Look on the bright side!

Optimistic people are healthier and live longer - it's a fact. But what if you have had a rough time? How do you put a positive slant on things when you feel the world is against you? This is not easy but it can be successfully achieved - how? by looking on the bright side. Here are some examples of things that have happened to people I know (including me!) and how I have practiced looking on the bright side!

1. My car was hit by a deer and over £1500 worth of damage caused. Looking on the bright side I see that I was lucky that I didn't write off the car and lucky that I escaped uninjured. (I think the deer might have been lucky too as there was no evidence to suggest otherwise!)

2. A family member started an important college course and was forced to give up after spending some time in hospital. Looking on the bright side, he is recovering from what could have been a serious illness, he can restart the course when he feels fully recovered, and he will go into it with the advantage of having completed part of it.

3. A friend bit into a toffee and lost her 'crown' - looking on the bright side, she didn't swallow it and it could be cemented back in again.

4. A colleague had a nasty bout of flu - the bright side is that it occurred during the awful weather and so he avoided the hazardous travel conditions and the worst of the weather.

You get the picture? Life happens and its not always kind to us. We can't control what happens to us but we CAN control our response and the way we think about things.