We constantly receive internal and external messages. Do they help or hurt you? Have you heard of the 5:1 magic ratio? Research suggests to counteract the sticky Velcro-like negativity bias, it takes approximately five positive encounters, thoughts, or experiences for every negative one.

Consider fortifying your Personal Positivity Bank by making regular deposits. Here are a few ways to build your reserves:

• Create a “Feel Good” file with positive emails, notes, or letters you received from family, friends, clients, or colleagues:

• Keep an ongoing gratitude list

• Connect with nature

• Prioritize self-care

• Spend time with people who energize and uplift rather than drain you

• Display positive reminders in your environment

Today, I am focusing on that last one, the visible messages you see every day. I’m sharing several of my favorites below. I’ve written before about the fidget bowl on my desk. This fun collection of miniature objects combines word reminders, trinkets from places visited, old toys, and visual and tactile delights. Playing with the tiny pieces while I’m in meetings helps me focus. Having uplifting messages front and center enhances my well-being. What encouraging messages will you surround yourself with?

7 Ways the Reminders You Display Will Help You Each Day

1. Bloom Where You’re Planted

Bloom where you’re planted encourages me to embrace the growth mindset anywhere, anytime. Every encounter, action, observation, experience, success, and failure are opportunities to learn, expand, and blossom.

2. Head & Heart

Navigating life’s hiccups and choices can be stressful. “Head & Heart” reminds me to use my cognitive and sensing gifts to support positive decisions and outcomes. While not included in this purple pin, my gut is another guiding element. When I listen, it leads me with a distinct “yes” or “no.”

3. Nourish

My Word of the Year is nourish. This essential encourages me to feed my heart, mind, and body so they feel nurtured, positive, and supported to thrive. My heart wants connection. My mind needs stimulation, and my body wants loving care.

4. You Are Here

While these words are often found to locate yourself on a map, to me, they embody presence. Especially when my mind is racing, and even when it’s not, this message prompts me to pause, notice, and ground myself with where I am, what I’m doing, what I’m feeling, and what I’m experiencing. When distracted, I use these words to gently bring me back, reset, and move on.

“Fortify your Personal Positivity Bank by making regular deposits.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

5. Oy Vey!

Years ago, I gave my dad this blue “Oy Vey!” computer key. It became a favorite inside joke between us, and one of the many things that connected us was our shared sense of humor. This message reminds me that things in life have the potential to go sideways. However, my sense of humor can bring a brighter perspective and allow me to laugh at myself during difficult situations.

6. Radiate Positivity

According to the CliftonStrengths assessment, one of my top strengths is Positivity. Seeing the “Radiate Positivity” button helps me with several things:

• It reminds me to continuously develop and live from my strengths.

• My natural inclination towards positivity helps me be resilient and growth-oriented.

• Positivity is ‘catching,’ so my mood can have an encouraging effect on others.

7. Exhale the Bullshit

This new pin has quickly become a favorite. We all experience life ‘stuff’ (aka difficult situations, conflicts, threats, bullshit). During those challenging encounters, you can experience emotional hijacking. Stress triggers are sent to the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for emotional processing. Your automatic warning system goes on high alert, and your body wants to protect you. Your heart races, your palms sweat, your face flushes, and your breathing turns rapid or shallow.

“Exhale the Bullshit” reminds me to take a deep breath through my nose and a longer exhale through my mouth. Repeating that several times, I soothe my system, access the rational part of my brain, and am better equipped to respond calmly to the circumstance.

How does having positive visual reminders help and influence your day? What helpful messages are in your view? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

The newest release (v37) of the “What’s Interesting?” feature has my latest finds, which inform, educate, and relate to organizing and life balance. These unique, inspiring, possibility-thinking discoveries reflect this month’s blog theme.

You are a generous, communicative, and engaged group. I am deeply grateful for your ongoing presence, positive energy, and contributions to this community. I look forward to your participation and additions to the collection I’ve sourced.

