I enjoy encouraging widows to seek out the positive in life by listening to others with the intent to find good about what they are saying or doing. If you tune into the positive, you will get clues about what they are doing and can respond with a positive phrase like “You can do it” - “Thank you” or “That’s a great idea”. A positive frame of mind changes how you think and enables you to lift up others. When you begin to seek the positive you will begin to feel better about life. All of this self-esteem comes from simply developing the habit of looking for the good in others. When that happens, you begin to see the good in yourself. Before you know it people will recognize the good in you and praise you for it. The point is a positive message – a simple sentence can change a person’s life. So the questions are: • What kind of sentences are you speaking? • What are you hearing from the people in your life – positive or negative talk? • Are you creating an encouraging atmosphere for others? • Are the people in your life dragging you down or lifting you up? I know that life is beyond hard and that deep grief can get a hold of us to the point that no joy or light can come into our lives. But positive words contain hidden power that, when released, can change us. Our decision to live with positive thinking and positive actions will not only help us to grieve and heal, it will lift up the people in our lives and inspire them to do more. We need to shift our attitude towards positive thinking because negative self talk holds us down and prevents us from being all that we can be.