You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of Your presence and the pleasure of living with you forever.  Psalm16:11, NLT

     I believe that God, in His Word, shows us the path of life and grants us joy. But I have pursued for myself (and as a counselor) learning skills to help foster positive emotions, because, frankly, having people tell me to “choose joy” was not helpful. Well, it was helpful in one way. It implied that it was a choice—even that was news to me! If you are a moody person, prone to melancholy and negativity, you think you don’t have a choice. Well, you do!  

     Great! I have a choice. I want choose joy. Now what? Maybe this sounds dumb to all you cock-eyed optimists out there, but I literally didn’t know how to do it. I have learned though the years things I can do to foster positive emotions in my life. So I was interested in an article in the Sunday Atlanta Journal a while back reporting that even when someone is faced with an incurable illness, positive feelings and thoughts can greatly improve quality of life.

     Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, who were studying this, didn’t just tell their subjects to think positive; they trained them in eight skills to maintain higher levels of positive feelings. They found out that not only did these skills help them cope with their illness; these people were more likely to take their medicine correctly, need fewer antidepressants, had an increase in healthy activity, and actually lived longer! Here are the eight skills (they were to practice one or more each day):

*Recognize a positive event each day

*Savor that event by logging it in a journal or telling someone about it

*Have a daily gratitude journal

*List a personal strength and how you used it

*Set an attainable goal and note your progress

*Report a minor stress and list ways to reframe it positively

*Recognize and practice small acts of kindness daily

*Practice mindfulness, focusing on the here and now rather than the past or the future

     Rejoice, have faith, trust, don’t worry, praise God, give thanks—the Bible is filled with ways to “foster positive emotions.” God really has, through His Word, shown us the path of life. May we grow in walking in His ways. Here’s to life!

*Which one of these will you begin to do?

God, You show us the path of life, we just don’t listen or heed or follow. This sounds very elementary but I know they work. May I continue to walk in Your ways by giving thanks to Your name for all the good in my life! In Your name I pray, Amen.


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