This story is a great reminder that sometimes even facts lie. Sometimes things are still living, just barely there, when we’re sure they’re long since gone. Sometimes miracles do happen:

An elephant gave birth to a calf at Sydney’s main zoo on Wednesday, surprising vets and keepers who two days earlier declared the baby had died in the womb.

“When the keepers learned the calf had survived this morning, the looks of disbelief on our faces were quite a picture. We couldn’t believe that this could be true,” said Taronga Zoo’s elephant manager Gary Miller.

Officials said they now believe the calf was in a coma throughout the labor. They said the calf had since taken its first steps, but it was too early to know if it would survive.

The Asian elephant mother delivered the male baby in the early hours of Wednesday in what Taronga Park Zoo officials said was “unbelievable good fortune”.

“Dedicated keepers reported the amazing news early this morning that the calf had been born and was showing signs of life,” said zoo director Cameron Kerr.

On Monday, Kerr said despite an expert team of vets who had prepared for every eventuality, the calf had not survived after six days of labor, and ultrasounds found there was no chance of a successful birth.

(Reporting by James Grubel, editing by Miral Fahmy) Source: Reuters

World, meet “Mr Shuffles”

To be upset over what you don’t have is to waste what you do have.  ~Ken S. Keyes, Jr., Handbook to Higher Consciousness

Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it.  ~Joe Clark

The only disability in life is a bad attitude.  ~Scott Hamilton

If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.  ~Vince Lombardi

My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants.  ~J. Brotherton

There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it reluctantly.  ~Publius Terentius Afer

I don’t like that man.  I must get to know him better.  ~Abraham Lincoln

Just because you’re miserable doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your life.  ~Annette Goodheart

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.  ~Albert Camus, Lyrical and Critical Essays

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.  ~Buddha

There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes.  ~William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues

Source: QuoteGarden

I was reading a Newsweek article a while back that spoke of the growing need for positive news. Apparently, it’s a real commodity. Go ahead - do a search for “positive news stories.” You’ll be surprised how little you find, relatively speaking.

But guess what? It’s gradually increasing. People can only take traditional, negative news for so long. Our minds and souls have a natural pull toward positivity. It’s good for us!

The best reason to get a healthy dose of good news is that it’s good for you. Studies show that a calm and optimistic mind can have health benefits, like lower blood pressure and deeper sleep.

Which explains why it’s not just me; good news is a pretty hot commodity these days. Of course it’s impossible to find a positive spin on every bit of depressing information that comes across on the cable-news crawl. But organizations that dish up unreported or unnoticed positive stories are becoming hot commodities.

Ode’s circulation (currently just above 100,000) has more than quadrupled in the past year, and Geri Weis-Corbley, who runs a Web site called the Good News Network on a pay-what-you-think-it’s-worth model, says people are definitely in the giving mood.

NBC recently got in the game when they began asking viewers for positive stories to feature on their evening broadcast, which had, like everything else, been thick with depressing recession stories since last fall. They got an overwhelming response.

Source: Newsweek

So it looks like we’re really on to something! Let’s “pay it forward” this 2010 and bring up the positivity level. Remember, it starts with you. A smile, a kind gesture, a hug, a gift, some time, listening, forgiveness, taking care of your environment, being kind to animals - making your own positive news!

You never know where you’ll find love. It comes in strange places and unpredictable times. It comes when you’ve lost all hope. It comes when you’re barely even looking for it. It comes and it goes and it comes back again.

This story reminds us of all the wonderful intricacies of love:

On January 15th, 2009, a flight took off from New York City’s LaGuardia airport—but it didn’t get very far. As you probably know by now, a flock of geese jammed up the plane’s engines, stalling it in mid-air. The plane seemed destined for a fatal crash, but the pilot, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger kept a cool head and steered the aircraft down for a smooth landing in the Hudson River. Everyone on board survived the crash.

Minutes later, the passengers and crew were loaded onto rescue boats, leaving the sinking plane behind. Ben Bostic was on one boat; Laura Zych was on board another. Though Bostic had noticed Zych before they’d boarded the fateful flight, he never spoke with her that day, too rattled by their mutual near-death experience.