What do you find interesting?

What’s Interesting? – 5 Best Possibility-Thinking Discoveries

1. Interesting Workshop – Conquering Clutter Possibilities

Are you overwhelmed by clutter? If so, you’re not alone. One in four people have challenges with clutter, which can affect their anxiety levels, relationships, sleep, and ability to focus. Help is here.

I’m so excited to offer a lively one-hour online workshop – How to Conquer Clutter, on October 20th @7:00-8:00pm EST. You’ll discover where clutter comes from, why it’s so hard to let go, and what you can do about it. Come away with energizing possibilities, manageable clutter-reducing strategies, and powerful insights. Register now!

2. Interesting Perspective – Reframing Possibilities

I frequently hum and sing. The funny thing is I don’t realize I’m doing it. In addition, I often unknowingly sing the incorrect lyrics. Recently, I learned a word for that. Mondegreen is a misheard word, phrase, saying, lyric, or slogan that makes sense in your head, but is entirely incorrect. Check out this infographic with some commonly miss-sung lyrics for a good laugh.

What does mondegreen have to do with possibility thinking? Let’s revisit the mondegreen definition of words, which make “sense in your head, but…are entirely incorrect.” How often have you repeated a negative message to yourself that is no longer true? You get stuck in old thought patterns or beliefs and forget to change the script. Clients often share these negative messages with me, which sometimes were ingrained since childhood.  A parent might have said, “You are like a tornado leaving stuff everywhere you go.” However, they learned organizational strategies over time and are no longer “messy” or “disorganized” kids. They didn’t adjust the lyrics.

Singing the wrong words to songs is harmless, but repeating negative, untrue messages about yourself is damaging. What possibilities become visible when you change the script?

“When you imagine possibilities, your thinking becomes open and expansive. ”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

3. Interesting Read – Grounding Possibilities

In The Practice of Groundedness – A Transformative Path to Success That Feeds – Not Crushes – Your Soul, author, researcher, and coach Brad Stulberg rejects conventional measures of success, which he says do not support long-term happiness. As an alternative to feeling like “you are never enough” or having “a compulsion to keep chasing the next thing,” Stulberg draws from modern science and lessons from ancient wisdom traditions to encourage the cultivation of habits and practices to live a more grounded life.

Stulberg says, “Groundedness is unwavering internal strength and self-confidence that sustains you through ups and downs.” His six principles of groundedness are acceptance, presence, patience, vulnerability, community, and movement. Sharing specific practices and new ways of thinking, Stulberg inspires us to choose “acceptance over delusion and wishful thinking…presence over distraction…patience over speed…vulnerability over invincibility…community over isolation…movement over sitting still.” How will grounding yourself influence what’s possible?

4. Interesting Product – Capturing Possibilities

Have you noticed when you shower, ideas, to-dos, and possibilities start to flow? The relaxing effect of water stimulates your thoughts. Do you easily forget those brilliant ideas you had in the shower? It used to happen to me, but not anymore. One of my favorite products is AquaNotes waterproof notepad. Their tagline says, “Never let another great idea go down the drain!” When a shower-inspired thought pops into my head, I make a note on the pad with their special pencil. Post-shower, I transfer the idea to the appropriate list. The notepad is also an excellent place to exchange messages with my husband.

5. Interesting Thought – Welcoming Possibilities

When you imagine possibilities, your mind goes into an open, expansive growth mode. When you say the word problem, your thoughts constrict and bring a negative focus to the situation. You can get stuck in the problem’s details. Challenges definitely exist. However, if you shift your thinking towards possibilities, you will find a more productive, positive path when you encounter issues.

Do you have an interesting possibility-thinking discovery? Which of these resonates with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

The other day, I took an early evening walk along the Hudson River with my friend. Towards the end of our walk, the sun began to set and what I saw was incredible. The coolness of the light blue sky and deep blue water slowly shifted to warmer tones. As the round ball of sun lowered towards the horizon, its glow cast orange shimmers of light on the landscape. The visual change was magnificent. We sat on the rocks to take in the view.

