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strengths as well as your weaknesses. I know there is plenty of good in all of us. Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. I was part of an exercise one time where we were asked to pay special at- tention to our self-talk over the next 24 hours. I had always thought myself a very positive person. However, I was shocked to find out how much of my thoughts and self-talk were negative. Try it yourself sometime. We really can train ourselves to keep a more positive attitude toward others, ourselves, and life in gen- eral. Be a person you can feel good about! A huge part of having a good attitude, being a happy person……is how you feel about yourself. You must love yourself! This does not mean that you go around with your head held high because you are better than others; it means that you be the kind of person you won’t be ashamed of, will feel good about. I read somewhere that ‘guilt’ is probably the biggest cause of problems in people. If we can do our best to eliminate guilt from our minds, our lives just have to be better. Make sure you don’t make another responsible for your hap- piness, or unhappiness. You alone are responsible for your own happiness. There may be something in your life that isn’t quite right, or, there may be a person who is bringing you down. Do your best not to let other people or situations make you miser- able, when there are most likely many reasons for you to feel good and be happy. Really, if you think about it, letting another person cause you to be unhappy is placing a mighty heavy bur- den on them. Ask yourself if that is fair to them, or to you. Just by forming your mouth into a smile, you can feel better. Just by telling yourself you have a right to be happy, you can at least be- have happily. Try it, it can work for you. Make an effort to be organized with personal items. I read someplace years ago a little hint that has really helped me. Keep those things you use every day organized, and the rest of your life seems to fall in place and make you feel organized, even if you aren’t a total neat freak. Don’t be messy with those things you use every day…….your car keys, your wallet, your personal items in your bathroom, like your toothbrush, toothpaste, etc. Find a place to keep them and always put them away. Anyplace where you can find these little ways of organizing those things you touch every day, it will surprisingly make you feel organized everywhere in your life. I can tend to be disorganized and put off tasks, but, this little hint, has always kept me from feeling like things around me are falling apart. It works! To close, I would like to quote Abraham Lincoln, who said, “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be”. Make up your mind to be happy!! www.southernsenior.info 13 S