Project Positive

Life is a better place when you think positively. Because life is what you make of it. If you go about your life, living life as if it were the worst thing in the world, finding every little thing that is wrong about life and this world and everything in between, only viewing life through a lense of negativity, you are creating for yourself a self-perpetuating misery of a life. However, if you go about your life, living life as if it were the best thing in the word (which, spoiler alert, it is), finding every little positive thing about your life and this world and everything in between, viewing life through a lense of positivity and happiness and love, you are creating for yourself the best version of your life, a life that lives up to its full potential, its full happiness, its full purpose. We have taught ourselves to believe that going about our lives thinking negatively is the easiest and most effective way to approach our lives, falling into the footsteps of so many of those around us who believe this to be true. We see the negativity, hear the negativity, taste, feel, and breathe in the negativity. It’s almost impossible to escape it. And the more we immerse ourselves in it, the harder it becomes to escape. It is sad to acknowledge that the normal way of thinking, of acting, of living, has turned into such a negative light. That the normal way to think is about what is wrong with this world, not what is right. That the normal way of conversing with others is in complaining to others about what is wrong with our lives rather than what is right and good. That the normal way of acting is in frowning and sulking and putting on our most miserable persona rather than smiling and radiating with joy and putting forth our most happy self. That the normal way of living is in only seeing what is wrong with our lives and what needs to be improved rather than what is right with our lives and everything we have to be happy about. We have become so accustomed to such ways of life that they have become unconscious habits of destruction that have taken over. How sad it is to think that such negativity has flooded our patterns of going about our daily lives, that instead of viewing this beautiful world we live in and these beautiful lives we have been given in the light of true beauty that they truly behold, we have chosen to discard their beauty to the distorted lense of pessimism, emptiness, and defeatism. From the moment we wake up, we choose the way we are going to approach the day, whether we will fall into the habit of negativity or we will rise above to a new level of positivity. And, unfortunately, many of us fall into habit because habit is predictable, it’s easy, it’s what we are comfortable with. So many of our days go like this. From the minute we wake up, the negativity begins. We view the alarm clock as the enemy, cursing it out for disrupting our sleep, because how dare it let us know that a new day has arrived? We look in disgust at our reflection in the mirror and rush though our morning routine to avoid the reflection staring back, throw on an outfit that is easiest to find, grab a less than nutritious breakfast if any breakfast at all as we rush out the door, jumping in the car, only to hear on the radio that there is traffic on our route to work. And followed by the traffic report is headline after headline of breaking news stories full of the negativity that pulses through our world, from shootings to car crashes to illness and poverty and war. So we shut off the radio and sit in silence, ruminating in the negativity of our minds, allowing ourselves to be absorbed into our own negative thoughts as we think about just how inconvenient it is to be stuck in traffic. And on our way to work, we pass by a Dunkin and decide to get a coffee, hoping to skip the line by ordering in the drive-thru, but the line is long there too because everyone else has the same idea. So we moan and groan to ourselves as we wait in the line of cars to order just a plain coffee that we rely on to keep us awake during the day, as our minds are too tired to function by themselves anymore from the negativity that we put ourselves through. And when we finally order our coffee, and drive up to the window to pick it up, we realize that the cashier messed up our order so we got a coffee with cream and sugar instead of the very specific coffee that we ordered with just almond milk, no sugar, one splenda. So we complain to the cashier who says that she is very sorry, she will fix it, but we are too frustrated and now late for work that we take the messed up coffee and slam it into our cupholder, mumbling complaints to ourselves with a scowl on our face as we drive the rest of the drive to work. And we sip the coffee which turns out to be too hot and burns our tongue, and maybe we are even lucky enough to spill a little bit on our work outfit, the outfit that needs to be present in front of a group as we run a meeting that day. And from the moment we step into work, we hear the constant complaints of others, to us, to others, about us, about others, about work, about the world, about life. So our work day turns miserable and therefore our drive home turns miserable and we crash into a depressed, irritable puddle when we get home. And because our day was so miserable and we held onto that misery, we go to bed with a mind full of negativity, ready to start the next day the same. Exact. Way. This example is a bit exaggerated to emphasize my point, however, I am sure, on some level, this can relate to each and every one of us. Although we may not live that exact life or we convince ourselves to believe that we couldn’t be anywhere near that negative, I bet we would be quite surprised if we stepped back and really, honestly examined how we go about our daily lives and the amount of unfortunate negativity