a positive attitude

currently lifting my spirits is the nutcracker suite from fantasia. the answer to your question will always be music with me.

Looking in the mirror and realizing that no matter what I own my dignity and self-respect. Nothing and nobody can take that away from me. Or I call my mom. Treat myself to something nice. Lots of things can lift the spirit if you allow them to :)

I find that a dog, any dog, can lift my spirits out of any depths. I'd say cats as well, but cats are often more elusive and less interested in what I want.

Music, it always picks me back up again and dancing :P

One thing I do feel very strongly about is that it's important to let go of any ideas about lifting my spirits. Those images and thoughts about how things should be, how I should feel, how things should be better -- those are a big part of the problem, they make the painful things in life much worse. An important part of this is dealing with all the thoughts about myself. Usually we don't just have pain or sadness all by themselves, we have these emotions wrapped up in a "story" about what they mean about us. "I'm a failure", or "I'm to blame", or "I'm supposed to be a happy person, this shouldn't be happening". These stories distract us into long-winded thinking about the situation, it's causes and cures, etc.; they distort the process of resolving the pain. When I can allow the pain and suffering of life all the way in, and just be there with it as it is, allowing it to hurt, there comes a point at which I stop "thrashing around" trying to get away from the pain. It definitely hurts, but there's a subtle shift when the resistance and escape effort stops: something like peace can show up, understanding it at a deeper level, being in touch with the raw reality of life in all it's uncontrollable twists and turns. It's as if the pain is surrounded by a soft, warm layer of acceptance; an understanding that the only true way through life is forward, and that we never know what's beyond the next bend, and never will know. To me, being able to realize when pain is inescapable, and just facing it head-on without trying to push it away... that's the beginning of true wisdom.

You know, just when I am my very angriest and most sullen, my three year old starts in with her bouncing and singing. I get so frsutrated because I have no peace and she will come up and put her little face an inch from mine and say "Mama, you mad at me?" Then I just pull her wiggling body into my arms and she just makes me giggle. I love that little face.

I don't fight the feeling. I cry so hard and so long and so deep until I have no more cry left in me. Then, I feel the joy of pure laughter begin to build and I feed off of it until it spreads like a virus throughout every atom in my being. I surround myself with positive energy, positive ppl, positive ideas, and I enjoi the many wonders of the marvelous workings of my mind.

Singing in front of the mirror accompanied by my cockatiel whistling and bobbing his head. Sniffing his feathers. Cuddling with my guinea pig. Echoing in my head the "I wov you" from a very sweet little boy.

Archie and the gang!

When you're feeling down and hear your favourite song on the radio :) I love that.

My Three Beautiful Daughters!

"Taking the road less traveled."

An "I LOVE YOU" from someone who means it! (My son and my mom are 2 of those right now) +5