Turn your frown upside down

[Image credit: Stuart Miles]

In a Men’s Health February 2014 article, negativity is likened to parasites that eat away at your health. That’s because pessimism begins in your brain and works its way down the spinal cord to the lungs, heart, liver, adrenal glands, kidneys and gut, which can cause long-term damage. It’s even possible to experience benign pain as a result of stress (Tension Myositis Syndrome). Conversely, if your state of mind is happy and hopeful, you’re apt to be more cognizant about fitness, as well as healthier food choices; you’re also likely to either quit or refrain from smoking tobacco. While negativity breeds negativity, you can pump up your optimism by exercising it on a regular basis. Increase your outlook with these three simple activities: 1) reflect on accomplishments and events that made you proud; 2) recognize gratitude by citing three good things that occur each day and 3) picture your perfect life, detailed, five years from now, and focus on what’s attainable.

How do you exercise your positivity muscles?

Imagine it, achieve it

[Image credit: Stuart Miles]

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it;
if you can dream it, you can become it.
~ William Arthur Ward

If you were not born in the U.S., you can’t be president and, if you are a man, it is not likely you would become Queen of England.  So how can we personally claim this quote for ourselves?  I have to believe that someone who immigrates to the United States would not imagine running for American president.  Nor does it seem plausible anyone other than a royal princess or heiress dreams of reigning as an English Queen.  At times, however, as much as I imagine myself attaining all sorts of riches Someday — to the point of dreaming dreams that seem more like reality — these hopes oftentimes appear less attainable than even the most improbable ones.  But I won’t give up on Someday.  Because the only way I will ever achieve it or become it is to believe it.

What does this quote mean to you?