me a book of positive quotations, one for each day of the year. It's called "The Daily Book of Positive Quotations" by Linda Picone.

Keeping Perspective

"When I hear somebody sigh that life is hard,
I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what??'"
--Sydney J. Harris

We like to compare our lives to those of people we think are richer, smarter, happier, better looking, more famous. Why don't we have a house like the couple's down the street? Why aren't we doing better at work? Why can't we find the love of our life?

We forget that there are plenty of people who look on us with envy. They would really like to have our job, live on our block, or enjoy our personal freedom. When we hear them talk about the things we take for granted, we remember that we have it pretty good after all.

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*Regina gave me a book of positive quotations, one for each day of the year. It's called "The Daily Book of Positive Quotations" by Linda Picone.

Self-talk

"People don't just get upset.
They contribute to their upsetness."

- Albert Ellis

It's not the events in our lives that upset us. It's how we think about them. If something bad happens, we may complain and fear we'll never feel better again.

But someone else in the same situation might say, "Gee, that's too bad, but I know I can handle it." The same event, two different perspectives. We can't control many of the things that happen to us, but we can control how we react to them.

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*Regina gave me a book of positive quotations, one for each day of the year. It's called "The Daily Book of Positive Quotations" by Linda Picone.