The Power in Staying Positive

One of the regular emails I get, and read when I check my mailbox, is the O Magazine newsletter. Some may say it's fluff, but it's generally uplifting fluff. Today, as I read a couple of the bits on staying positive, I recalled something that happened in my classroom several years ago.

We occasionlly had these teacher workdays, when students were given a break so we could catch up our paperwork and re-order our classrooms. One of the required tasks was re-doing our bulletin boards. I usually took my daughters with me, while they were still at home, and they enjoyed changing my bulletin boards. This particular time, they had gone through some of the materials in the department workroom, and had come across a series of posters on MacBeth. They were particularly pleased with a big red and black one of the three witches stirring their cauldron, saying "Double, double, toil and trouble," which they hung in a prominent place.

It took me a while to figure out why I was suddenly getting such negative behavior from my students, but I began to connect their attitudes with that evil-looking poster. I took it down, replaced it with scenes from nature interspersed with positive quotations, and by the next day, my students were settling back into their relaxed study habits, and positive frame of mind.

That's what I like about this place. We can come here and get encouragement and reinforcement and feedback that keeps us wanting to keep on trying. We don't all agree, but are encouraged to accept other perspectives as valid, and to learn from each other, building and expanding our personal perspectives, which, in turn, opens a higher level of communication. And communication is what we, as writers, are mostly about.

Time for me to get ready to go tutor more of those young minds. I think I'll wear something green rather than the black and red pantsuit I had pulled out to wear today.

Ann

Ann,

Very well said as usual!

Ann,
a good post. The power of positive thinking works. It is not just a tool for getting ahead, but for a feeling of well being.

Ann,

I agree. It's a great post. I believe wholeheartedly in the power of positive thinking.

And green sounds like a much better color to wear than black or red. Just the vision of the green looks happier in my mind.

We make so many choices every day and we have the power to make those choices positive or negative. I think it was Walt Whitman who said, "You can live your life as if nothing is a miracle or as if everything is a miracle." Hmmm... that reference may not be right. I need to check it.

OOPS! I was incorrect. Here's the real quote:

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
~ Albert Einstein

Thanks Alice, Abe; Helen, I am so glad I wore green tonight. as you may see if you read my additions to Shelagh's weeding it out thread, it proved to be a difficult evening for staying positive. Maybe I should watch what I write, especially if I write it so authoritatively.

Merri - that's a great quote!

Ann

I agree with the positive thinking thing, Ann. I am often accused of being a bit (actually,more than a bit) of a Pollyanna. So be it. It works better for me to be that way.

When I get down, it worries folks. Upsets the balance of nature or something...

Rhett,

Your appearance here is positive!

I agree about thinking positive, and Einstein's miracle quote. I have felt little control over my life or well-being lately, but realize I have had control over how I handled both.

But I wasn't alone in this endeavor.

Carol