Importance of a positive attitude

When I wake up in the morning, I think of a person or situation that will motivate me throughout the day. With this special person or experience in mind, I roll out of bed. It’s very important to start your day with a clear decision. The attitude with which we will approach the day begins when we wake up in the morning. If we decide it’s going to be a bad day from the moment we wake up it will be. Similarly, if we are neutral in our feelings in the morning, the rest of the day will follow suit. It’s critical to wake up with a very clear decision – I am going to be happy today, I will make someone or many people’s days better, and try my best in each situation. It is best to make a very large, positive goal like this. The loftier your goal, promise or intention, the more successful you will be in living a happy, positive day.
I usually then proceed to do a few, easy stretches for my body. It’s important to wake up your body and your mind in the morning, so that one doesn’t enter life with a single aspect of his being left unawake – mind, body and spirit. Then, depending on your spiritual tradition, it is good to say some prayers, or if you are not religious, to acknowledge the things you appreciate in your life. In this way, one can awaken the mind by making a clear, positive decision for the day, body by doing a few easy stretches, and spirit by praying.
Then, I will send either a phone message or a personalized text to my closest friends, wishing them a happy day. This should be done out of a sincere desire for that person to have a beautiful day. It shouldn’t matter whether they reply back, or reciprocate. Charitable giving is no longer charitable when you expect something in return.
Throughout the day, it is best to find the good in every situation. I honestly believe that every person, animal, and landscape on this planet has something to teach us. Whether their lesson is a wisdom we seek to emulate, or a type of behavior that we recognize we would like to avoid, everybody is a teacher. Perhaps the most I learned about physics this year came not in the classroom, but on a hike with a friend who is a slacker in school but pursues his interest in theoretical physics on his own and has accumulated vast knowledge on the subject in this way.
 It is best to try our hardest not to apply labels like “good” and “bad” as we go about our day. To think we could completely eradicate such judgments is ignorant, but if we make it a goal to look at everything objectively, our day will go much more smoothly. Often, we judge a situation before it even happens. “This class is gonna be soooo boring.” “Practice is gonna be soooo hard.” How can you know until afterwards? It is better to participate in the activity, or experience the situation, with a clear mind, and form opinions once it is over.
The development of this type of thinking has greatly influenced the person I am today. I applied to the United World Colleges last year and was not accepted. Even though attending one of these schools was my dream, I was able to let the disappointment go. What good will sorrow do us? Better to find the positive, and look at the disappointment as a test of our resolve to maintain an optimistic attitude. Things are going to happen in our lives that are outside of our control. It is up to us to decide how we respond.
One of my most important lessons in life came from my friend Maurice. He used to be homeless, living under the bridge on West Alameda, before making the decision to change his life. He is a now a life coach who speaks with students in the public schools. He taught me that happiness is a decision. As Shakespeare writes in Hamlet, “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
We create the reality we perceive. Our eyes receive light waves and our brains convert them into three dimensional images. Our ears receive sound waves and our brains convert them into sounds. But, on their most basic level, what we see and hear are just waves. Although we do not have a high enough level of awareness to consciously understand and affect how our brains do these things, we do have complete control over how we react to a situation. The things which happen throughout the day are neutral, and it is up to us as individuals to transform them into what we will. If we have this power, why not transform every situation into a positive one?
In the Buddhist tradition, it is said that becoming enlightened is nothing more than waking up to the fact that this is it – this world we are living in is heaven. There is no need to look beyond our lives towards heaven, or a better life. If that is your belief, fine, I respect that, but when will we wake up to the fact we are in heaven right now? Heaven isn’t some place you go – it’s a state of mind and way of perceiving the world.
Finally, even when you are met with negativity or hatred, it is always best to respond with love and kindness. Although not easy, taking a moment to breathe, think, and not respond to negativity with negativity will have endless positive consequences. To give an eye for an eye is so easy, and will only prolong the argument. Why not end it? Don’t take the easy road. Respond with sincere kindness, and a mental wish for that person to be freed from whatever is causing them to act in a confused, unclear, angry way. The Buddha once said that if someone sends a package and the recipient chooses not to receive it, the package is returned to the sender. Likewise, if someone sends you negativity and you choose not to accept it, there is only one place for it to go – back to the sender. Likewise, if your positive energy is not accepted by a person, it goes back to you, the sender!
So it is always best to be positive in life.
All the best.