we carry with us. Living a negative lifestyle has become so natural that we don’t even realize we are living it. So that is why I have stepped up to the plate and jumped on this blog post. To bring to our awareness to the negativity that permeates our lives and to turn that negativity into positivity. As I have mentioned before, the campers at Camp Sunrise have taught me so many lessons, lessons that have changed my view of both my life and life in general, and lessons that have helped bring me closer and closer to my own recovery. And one lesson in particular has lit up my recovery to a level I have never felt before. A lesson about happiness and positivity. Each and every morning I walk into camp, I feel the world around me shift entirely. Because there is something incredibly different about the environment I have walked into. An incredibly amazing difference. Because this difference is the difference between negative and positive. Two completely opposing forces. And this difference is made possible by the campers, who come into camp each and every morning with only happiness, only positivity, only joy and love and excitement for the day ahead and the world around them. The amount of pure innocence and positivity that pours out of each camper is enough to light up the whole world. And so each and every morning, I get to be surrounded by a world full of the purest happiness, the purest excitement, and the purest love, a gift that I am so deeply grateful to be able to receive. These campers have the key to the secret of happiness. These campers have not allowed the world to taint them, to tear them down into a spiral of negativity, to strip them away from their innocence. These campers have held onto the happiness that we are all born with, letting this happiness raise them to their best selves, and allowing them to live their lives in pure innocence, happiness, and peace. We need to do whatever it takes to learn from them. Because they truly live the best lives of us all. Lives untainted by negativity. Because consider this. What would a life of total positivity look like? Feel like? And how would our lives change, for the better, if we decided to live our lives in total positivity? I will give you a hint. It is the life we all wish for, the life we all hope to achieve, the life we envy when we see it in the lives of others. And here is another hint. It is completely available to you. If you just change one thing. And that is the glasses you are wearing. Take off that negative pair and put on a brand new pair of positive lenses. Now that you have a brand new set of glasses on, let’s go through our original example of a day, but this time, with a bit of a positive spin. This time, when the alarm clock goes off, we wake up with a smile on our face, knowing that the alarm is a signal of a new day awakening, a new day full of opportunity and happiness and life. And so we gently turn off our alarm and because we set the alarm to give us enough time to ease into the morning, we calmy go about our daily routine, attending to our body with care. And we look into the mirror with self love and self compassion because this is our body, the body we were so preciously given, the body we were meant to care for and love and cherish. We smile into the mirror and listen as our mind flows with positive self talk. And we walk away from the mirror and towards the closet, satisfied with our bodies, and ready to pick out an outfit that we enjoy, an outfit that we feel confident in. We then proceed to make ourselves a nutritious breakfast full of flavor and health and energy, a breakfast capable of carrying us through whatever life has in store for us. We make ourselves a cup of coffee, just the way we like it, and then sit down at the kitchen table to enjoy every moment of our breakfast, reading our favorite book while we’re at it. And when we are nourished and energized and ready to take on the day, we begin our ride to work, viewing any traffic we may hit as an opportunity to meditate and focus on our wellbeing, to listen to our favorite music, or to merely enjoy a moment of peace and quiet to ourselves. And we get to work early, even if we hit traffic, because we have planned enough time in the morning to prevent any stress or tension resulting from rushing around and not having enough time at our disposal. And because we have taken on our morning with positivity, our day at work goes smoothly, any negativity bouncing off of us because our positivity outshines any negative thought, comment, or action coming our way. And because we have had a positive day at work, we return home to the love and care of our family, ready to spend quality time with them, sharing our positivity with each and every member of our family. And because we have taken on the day with positivity, we go to bed content and satisfied and happy, ready to take on tomorrow with the same positivity as today. Seem a little bit different than the first scenario? It’s amazing what a little positivity can do to turn a day completely around. Just the simple act of waking up with a positive attitude can set you up for the success of a positive day. Just one simple switch, waking up happy to greet the day rather than wishing it had never even started, can be your start to your positive life. Your start to the life you truly want to live. After immersing myself in such an environment of positivity, I couldn’t help but experiment with bringing that positivity into my own life, trying out the positivity the campers showed me in the hopes that I would find out the secret to living a life of happiness. And the result was incredible. I began waking up each day excited to take on the life ahead of me, taking the time I needed to properly start my day, with a casual walk down the street to enjoy the morning light, the beauty of the nature around