Positive

     On the first week of classes I was mad because the professors got switched. I was only taking that class because of the original professor, so you can imagine my temptation to drop it when I found my reason was gone.
     I am super thrilled I didn't drop it!! The professor that took the class over is AMAZING! First, she showed us the "Brain in the Palm of your Hand" which I truly enjoyed, I will dig up the link of its source for you: here is the video of Dr. Dan Siegel showing you what I'm talking about; he does so in the sense of relating it to parenthood, but you can easily understand how this is used in every aspect of life.
    Then she gave us a quote to look into:

 "The mind can change the brain to change the mind." 

     It's definitely a favorite of mine and I want it hung up on my wall somewhere. We had to find what it "defines" which wasn't hard. While looking it up I ran into a ton of info from Rick Hanson, who the quote is from. He has a lot of info on mindfulness, which I'm all about! I immediately signed up for his Just One Thing newsletter and rummaged through his Skillful Means wiki to find sources on meditation, psychological practices and more.
     During some recent digging I came across the "Three good things" exercise. I'm in love with this, it's simple and makes a difference in how you think throughout your day.
     Most of us are focused on the negative things going on around us. The idea of this exercise is to focus on the positive things. How do you do it?
1. at night before bed think of three positive things that happened that day.
2. write them down
3. this is important: write down why they were good, why were they positive for you. 
Keep in mind, he says that these things do not have to be huge amazing things, they can be anything from having great toast in the morning to running your first marathon. The reasons can be simple, too. Maybe the toast was so good for you because you bought different bread or a new jelly.
     When I started, on the second day I was thinking about the three things I was going to write about throughout my day. It was really amazing, as things happened I thought to myself, "Oooh! That will be one of my things!" hehe sounds silly, but try it and you'll see! =>