It’s easy to see how being happy, upbeat and optimistic can make you fun to be around and a good friend, but did you know that a positive attitude can actually help you to be healthier?

In a recent article published by the Mayo Clinic, a clear relationship is drawn between positive mental attitude and numerous health benefits, including:

• Increased life span
• Lower rates of depression
• Lower levels of distress
• Greater resistance to the common cold
• Better psychological and physical well-being
• Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
• Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

One explanation for these benefits is that having a positive outlook helps you to cope better with stressful situations, which reduces the harmful effects of stress on your body. Another is that positive and optimistic people tend to live healthier lifestyles — they get more physical activity, follow a healthier diet, and have reduced rates of smoking and alcohol consumption.

Whatever the reason, positive people seem to live longer, healthier lives – try it and see how it works for you! Here are some tips on how to be more positive:

If your self-talk tends to be more negative, it doesn’t mean you’re doomed to an unhappy or unhealthy life. You can learn to transform negative thinking into positive thinking. The process is simple, but it takes time and practice — you’re creating a new habit, after all. Here are some ways to think and behave in a more positive way:

• Check yourself. Periodically during the day, stop and evaluate what you’re thinking. If you find that your thoughts are too negative, try to find a way to put a positive spin on them.
• Be open to humor. Give yourself permission to smile or laugh, especially during difficult times. See humor in everyday occurrences. When you can laugh at life, you feel less stressed.
• Follow a healthy lifestyle. Exercise at least three times a week to positively affect mood and reduce stress. Follow a healthy diet to fuel your mind and body. And learn to manage stress.
• Surround yourself with positive people. Make sure those in your life are positive, supportive people you can depend on to give helpful advice and feedback. Negative people, those who believe they have no power over their lives, may increase your stress level and may make you doubt your ability to manage stress in healthy ways.
• Practice positive self-talk. Start by following one simple rule: Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to someone else. Be gentle and encouraging with yourself. If a negative thought enters your mind, evaluate it rationally and respond with affirmations of what is good about yourself.

By recognizing the patterns of positive thinking and choosing to be upbeat and optimistic, you enhance the likelihood of health and happiness – spread the word!

January First is an important date to most people. It’s like a line in the sand — it’s a time many people choose as the beginning or end point of some habit or behavior, like stopping smoking or starting to exercise. It’s a date that conjures up self discipline, goal-setting, decision-making and commitment. Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution?

What would you like to do differently this year, compared to last year?  Would you like to eat better? Take a walk every day? Reduce your intake of coffee and doughnuts? Read more, meditate daily, or start taking vitamins?

Your health is affected by your habits and lifestyle choices. If you take good care of your mind and body, they will last longer, wear better, and give you more years of faithful function. Treat them badly, and they will eventually wear out.

This is one reason smart health care consumers include chiropractic care in their health and wellness routine. Keeping your body working well means that you can use the food you eat, the water you drink, the rest you get and the thoughts you think to have the best health, the most vitality and best attitude possible.

Chiropractic care helps you by improving the communication inside your body so you heal better and your body runs better. It’s all natural, safe and gentle, and millions of patients enjoy the miraculous healing benefits chiropractic is famous for.

If you want to be healthier this year, and you want your family to be healthier too, think about making a New Year’s Resolution to get a chiropractic check-up for yourself and your loved ones – it could start your year right to know that your body is working at peak efficiency, and the best way for you to be sure of that is to visit your chiropractor!

