Positive Thinking in a Negative World

Libby Durham

P.O. Box 127

Ridgeway, VA 24148

276 956 3056

libbyd@kimbanet.com
How can we live positive in a negative world? The answer is simple but the process is not so easy. However it is possible!! To live positively in a negative world we must start by thinking positively.

What is the definition of being positive? Think about it. What does it mean to you? To me thinking positively is to look on the bright side of any situation and see the best of what did happen or could happen. Negative thinking is just the opposite--a negative person reacts in a negative way. The old example of is the glass half full or is it half empty is a good case in point. Is it partly cloudy or is it partly sunny, is it 50% chance of rain or is it 50% chance of sunshine? It all depends on how you look at things and that is what we are going to talk about this evening.

Whether you are positive or negative all starts with our attitude and responses to our circumstances and experiences. How many of you consider yourself a positive optimistic person? How many of you would admit to being a negative person?

We are going to take a short look at our responses to a few situations and let each of us decide if we are positive or negative in our attitude and the way we see things. (I'll have a little test for participants to take in which their response will indicate negative or positive patterns) Lets rate ourselves and see if we are positive or negative in our responses. Total your number of questions that you scored a, b, c or d. For each A you get 20 points, for each B you get 15, for each C you get 10 and for each D you get 5 points. When you total your points you can determine if you are basically a positive person or a negative person.

For those of you whose scores indicate that you are a negative person, I hope before this workshop is over you will have decided that you can become a positive person. You can you know. It is a choice you make and it is not a one-time choice. It is a lifestyle choice that is continually reinforced and made over and over. It has to become a thought pattern for it to be permanent. So, how do we start? The first thing we have to do is look at ourselves and our thought and how we respond to experiences and circumstances, which we have done.

Okay, so you know if you are positive or negative. Ask yourself,"Am I happy with my self and how I "look" at life? Answer that questions honestly and then we will look at what we can do to live positively in a negative world. It is a choice! Positive people LIVE and negative people EXIST. Two key words make up the difference and they are attitude and choice. Attitude determines, to a large degree, the choices we make. Lets look at attitude and the affect it has on our choice of living positive or living negatively.

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