Altercations and communication deadlocks can be extremely frustrating. Sometimes it seems that you can have the same issue, over and over again, with the same individual…for years! What can you do that changes the tide?

Have you ever apologized when you didn’t feel apologetic? Not an easy task, I know. But as it’s often been said, “Would you rather be right or happy?” Apologizing is often an easy way to open communication back up and let the healing begin, regardless of whether you’re deeply feeling it or not.

Or what if you’re really angry at someone’s behavior? Just as a challenge to yourself, try to say the opposite of what you’d like to say. Don’t think of it as a lie; think of it as a method to find a small thread of what you do like and simply mentioning it. (”I really like how you speak your mind!”) Again, you’ll be surprised at the results. You turned your standard behavior on its head!

Don’t like that neighbor of yours, who seems highly inconsiderate, try smiling (even if they don’t smile in response) in passing.

It doesn’t have to feel great; it’s just a method to break your standard response and see the results.

In short, it opens up your mind!

Not to worry. One of our readers made a great suggestion yesterday for a Mother’s Day gift that keeps giving. (Or keep this in mind for any upcoming birthday, etc.)

Thanks to the World of Child blog and our readers:

Say “Thank You” with a special e-card. Let mom know how much she means to you by sending her one of our $15 e-cards. Cards are delivered automatically on Mother’s Day, and 100% of proceeds go directly to a program of your choice supporting children in need.

Click on image below for e-card suggestions:

[Thanks to Only Positive News reader James for sending us this inspiring story! We're always grateful for suggestions such as these, so keep 'em coming!]

Claire Lomas approaches the London Marathon finishing line in her ReWalk bionic suit. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

A paralysed woman has become the first person to complete a marathon in a bionic suit.

Claire Lomas finished the London Marathon 16 days after the race began. The 32-year-old said she was “over the moon” as she completed the 26.2-mile route, which she started on 22 April with 36,000 other participants.

The former chiropractor was in tears as she became the first person to complete any marathon using a bionic ReWalk suit at 12.50pm on Tuesday.

Hundreds lined the streets as she made her final steps to complete the race. Three mounted members of the Household Cavalry gave her a guard of honour as she crossed the finishing line on the Mall.

A spokeswoman for the mounted regiment said the riders were there to give Lomas “extra support because she is passionate about horses”.

Read more about this inspiring first!

“Live in the moment.”

And in a perfect Zen-like world, that’s all we’d do. But is living in the past always such a bad thing? Of course, when you’re reliving past pain and anger repeatedly, that certainly isn’t so helpful. But perhaps there’s a way to bring the beauty of your personal past into your very real now.

What if you allowed your child-like self to come to life today? She could play, wander aimlessly and be dazzled by shiny objects. He might be more open to new ideas and to allowing more fun in.

What if you let your teenage self romp around for a bit? She could stomp when angry or he could play music really loud, just to annoy others.

What if you could bring back a feeling from the past? Some eras seem as if they were touched by magic. Could you bring some of that to life today by envisioning it, feeling it?

What if you could revisit a moment in your past and change the ending? We’ve all dreamed of it but did you know that even playing it out in your head can be vastly therapeutic? Win when you lost. Speak your mind when you were left speechless. Kiss him when you were too afraid.

The past is not to be avoided completely. It contains the building blocks of who we are now. All those different phases had a great degree of importance. Use your past instead of letting it use you!

Hey, listen. We’re hardly competitive here at Only Positive News. (That would kind of defeat the purpose, right?) We’re happy to promote other websites who contribute to a relatively small world of websites dedicated to positive news. Read about this latest endeavor, started by students, so hungry for more positive news, they created it themselves:

The Honors Junior English Department at Desert Vista High School [in Arizona] was tired of only seeing stories that painted public education in a negative light.

The idea of bringing news about the positives, to change public perception, sparked an idea within one of those DV teachers. That idea turned into a project of teamwork and passion which culminated in the form of a website after months of work by the students.

The five classes and more than 100 students worked together on ideas, structure and content for a standalone website, called The Thunder Project, www.thethunderproject.org. It was the first time such a project has been undertaken, and was envisioned by teachers Jennifer Atkins and Deborah Benedict.

“They are both very passionate about the subject and they wanted to do something more meaningful for this year’s classes,” said Zak Ferrara, student and assistant editor of the website. “We hear things all over that public education is failing. But it is succeeding for us.”

Read more at: East Valley Tribune

This morning, I wasn’t feeling it. At all. I decided to submerge myself in daylight for 15 minutes and see if I felt differently. Just a quick walk around the block prior to work. Sure enough, if worked. (And don’t worry; it doesn’t have to be a sunny day. Diffused sunlight can help as well.)

A lack of sunlight can lead to reduced mental performance, not just mood disorders, among depressed people, a U.S. university study claims.