Here are some great thoughts from great thinkers, for your reading pleasure:

Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.
~E.P. Powell

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. 
 ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Let us remember that, as much has been given us,  much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from
the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds. 
~Theodore Roosevelt

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. 
~Thornton Wilder

We give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. 
~Author Unknown

To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven. 
~Johannes A. Gaertner

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. 
~Cicero

Stand up, on this Thanksgiving Day, stand upon your feet.  Believe in man.  Soberly and with clear eyes, believe in your own time and place.  There is not, and there never has been a better time, or a better place to live in. 
~Phillips Brooks

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart. 
~Seneca

O Lord that lends me life, Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.
~William Shakespeare

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. 
~Aesop

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. 
~William Arthur Ward

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts.  No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. 
~H.U. Westermayer

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice. 
 ~Meister Eckhart

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action. 
~W.J. Cameron

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. 
~Melody Beattie

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving. 
 ~W.T. Purkiser

1. Take a minute to direct someone who is lost, even though you are rushing.
2. Write a letter to a child who could use some extra attention. Kids love getting mail.
3. Offer to pick up groceries for an elderly neighbor.
4. Give a homeless person your doggie bag.
5. Say “I love you” to someone you love.
6. Put a coin in an expired meter.
7. Help a mother carry her baby stroller up the stairs, or hold a door open for her.
8. Each time you get a new item of clothing, give away something old.
9. Take someone’s shift as the carpool parent.
10. Bring your assistant coffee.
11. Out of the blue, send flowers to a friend.
12. Say “please” and “thank you” and really mean it.
13. When you are on a crowded train, offer your seat to an elderly, disabled or pregnant person.
14. Don’t interrupt when someone is explaining herself.
15. Offer to babysit for a single mom.
16. Let a fellow driver merge into your lane.
17. Put your shopping cart back into its place.
18. Call or write a teacher who changed your life.
19. Bring a healthy snack to share at the office.
20. Forgive someone a debt and never bring it up again.
21. Listen with all your senses.
22. Encourage someone who seems despondent.
23. Volunteer to take care of a friend’s dog while he or she is vacationing.
24. Help a friend pack for a move.
25. Pass along a great book you’ve just finished reading.

• Every so often push your luck.
• Never underestimate the power of a kind word or deed.
• Never give up on anybody; miracles happen every day.
• Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
• Learn to listen.
• Think big thoughts, but relish small pleasures.
• Don’t expect others to listen to your advice and ignore your example.
• Opportunity sometimes knocks softly.
• Leave everything a little better than you found it.
• Don’t forget a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
• Never waste an opportunity to tell someone that you love him or her.
• Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
• Make new friends but cherish the old ones.
• Don’t use time or words carelessly; neither can be retrieved.
• Judge your success by the degree that you’re enjoying peace, health and love.
• Smile a lot; it costs nothing and is beyond price.

-AUTHOR UNKNOWN

It is time that you recognize how wonderful, powerful and perfect you already are. All of the answers you will ever need are right inside of you. All you need to do is trust your inner wisdom. Set your goals, raise your standards, and choose to show up as the “Best YOU Ever!” Decide to live in the present and live an “EXTRAORDINARY” life. Share this valuable information with those you care about so they can transform their lives too!

No one ever gets out of this world alive.

Resolve therefore to maintain a good sense of values.

Take care of yourself.

Good health is everyone’s major source of wealth.

Without it, happiness is virtually impossible. 

Resolve to be cheerful and helpful.

What you give to the world comes back to you.

Resolve to listen more and talk less.

No one ever learns anything by talking. 

Be cautious in giving advice.

Wise men don’t need it and fools won’t heed it.

Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and wrong.

Some time in life, you will have been all of these.

Do not equate money with success.

The world abounds with big money-makers who are miserable failures as human beings.

Resolve to not procrastinate another day, for it is the thief of today’s peace of mind and tomorrow’s happiness.

Resolve to be the person you want to be … today!

Making a promise is a very powerful action to take.  Many times during our lives, we are asked to make promises to do certain things.  For example, at age 16, we receive a driver’s license that requires us to make a commitment to obey the laws of the road.  If we fail to obey these laws, we may pay a price.  We might pay a fine or lose our driver’s license for a while.  Many lessons can be learned through experiencing loss.  We learn quickly to pay close attention to speed limit signs and reduce speed when necessary.  Experiencing loss can teach us a practical lesson such as this; however, it also helps us change behavior in other ways. 

