Positive Thinking for 2013

katholicos

Superb thread. It is good to focus on the positives, those things for which we are thankful. Too often it is easier to dwell on the negatives we are experiencing or expect to experience at some future point. It's all well and good to have a good cry or to let off steam about bad times, but fortunately i haven't met too many people (either in person or online) who approach every conversation allowing their pessimism about their circumstances or future, to be their primary focus.

So many of us overcome our own personal horror stories, every day. In my experience, overcoming the small trials enable us to overcome the bigger ones, which would perhaps defeat others so easily.

I don't make resolutions, but i do have aims i wish to achieve in the none too distant future.

I will share some of them in my next post, as this one is now quite long enough!

[Deleted User]

kittie wrote: »

woo hoo, I am going to learn a new skill from scratch. Spinning!!! all I need is a drop spindle (ordered) and some wool to spin and I`m away. That will tie in with dyeing and I`ll make my own colourful yarn combinations in time. So exciting

I am loving the feel-good positivity on the thread

How good is that to learn a craft that you've never tried before :beer:You must post on here with pics if possible I am always facinated to see new skills.

claire1977 That was great I can now see that taking off as a new dance craze where Mums dance around their children thoroughly embarrassing them :) whilst putting away the washing It made me laugh and I bet raised a few smiles here as well So its true you don't have to splash the cash to have fun and smile ,just do something soppy and that will raise your spirits a bit :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

carolbee

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Jackie, I do live in north Kent, so if I see any trolley wielding ladies I'll definitely smile at them!

Today's simple pleasure - coffee at M&S with DH, paid for by M&S premium club vouchers

It's work tomorrow and Friday, but I'm thinking positive thoughts - I'll be boosting my retirement fund, so it's for my own good

I'm in Kent too, so if you ever bring the trolley down margate way, I'll smile too!

Prudent

Fruball wrote: »

Lastly, and I just thought of this one because of this thread...
Surprising my good friends with a little gift/home baking with pretty wrapping for no reason at all other than they are my friends!

I love this idea! I like to bake, but also struggle with my weight, so try to avoid it. This is a nice idea when so many people need a bit of cheer in their days just now.

Prudent

Fabulous thread, full of inspiration and encouragment and just what we need in such gloomy times . Thank you Jackieo for the idea

I have an exciting thing happening tomorrow, so I will share it as my first positive. I love reading and whilst I am generally very disciplined at decluttering (I need to be with a small house!), I do tend to accumulate more books than I can store. For quite a while I have felt an ereader would be a perfect solution. OH offered to buy me one for Christmas, but I really knew I needed warm jumpers as I am trying to reduce heating bills. Just after Christmas I received a wonderful email telling me I have won a Kindle fire. It arrives tomorrow and I am really excited. I have also found a thread on 20p kindle books

In December I began what I called my 'austerity diet'. I do my food shopping from a seperate purse to make me stick to a budget.Even with increasing the amount in the purse a few times last year it seemed to be more of a struggle. In December I decided to set myself a wee challenge which was to chose items that gave me maximum nutrition for my money. It was inspired by the knowledge that the loss of 'luxuries' in WW2 made people healthier. I used Aldi & Lidl a lot and focused on their fresh fruit and veg offers. I like to cook, so had fun researching cheap and nutrious recipes. All the rubbish 'treats' disappeared from my trolley and I lost weight and felt better. Over Christmas the 'treats' reappeared again and I now truly feel they are anything but treats. They make me poorer, fatter and I don't feel so good. Back to the austerity diet today

I will however keep up a wee bit of baking, but as gifts only.

Gers

This thread always brings a song into my head:

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium's
Liable to walk upon the scene

Just recently covered by Jools Holland and Rumer.

Today is another positive one. My sore knee isn't quite so sore :j and I can do a lot more things now. I am working from home so that gives me time to rest my knee and work and do naughty things like watch a bit of daytime telly whilst ranting about how bad it is!

:rotfl:

I have many more things in my life to be positive about and the few 'bad' things will not take over. In comparison to many people I am lucky, lucky, lucky!

claire1977_2

Congratulations on your win PRUDENT, I have a kobo and it was the best thing I have ever bought, there are so many free/cheap books around and I love the fact there is no waiting for the postman before I can read them.
As for my positive ideas for the year have decided to actually learn to cook instead of watching cooking programmes and thinking I will cook like that one day, so I am going to do it NOW so have ordered the masterchef kitchen bible rather than the very complicated cook books I own and occasionally look at the pictures in.
I have always been a very pessimistic type of person but looking at my life I have so many positives, happy healthy children, great friends, wonderful family and a fantastic Husband, I guess I am always waiting for something to go wrong but no more because if things do go wrong I will deal with that when it happens.:)

boredjellybean

lovely idea for a thread I agree we need to try & be more positive, I know a lot of us don't have much but I'm going to try very hard to keep in mind all of the good things I don have, my family & my health for a start & quite frankly the rest doesn't matter as long as I've got them

Now off to read the rest of this thread xx

boredjellybean

tattooed_lady wrote: »

Hi JackieO, Long time lurker here! Felt compelled to post!
I would very much like to be more positive this year. I have started by deciding that we will not be buying any Xmas presents in 2013 for anyone other than our children, and I have already told some of the extended family, who took it well. I would still like to do something charitable over the season, and money depending, will donate to charity at Xmas and maybe give blood. I feel positive about having made this decision and it has taken a weight off my mind.

I want to lose a bit of weight and feel comfortable in my skin, I turned 40 this year and think it's about time to feel comfortable and confident about myself - have spent way too long worrying about stupid things.

I want to curb my grocery spending, we are a large family (2 adults, 6 kids) and I think I'm quite good at being frugal with food shopping, but there is definately room for improvement!

I am also in the process of being weaned off anti-depressants after having been on them for 4 years, so I need to be positive as I don't know how I'm going to feel !!:eek:

I would love to only buy for my children - I am very tempted to speak to people in this post christmas lull, it can get very silly & we have godparents children, aunts & uncles etc that we hardly see, might discuss it with the hubby

debbiedebt

Great thread JackieO - thank you.

My positives for 2013 are:-

Be more tolerant with my OH appreciate his lovely points and ignore the things that irritate me!
Try and stop worrying about my DD - there is no call for me to worry as she is a happy healthy 21 year old but .....
Spend less time on my ipad/watching TV - this will be difficult.
Make and stick to meal plans.
Budget VERY carefully and that includes fabric & yarn!!!!

I used to meet my dearest friend for coffee or lunch or both but we have decided that in 2013 we will take it in turns to host a craft day where we bring our UFO's and knit/sew together instead of spending money in cafes. We are also going to make gifts/decorations for Christmas 2013. First craft day is at mine on Monday - HM scones with coffee and jackets for lunch so no hassle - I'm really looking forward to it.

I've enjoyed reading this whole thread and 2013 now feels upbeat.