“This new finding that weather may not only affect mood but also cognition has significant implications for the treatment of depression, particularly seasonal affective disorder,” University of Alabama at Birmingham researcher Shia Kent said.

We all know a lack of sunlight can contribute to bad moods and fuzzy thinking. Yet most of us don’t realize we can take our “vitamins” easily enough by simply stepping outside and taking in the rays for a bit.

Start your week off right with a blast of light.

It’s something many of us aspire to, but its often so hard to do. We recycle, we re-use, yet somehow there’s always trash. This town in Japan has made a transition to a cleaner environment and waste-free world:

In Kamikatsu, there’s no such thing as trash. You won’t find a single garbage bin in any of the town’s homes, and there’s not a dump anywhere within driving distance. Instead, the resourceful residents must compost all waste from their food, and sort other trash into 34 separate categories, with sections for plastic bottles, razor blades, Styrofoam, and various other paraphernalia.

The crazy part? Most locals actually seem to like the extreme recycling process. Kikue Nii, one resident, claims that the town’s no-waste policy makes her more mindful of what she’s using, and helps her to take advantage of every last scrap. “I think I produce less waste because I have to compost it,” she told BBC News.

“When I can’t use the whole vegetable or meat, I try to cook it again with wine and so on. It makes a very good soup. Everyone should have a composter if they can.”

Read more.

We often don’t think in terms of what “the other” experiences on a daily basis. What is a day like for someone dealing with chronic pain, for instance? Or someone who has just lost his or her mother? Or job? Okay, how about this: what is it like to be the tallest man in the world and never have a pair of shoes to wear?

Being tall isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be as Igor Vovkivinskiy can attest to. The 7-foot, 8.33-inch man is the tallest man in the United States and considered by many to be a giant of a man in more ways than one.

Vovkivinskiy is a man with a big heart both metaphorically and physically. His actual heart is double the size of the average man’s heart. In spite of his kindheartedness, he has been struggling to find adequate footwear his whole life.

He suffers from constant pain because of deformities in his feet which are the result of the 16 surgeries he’s been forced to have over the last five years. Since his teens, he has been unable to find shoes in a store that fit him. It has been so long since he could buy shoes that he isn’t even sure of the size.

Currently, the only pair of shoes he owns is a pair of clogs which provide no traction, no support and no protection from the elements in Rochester, Minnesota where he has lived since age 6. The shoes cause pain to his feet, legs and back.

So Vovkivinskiy devised a plan to come up with the money to pay for custom-made shoes. He created a Facebook page and a website for fundraising and began asking for donations to cover the cost of the shoes. People have delivered an outpouring of compassion and cash. Vovkivinskiy has raised over $37,000 to cover the cost of his shoes.

Read more about a tall man and his new shoes!

Most of us feel considerably more at ease when a pet is nearby. It brings out the calm and happiness in us almost instantly. But this recent study shows that dogs can help kids with autism considerably (50%!) when it comes to overall stress levels.

“A lot of times families feel trapped in their homes,” says Karen Shirk, executive director of Paws for Ability, a service dog–training organization in Ohio. “The dogs act as an anchor for the [autistic] child, giving families more freedom to go places together.

Through their comforting presence, service dogs for people with autism reduce their masters’ stress levels in a quantifiable way, according to a University of Montreal study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology. Researchers measured kids’ levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) before, during, and after they began working with a dog. When they had a dog by their side, children’s cortisol levels dropped by nearly 50 percent—a significant decrease. How much happier and more capable would all of us be with such a significant stress reduction? The results are promising.

Read more at Gimundo!

I met a man yesterday who was on a self-proclaimed retreat. No, it wasn’t an “official” retreat at some fancy spa or in the middle of the desert somewhere. It was at his friend’s shore house, which was empty during the winter. He’s a musician, works hard and just feels empty as of late: scattered, no new ideas and low on energy.

He only managed to get away from 3 days but he’s turned off his phone, made his environment quiet and welcoming, and is allowing himself to “clear the slate” as he put it.

Most of us never bother doing such a simple act of spiritual care. But undoubtedly most of us are in need of that thorough downtime that’s dedicated to repair, reflection, creation. Our world has never been so frenzied and frenetic. We need to take that downtime, because no one is going to take it for us! Our mental, spiritual and physical health require time to unwind in a thorough manner.

If you can’t afford a fancy retreat somewhere, how could you make a day off “retreat-like”? Turning the phone off for a day would be a nice start. (Come on! You can do it. Stop using “Well, it could be an emergency” as an excuse. We lived a long time without our precious cell phones.) Picking up that book you’ve been meaning to read. Writing about any old thing in your journal. Going for a long walk. Reflecting on your past and how it’s lead you to where you are now. Being at peace with yourself.

Retreat. Reflect. Revive.