me, and the peacefulness of early morning, with a warm shower to rinse away any worries I may have woken up with, and with a nutritious, delicious, handcrafted breakfast to give me the energy and strength I needed to conquer the upcoming day. And I have started taking my days truly moment by moment, living in the moment, for the moment, rather than worrying about the future or ruminating about the past. Because giving your full, undivided attention to a moment is the only way to truly see the beauty and positivity of the moment. Ruminating in the past only serves to hurt us as it drags us into the negativity we previously lived in. And worrying about the future only serves to hurt us as it takes us away from the positivity of the present and convinces us of future negativity to come. Remaining in the present is the key to positivity, the key to living our lives to the fullest. I have also focused on retraining my thoughts to take a positive route rather than the negative route they ran along for so long. Instead of viewing a situation immediately as negative and against me and out to hurt me or disappoint me or stress me out, I began to give situations a chance and consciously began to pick out the positives first to avoid my mind from immediately reacting with a negative emotion. Focusing on the positives of a situation or of a particular person, place, or thing has become essential in switching around the previous negativity of my thinking and in helping me replace my negative glasses with my brand new positive glasses. So instead of immediately seeing a fear food as the most negative, scary, fattening, unhealthy situation I could possibly be put in, a mindset that I have lived in for countless years, I began to pick out the positives, seeing the fear food as a delicious food that has the great potential of bringing me closer to my recovery, of returning me to my normal, happy, healthy life. And instead of immediately looking into the mirror and hating everything about my body, I have begun to pick out at least two things I love about my body in order to prevent the negativity from taking away my self love and self compassion. And instead of stumbling across a failure and resorting to my eating disorder to cope with the discomfort, over catastrophizing that I am a failure at everything and that my worth is nonexistent, I have begun to view personal failures as an opportunity to improve, an opportunity to learn from, an opportunity to build my life up from. And these are just a few examples of my pursuit for happiness, my pursuit for positivity. I have bought and begun to read books on happiness and positivity, I have made a conscious effort to journal about the positive parts of my day and the glimpses of positivity I have for the future, I have embraced my days at work as gifts that give me the ultimate lessons to take on my life, I have spent more quality time with family and friends, cherishing these moments because these are the most precious moments in life, the moments that truly matter. And I, most importantly, wake up each morning with the desire to live each moment of the day to its fullest, because the way we approach the day is the most important indicator of the projection of our day. And I haven’t finished. My Project Positive is ongoing because each and every day, I am searching for and learning about ways I can bring even more positivity into my life. Because just as the more you let negativity into your life, the more it controls you, the more you let positivity into your life, the more you want to let positivity reign. Because as you begin to let positivity in, it becomes evident just how amazing and satisfying and right a life full of positivity can be. Positivity is contagious. It is just a matter of letting it in that has the power of changing our lives for the infinite better. So why haven’t we all caught on and jumped on the positivity train? The answer lies in the perceived comfort that comes from living life in negativity. Until just recently, I fell into the same trap of believing that living life in negativity is easier than picking out the positives in life. Because it seemed as if the negative parts of life just made themselves so obviously present within my life, making their presence known without me having to even move a muscle, while the positive parts of life required a bit more searching, hiding from sight, making me work for them instead of them coming to me. And living life miserably seemed to require less effort than putting on a bright face, thinking positive thoughts, interacting with the world around me, and picking out the positives of each and every thing I encountered. But little did I know that I had it all backwards all along. And only did I come to realize this when I began the switch over to positivity. And as I began the switch, I saw that living life positively is in fact much more comfortable than living life negatively. And requires much less energy. And makes life much more enjoyable and full and rich with life. So I stuck with the switch. And am making the decision to never, ever go back. To always, always move forward, and always, always live positively. And I am calling my decision Project Positive. And I encourage you to join me in the pursuit for positivity, because I promise that you will be very satisfied with your decision. In order to make our world a more positive place, we all need to work together to change our mindsets and change our lifestyles. Positivity is more than a mindset. Positivity is a lifestyle. And lifestyles require practice. So together, we can push forward to our lifestyle in positivity, whatever that may mean for us. And we can all start with this first step in Project Positive. Waking up every morning with the excitement to start the day, the willingness to conquer, and the positivity to light up the word.