Today, our world is full of so much hate that it's hard to be positive. My entire life, I had to be positive at the hardest times. When my mom died, I became closer to my gram. When my dad left, I became strong. When my grandpa died, I took a breath. When my gram died, I went back to college in Philly four days later. After my long-term boyfriend broke up with me, I put a smile on my face and went to work the next day. Each time something bad happens, I try to stay positive in these situations. Lately, I've been practicing mindfulness through meditation and "taking in the good." My therapist introduced this method to me where you take 30 seconds each day to reflect on something beautiful in this world. Our world is full of such awful things and this can be hard to do.
Recently, I went to Philadelphia for the day with one of my close friends. We spent the day laughing and exploring the city and visiting our other friend who lives there. In the afternoon, we came across an Amish Farmers Market and decided to stop by. They were selling sunflowers for only $1. I decided to get one because they were so beautiful. The beauty of the sunflower made my day and forced me to take in the good it was providing. After I bought the flower, my friend and I went to get smoothies. In the smoothie shop, I was able to take in the amazing taste of the smoothie I was consuming. As we were sitting there, enjoying our drinks next to this beautiful sunflower, I was able to forget what was going on in the world for a minute and live in that good moment.
When you take in the good, your overall outlook on life becomes extremely positive. You're still able to accept the sad and tragic events of the world, but instead of just making a Facebook post about how angry you are, you can do something. Being sad is perfectly OK—I am often sad—but the more positive you try to be, the easier it is to become happy again. The more good you allow yourself to take in, the more you can become a positive person. To quote Bo Burnham, "I really wanna try to get happy, and I think I could get it if I didn't always panic every time I'm unhappy."
So sit back, relax and take in the good.
