Walking the walk and talking the talk can a be tall order when it comes to being positive. Sometimes positive energy can be hard to find. Other times we have to create that outlook for ourselves.

This week was mid-quarter for my children at school. (Thank goodness our school has made it healthily this far into 1st quarter.) I have started to see a shadow of exhaustion in my daughter.

She is determined to earn high enough grades to be on Honor Roll, practicing 3 to 4 days a week with her competitive gymnastics team, still helping with home and farm chores, and be a normal 11-year old. Not wanting that shadow to become a storm of exhaustion, I devised a way to help her think, talk, and feel positive on Monday.

As soon as my girl was off the bus, I told her how proud I was of her and showed her successful math paper from last week’s homework now displayed on the pantry door. (5th grade math is hard!) Then I had blueberry muffins hot, out of the oven, for after-school snack, and I shared my blog post on The Thunder Tree with her. (She loved Thunder.) I told her to get dressed for gymnastics and surprised her with fresh cup of sweet tea to-go. These may seem like petty things, but when she got home 4 hours later from gymnastics, her mood was lighter than it had been the last few days, and she gushed with the successes of her practice.

She hugged me and said, “The sweet tea really helped, because I was not too happy after school.” I hugged her back and reminded her that appreciating the simple and celebrating the good in life will make it much easier to be positive.

Today’s Intentergy challenge is to think, talk, and feel positive.

While the positivity walk and talk may not be easy, taking the first step will make pounding the positivity pavement much more possible. With uplifting thoughts and words, your outlook and interactions are bound for an upturn in enthusiasm. If nothing else, allow this reminder to be your mantra for motivating your words, thoughts, and actions.

What are some ways you add
positive actions, words, or thoughts to your day?

By: Melanie A. Peters

P.S. If only sweet tea could make 5th grade math easier, I would brew a gallon a day.