Have you ever experienced the unfortunate loss of a loved one?  

Grief is a common and expected emotion to feel at this time; however, in addition, we frequently feel a sense of regret that we did not fully appreciate and value the relationship we had with our loved one until it was lost.

Regret is a very difficult emotion to deal with.  Usually we can choose to celebrate the wonderful memories; however, sometimes we may choose to change our future behavior with our loved ones who are still with us.  We make promises to spend more time with the people who are important to us and tell them how much we value and appreciate the relationship.  Loss has taught us a valuable life lesson.

In other words, sometimes we tend to take things for granted until we lose them.  It is when we lose them that we truly understand their value in our lives.  We can understand this concept in other areas of our lives as well:  financial independence, health and happiness.  We can promise ourselves that we will reach specific goals regarding financial independence and even happiness.  These promises have little value if we don’t have good health to follow through with them.  It seems unfortunate to me that our own health frequently seems to be the personal asset we take most for granted.  Because we take our health for granted, we may never have set an effective plan to insure optimal health today and in the future.

The best promise you can make TODAY is to make the health of you and your family top priority.  Promises are powerful.  A promise means that we state an action that we will take and not allow anything to stop us.  We can use this powerful tool of making a promise to create and implement a health plan that focuses on the body’s natural ability to heal itself.  Make a promise to yourself to prevent health problems before they arise by eating well, exercising, getting enough rest and committing to a chiropractic corrective and wellness care plan. 

Chiropractic care focuses on YOU and your body’s ability to heal itself.    Chiropractic emphasizes the necessity of having a healthy spine in order to insure optimal health.  The brain, the body’s central command center, sends messages to every tissue, organ and cell of the body through the nerve system.  These messages can be interrupted through misalignments of the spinal vertebrae (subluxation) caused by activities of daily life including falls, sports and accidents. 

Traditional medicine utilizes drugs to treat and mask the symptoms, while chiropractors realign the vertebrae of the spine, restoring the body’s natural communication system.  Chiropractors locate and correct the cause of the problem so true health can be restored.

Don’t make an unfortunate mistake that so many people make.  Don’t take your health and your family’s health for granted.  Make a promise to yourself TODAY to make chiropractic a part of your healthy lifestyle and insure yourself and your family a healthy future.

We should always follow the golden rule about how we would like to be treated if we were in another person’s shoes. 

• We need to keep a pleasant personality.  People prefer to do business and interact with people they like.  People like to associate with people who are pleasant to be around.  Pleasant people portray themselves as sincere with a generous, cheerful and considerate attitude.
• Maintaining optimal physical and mental health is essential.  Even if we already have an enthusiastic and positive attitude, we must control our mental and physical habits so they remain life enhancing and productive for success.  Proper rest and relaxation are vital to renew energy and sharpen purpose and focus.  Most of us realize optimal health is the key to expressing our best; however, we need to remember that regular chiropractic care is a necessary step toward physical and mental wholeness.
• Forming good habits is really smart.  Both good and bad habits are formed the same way- through repetition.  By understanding this, we have the power to change a negative habit into a positive habit by repeatedly commanding our thoughts and actions through positive motivation.  These steps ensure that the positive habits become automatic.
• Always giving that “little extra” can elevate our daily lives and help make a difference in the lives of others.  Studies indicate that a shift has taken place from the “me” generation to the “we” generation.  When we reach within ourselves, we will find that “extra something” we can give to those around us.  When we give more than is expected from us, life will reward us.  Elbert Hubbard wrote, “Folks who never do any more than they get paid for never get paid for any more than they do.”  Always give that extra something.  You’ll be glad you did and someone in the world will be better because of it.

I challenge you to give that “something extra” and make your life even happier, healthier and more successful.  Make a bigger difference in the lives of others because that is where real joy comes from, making others happy. 

I ask you to welcome challenges, look for opportunities in every situation to learn and grow, delight in the beauty around you and offer your sincere caring and kindness to others.  This is the real “stuff” of life.