But months later, the survivors of Flight 1549 reunited to share their story on 60 Minutes, and many became friends. Then, in July, one of the passengers arranged another get-together at her home in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bostic and Zych were both in attendance, and Zych, who lived in the area, offered to let Bostic spend the night on her couch. Instead, they ended up talking until 6 in the morning. They’ve been a couple ever since.

Having come so close to death, the happy couple never takes their luck for granted. Every evening, they dance together to their favorite songs. “We do that as part of our decompressing and loving life,” Zych told New York Magazine. “Just so that your day ends on a good note.”

Next month, the couple plans to attend yet another reunion for Flight 1549 passengers and crew, this time in New York City. Though all of the survivors agree that the experience was traumatic, their meetings are always joyous occasions. “Even the first time you meet someone from that flight, it’s like you’re instantly bonded,” said Zych. “You can’t be around this group of people and not feel good.”

Source: Gimundo

What we consider “positive news” at our site spans the globe and the imagination. Positive news can include good news about things that were reputed bad…but we still like! You know, things like chocolate…or coffee!

Apparently, coffee (or any other hot beverage) creates a positive flood of emotions in our brains, merely by holding the cup in our hands:

It may seem unlikely, but simply clutching a warm cup of coffee can bring on a flood of warm feelings, U.S. researchers say in a finding that suggests a strong link between physical and emotional warmth.

“Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer - more generous and trusting - as well,” said John Bargh, a professor of psychology at Yale University in Connecticut, whose research appears in the journal Science.

Bargh and Lawrence Williams of University of Colorado at Boulder ran a series of experiments to test the ties between physical temperature and emotional warmth.

They asked people to briefly hold a hot or iced coffee. Then they were given a packet of information about another person and asked to assess his or her personality traits.

Those who had held the warm cup of coffee were far more likely to assign “warmth” as a personality trait than those who held the icy beverage.

In the second study, volunteers held ice packs or therapeutic heating pads as part of a product evaluation study. Then they were told they could receive a gift certificate for a friend or a gift for themselves.

Those who had held the hot pad were more likely to ask for the gift certificate, while those who held the frozen pack tended to keep the gift.

“These very subtle and relatively simple cues are capable of having a meaningful impact on people’s behavior,” Williams said.

He said imaging studies suggest temperature information - both physical and interpersonal - are processed in a region of the brain known as the insular cortex.

And he said these associations are likely formed in early childhood, noting that when an infant learns about love and physical closeness it typically happens while snuggling up to a parent’s warm body.

“Taking a warm bath. Drinking a cup of tea or coffee. Chicken soup. It’s not haphazard that we have a preference for these types of experiences,” he said.

Williams said it is no accident that people in Western cultures looking to build new relationships often do it over coffee. “It’s better than going out for ice cream,” he said.

Source: Reuters

Here come the holidays, like a giant tidal wave. You can run but you cannot hide! Is there a way to navigate these life landmarks without feeling bowled over?

Sure. It requires simplifying. A few posts ago, we discussed the idea of not overdoing it with gifts this year and figuring out some alternative ways to give.

Since Thanksgiving is a few days away, what can you do to simplify?

1. Be genuinely thankful. Wake up in the morning and spend ten quiet minutes giving thanks for all that is going well in your life. Even if you’re experiencing an extremely challenging time, there are always things for which to give thanks. Think small. Be thankful for a good cup of coffee. A hot shower. A good, old movie that made you cry, The clean, crisp air.

2. Don’t overdo it. It’s become almost tradition to overdo it on the holidays - eating until we’re ready to burst. For the sake of others on this planet who have none, try not to stuff yourself to the gills. Respect your body’s limit. Take a break. Drink water. And wrap up every leftover. Give it to friends or charities who may need some extra. (I have some young college guys who live down the street - they’ll love the extra turkey this Friday!)

3. Make genuine connections. This one may be the hardest. Some of us don’t have “perfect” relations with our families so holidays can be trying and draining. This year, try to move past some of your internal walls. Listen to people with a little more care, extend yourself, be warm, be kind, be grateful for the ways they’ve contributed to your life. In short, give back!

Give back to yourself as well. One technique I’ve mastered? The holiday break! Go for a walk after dinner alone. Go sit with yourself in an empty room and breathe. Take a few minutes to read a book. Break from the pack and reconnect with yourself, even if its for a short period. (This one makes a big difference - trust me!)

