Cultivating positivity... A fresh hope...

Again, I depart from recipes to share a toes-in-the-sand good TED Talk given by Shawn Achor, the CEO of Good Think Inc., a Cambridge-based consulting firm that attempts to understand where human potential, success and happiness intersect.  I'm relieved someone is pursuing that work...

From Shawn's TED Talk... 

"We've found that there are ways that you can train your brain to be able to become more positive... write down three new things that you're grateful for for 21 days in a row.  At the end of that, your brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world, not for the negative, but for the positive first."

"Journaling about one positive experience you've had over the past 24 hours allows your brain to relive it. Exercise teaches your brain that your behavior matters... And by doing these activities and by training your brain just like we train our bodies, what we've found is we can reverse the formula for happiness and success, and in doing so, not only create ripples of positivity, but create a real revolution..."

I am inspired to test Shawn's science... 21 days is really a blink in steady gaze of a life.  At this moment, as my fingers depress and release, depress and release, the keys on my keyboard, I find I am grateful for all my extremities (fingers, toes, earlobes) that I nearly always take for granted... I am grateful for TED and the gift they have given society... and finally, I am grateful for the opportunity to re-train my stubborn brain.  One day down, 20 ahead... In gratitude... -A