I am committed to giving you that “something extra” because I am committed to making a bigger difference in the lives of my wonderful patients.

“Every dream starts with a burning desire: a passion to change something, to make a difference. ”

“You are never given a wish without the power to make it come true.  You may have to work for it, however.”
-Richard Bach

“It’s OK to dream big if you are willing to take enough action to make it happen.”
-Lollie Mc Lain 

What is your BIG dream?  Most of us have dreams but are not willing to do what it takes to make them become reality.  If you are willing to work hard, here are some tips to help make your dreams come true.

Desire … Every dream starts with a burning desire: a passion to change something, to make a difference.

Decision … Add to desire the decision that failure is not an option.

Determination … You will always encounter obstacles on the way to your dreams.  Determination keeps you moving forward in spite of setbacks, discouragement and all kinds of difficulties.

Responsibility … This means the ability to respond.  It also means that you are the one in charge of making it happen.  There is no room for “It’s not my fault” or “I tried.”

Resources … Use the resources around you.  Ask for advice.  Ask for help.  There are people in your life who have either done what you are doing or who are in the middle of doing it.  Ask them how they did it.  Use your resources.

Enthusiasm … The people who are living their dreams are usually lots of fun to be around.  One reason is because they bring such passion and enthusiasm to what they do.  Work becomes fun.  The really wonderful side effect is that enthusiasm gives you a great deal of energy.

Energy … An absolutely necessary ingredient to living out your dreams is lots of energy.  Often the only difference between those who live their dreams and those who don’t is that “dream catchers” keep on going while “dream droppers” get tired and quit.

Attitude … You must have the attitude that nothing will stop you no matter what.  You’ve got to live the Japanese proverb: “Fall down eight times, get up nine.”

Action … You can have all the above ingredients in full and still not get anywhere.  You have to do something about your dreams every day.  You have to take action, sometimes a little bit each day, sometimes a lot.

Momentum … If you put the above nine tips into action, you will build a momentum that is virtually unstoppable.  Momentum carries you through the low and weary times, and makes the obstacles that were once huge boulders, mere pebbles in your path.

There Are Few Things In Life As Satisfying As Living Out Your Dreams … Get Started On Yours!

Develop An Attitude Of Gratitude…
Even when you are experiencing tough times, remember the blessings in your life.  Always be grateful for the people, love and abundant treasures in your life.  It’s like sprinkling sunshine on a cloudy day.

Encourage Others…
When someone has a goal, most people point out the obstacles.  You be the one to point out the possibilities.  Tell them you have faith in them and that you’ll support them in any way.

Give Sincere Compliments…
We all like to be remembered for our best moments.  Acknowledge the good in people and make them feel better about themselves. 

Keep Growing…
Life is about constant growth.  There is always another level of growth.  Walk a different path than you are accustomed to.  Take a class.  Read an inspiring book.  Listen to motivational tapes.  And then, share your growth with others.

Give The Gift Of Forgiveness…
Forgiveness is a blessing for the one who forgives, as well as for the one who is forgiven.

Take Care Of Yourself…
Exercise, eat a healthy diet, reduce stress and get a good night sleep.  Taking care of yourself may also include singing and dancing a little bit every day, and having love in your life.

Perform Random Acts Of Kindness…
Do kind things for others for no other reason than to make them feel good.  Don’t expect anything in return.  The most fun is when the other person doesn’t know who did it.

Treasure Relationships…
Create valuable relationships in your life and treasure them.  Eat meals together, take walks, listen to each other.  Share laughter and tears.  Create memories.  Don’t forget to tell the other person how much you care for them.

Share Your Faith…
You can wish someone joy and peace and happy things.  However, when you share your faith, you’ve wished them everything.

 
Take time to appreciate life. Spend time with those you  love and let them know how much you appreciate them.  Life is a journey with many lessons along the way.  Learn from each lesson and know that it is truly a gift.