Listen - the holidays can be beautiful times but they’re no walk in the park. Its up to you to change the unspoken rules and make them work for you. And it doesn’t take much.

“Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours”

~ Swedish Proverb quotes

“The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”

“You’ve done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.”

~Ralph Marston

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”

~ Carl Gustav Jung

“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.”

~ Oprah Winfrey

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

In his 1996 New Year Message, then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong highlighted the need for Singapore to become a gracious society by the 21st century. Considerate social behaviour supported by a strong economy and good government will make Singapore the best home for its people. In line with Mr. Goh’s call to build a gracious society, the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) aims to encourage Singaporeans to make a positive commitment to gracious living through simple acts of kindness in their daily activities.

Interview with Dr Giorgio Aiassa from the Italian Kindness Movement in conjunction with World Kindness Day.

SKM: What is the significance of World Kindness Day for you and your organisation?
Giorgio Aiassa: It is a means for reminding all people, one day out of 365, that kindness is the best of all virtues making human beings the noblest creatures on earth.

SKM: How is your organisation celebrating WKD on 13 Nov?
Giorgio Aiassa: We shall distribute a large amount of flyers to be further relayed onwards to any person thankfully reacting to an act of kindness, thus generating a sort of ‘Kindness chain’.

SKM: What is your wish for kindness?
Giorgio Aiassa: We wish that Kindness becomes deeply and intimately part of all citizens spirit so that social rules and restrictions become redundant and meaningless.

SKM: What can we improve on so we can be kinder?
Giorgio Aiassa: The best way for being kind in a uniform and consistent way is to find a perfect, intimate balance between reason and feelings.

SKM: Can you share a saying or quote about kindness that you follow?
Giorgio Aiassa: Our motto is printed in our logo: ‘Kindness is a flower which brings sunshine to our lives. Let us nurture it!’.

SKM: What is one kind act that we can all do today?
Giorgio Aiassa: The whole world would perform an act of kindness in favour of future generations by promoting serious birth-control programs encouraging lower or higher birth rate in accordance with the different local situations.

The Singapore Kindness Movement Chairman Koh Poh

Tiong (above) remains optimistic that Singaporeans are

innately kind. –ST PHOTO: JOHARI RAHMAT

Professor Robert Emmons recently lectured to students at Chico University to talk about what he knows best:

Psychology has long followed the medical model, focusing on what’s wrong with a person and how that could be fixed, he said. In the last decade, proponents of positive psychology have added something new: an emphasis on the person’s strengths and potential.

For instance, someone who has lost his or her job and feels depressed might seek help from a psychologist, he said. A practitioner of positive psychology might, in addition to considering the depression, also explore the person’s capacities. The client might be very compassionate and/or persistent. Perhaps a new career in a field more “congruent” with those qualities can be found, Emmons said.

Positive psychology isn’t a starting point with someone who is severely depressed, he acknowledged. “You have to stop the bleeding first.”

But after the severe problem has been treated successfully with psychotherapy and/or drugs, there is often room for positive psychology to help even more, he said.

So how can you integrate some positive psychology in your life today? It all comes back to gratitude again. Interestingly Emmons points out that negative thinking may have an evolutionary reason for existing. It’s for survival. Negative thinking can warn you that things could wrong again so you better be prepared.

Gratitude is a way to train yourself away from that negative trend. So even if you’re feeling blue or downright depressed, most of us can muster a few things we are grateful for. That simple process often has a positive cyclical effect. Our minds become used to viewing our lives with a more positive lens. So count your blessings - nothing new but somehow, revolutionary!

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”

- G.K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton

Perhaps you’ve heard the expression, “Fake it till you make it.” If you’re like me, you’ve always been a bit wary of “faking it.” Not only is it inauthentic but tiring!

But there’s a fine line. Sometimes a little psychic push is needed to change your emotional parameters.

In a 1988 study, researchers at the University of Mannheim in Germany had participants look at Far Side cartoon strips under two conditions: One group of people was asked to hold pencils between their teeth, which forced their mouths into smiles. The others held the pencils with just their lips, which produced a frowning expression. According to the results, the people who’d been forced to smile found the comics far more hilarious than the frowners did.

So if you want to boost your mood, just grin and bear it. Soon enough, your smile will be for real. Science says so.

Source: Dr. Richard Wiseman’s Quirkology”