A little dose of positivity.

I remember reading a book on happiness a few years ago that was talking about how (at the time, as this was written awhile ago) that most psychologists just focused on treating the symptoms of whatever it was that was afflicting the person. Say if a person was depressed, then the focus was to get the person to a point where the depression was gone. Like if the person was depressed and it could be rated at like...a -3 the point was to get the person back to 0 but not a lot of emphasis was put on maybe bringing the person to a +3. I don't know if this makes sense, the way I am explaining it. The point is that lack of depression does not mean a person is happy. I hope that makes more sense. So just focusing on alieviating the symptoms of depression does not mean the person will just automatically be happy.

So I have been reading a book called The How of Happiness and it talks about how to live a happier life because happiness is more of a mind frame than just an emotion, something that I completely agree with. It has some exercises on how to nurture a more positive frame of mind.

So I've decided to try to take some time each week to go over oh...say...things I appreciate...or things that are positive from a experience that may be negative and focos on what I am doing right. Focusing on what I am doing right is supposed to help people feel more confident which I think I could use a boost of at the moment.

So today I am writing about a few things that I appreciate.

1. I appreciate my friends. I think if I could say for sure that I've done anything right in my life it is befriend some really great people. One of my friends stopped by my house today and it was just really nice to be thought of. Another one of my friends invited me to the Katy Perry concert and even though I had to decline :( mainly because the place is so far away for me and the crowd would make it even worse, I felt very happy to be thought of. My ex from a few years ago ordered Chiplotle for me because he knows I've been down and food cheers me up. I don't think I could ask for more wonderful people.

2. I appreiate the time to work on my art. Being more housebound than I'd like can be seriously frustrating at times but it also gives me time to work on my art, which I really do enjoy.

3. I appreciate music because sometimes it just makes me feel so much better. I have been listening to Adele non-stop lately. Between her amazing voice and lyrics that I can totally relate to, I am in love.