THE OPTIPESS ANOMALY

Optimist? Nope.

Pessimist, shmesimist.

It all looks the same to me.

And I'm positive it will all work out.

I guess that makes me....

an optipess.

I'm not being pessimistic, I'm thinking in a positive manner.  I'm positive that this flare is winning. I really want to feel better but my thoughts are not cooperating. 

I know that thought can do so much for your outlook and help distract you from the pain that threatens to take over every fiber of your being. There's so much that attitude can help and when chronic pain is a part of your life, you definitely need to keep your attitude in check.

I know this but I'm having a hard time doing it.

As I research right brain and left brain function, I see a startling fact. First, meditation does grow the gray matter in your brain. I'm not saying you have to sit cross legged and say ohm but some sort of quiet time focusing on nothing but relaxing your body and getting your brain waves down to something lower than an beta level would be highly beneficial. Second, thinking does affect your body and it will go in the direction of your thoughts. 

Remember, the power of positive thinking?

The beta level is most associated with our normal waking state. Beta helps with analysis, logical thinking and active attentive function. Stress can throw the beta level into overdrive. I think that I'm very familiar with the beta level in overdrive.

Negative thinking brings cortisol and other lovely things that are only intended for the flight or fight syndrome. That syndrome is there to keep us alive. It's not there to be used on a continual basis or as a way to live. That impacts your body in a very unhealthy way.

Negativity also obscures your thinking and stands between you and your realization. I heard this today and pondered on this for awhile. While I have talked myself into many, many things; self realization and having the ability to move beyond my fears isn't one of them. It would be interesting to find out how much I could really do if I didn't talk myself out of things due to fear or my inherently cynical way of thinking.

So, how do you take a natural cynic and turn that around into a positive force? I haven't figured that one out yet. I've got a litany of quotes regarding human nature.......

No good deed goes unpunished.

When you see the light at the end of the tunnel it's probably the train coming at full speed.

It's always darkest before it goes pitch black.

In the battle between you and the world.....bet on the world.

Yep,

just call me Little Mary Sunshine.........

Does this tell you anything about how I feel right now??

Very optipesstic.

BE OUTSTANDING IN YOUR FIELD

I still say it's important.

Be outstanding in your field.

People tell me all the time that my pictures show a real positive outlook on life. I smile and say thank you but, inside, I'm laughing my fanny off. 

Positive?

Me?

I guess in one sense I am. I actually do think that everything works out for the best in the end, however, getting to that point may be a little murky. So does that make me a optimist? I don't know. I do have a view of human nature and it isn't necessarily a positive one. I will tell you that I'm often wrong and it still surprises me.

Take the other day. I was at the gym and after I got off the treadmill I forgot a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses. I got all the way out to my car and then realized that I had forgotten them. I went back upstairs and they weren't on the treadmill. I was CERTAIN that someone had lifted them. My friend kept telling me to calm down and ask the front desk if anyone had turned them in. I, of course, was in over-reaction mode and told him emphatically that he was on drugs. They would DEFINITELY not be there.

They were there.

Maybe it comes from working with the public in new home sales for so many years. Don't get me wrong, I loved it and I made a lot of friends with the homeowners in the community. But for everyone wonderful homeowner there were 10 that made your life miserable. Is that the reason or do I just have snarkiness that runs through right to my soul?

Well, let's go through some of my favorite quotes:

"Weathering the storm is much easier if you're not standing knee deep in a conductor."

"When you see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's probably the train coming at you full speed."

"In the battle between you and the world, bet on the world."

"It's always darkest before it goes pitch black."

"It takes 43 muscles to smile and 17 to frown but none to sit there with a dumb look on your face."

So maybe I'm not a pessimist but I'll be the word cynic is appropriate. I know that negativity can obscure your thinking and stand between you and realization of your dreams. Actually, I think I'm positive in my cynicism. 

Does that make any sense?

Like I always say.

Not everyone gets to be an astronaut when they grow up.