If I had kept walking without looking or being mindful, I would have missed this spectacular moment. You might wonder, how is it possible to miss such a thing? It is.

You can walk but not notice what surrounds you. You can rush through your day getting stuff done but miss mindful moments of presence, joy, or calm. You can eat a meal but not savor the flavors and textures of your food. You can have a conversation but not listen to what the other person is saying. You can live in a cluttered environment but ignore how its heaviness is impacting you.

There are many ways not to be mindful. So often, we live on autopilot. We move from thing to thing without questioning, noticing, pausing, or enjoying. What becomes possible when we bring more mindfulness into our lives? A walk in nature with a friend becomes an opportunity to engage in a wonderful conversation while appreciating the changing scenery. A mindful meal creates a chance to slow down enough to taste the delicious flavors.

“There are many ways NOT to be mindful.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

Have you found yourself rushing through life? What would a life with more pauses and mindful moments look and feel like? How would that change your perspective and experience? What is one thing you can do now to add more mindfulness to your day? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

The whole day was before me. It was my day to sit and write this post. However, instead of focusing next on writing, I felt compelled to delight in spring’s arrival. Outside beckoned me to walk in the warm air, bask in the hot sun, hear the birds chirping, and discover flowers and greenery gracing the landscape with bright spots of color. I also carried with me some ideas that surfaced during my morning mindfulness meditation. It was the combination of the practice, the week’s events, and my pull to be outside, leading me here. 

During Tony Brady’s meditation, he said, “We are doers and fixers and move impatiently from one project to the next.” I had to unpack that one. Doers and fixers? The “doer” struck me. Each day when I wake, I have a goal to do something. I rarely have a don’t-do day. The “fixer” resonated too. I recognize I don’t have to fix or solve everything. However, my tendency is to find solutions for others or myself. It’s how I’m wired.

Moving “impatiently from one project to the next,” I connected less with. I’m pretty darn patient. I like having space within a project to think, appreciate, evaluate, and readjust as I go. I never feel like I’m hurrying to that next thing. I actually don’t like to rush (or run). But Tony made me think about this.

Then he said, “We have lost the gentle art of waiting.” Those words hit me. We are accustomed to fast and instant everything. Do you remember when we used dial-up to access the Internet and how long it took? Now, if we don’t connect in a split second, we are annoyed. How about ordering from Amazon? I’ve ordered items that arrive the next day at standard free shipping. What about our conversations? Do we really listen to the person that’s talking? Or, are we thinking about what we’re going to say next before they finished speaking? 

“We have lost the gentle art of waiting.”

— Tony Brady

Tony’s statement about losing the art of waiting made me think about presence and mindfulness. Being here now. Focus on where I am and what’s happening around me. Don’t fast-forward to the next thing on my list.  It was with those thoughts that I approached this glorious spring day. Yes. I eventually wrote this post, as you can see. But before I wrote, I used most of the day for embracing spring. This included:

• Taking two walks- one by myself and the other with my husband.

• Enjoying a conversation with an adorable three-year-old kid who was happily sloshing around in a mud puddle.

• Watching geese waddle into the river and then glide along the water.

• Eating leisurely my brightly-colored salad as I sat in our greenhouse.

• Shooting photos of flowers, water, trees, and the Croton Picture Tunnel.

• Savoring the super cold Yasso fudge brownie pop as I sat in the hot sun.

• Reflecting on the two bookends of life this week as my great-nephew entered the world and my mom continues to fade.

There is doing and not-doing. There is life and death. There is being present and missing the moment. For this moment, this day, I chose to be here now. I’m also OK to wait and pause. I’m grateful for the arrival of spring, the birth of my great-nephew, being able to hold my mom’s hand, and this day. 

Is next calling you? Are you feeling content with things as they are now? What are your ideas about waiting, patience, and rushing? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.