Let’s take a moment of thanks and appreciation for the Occupy Wall Street protesters. You don’t have to agree with them. But they are exercising their rights as US citizens and taking a stand and attempting to make a positive change.

What can you do today to take a stand, no matter how small? Make a difference in your own life first and the ripple effect will occur. How can you instill in others around you the importance of standing up for your rights?

Just stumbled across this piece in the DailyGood.com and wanted to share it. Who doesn’t like quick and easy answers? Have a great weekend. Do something wild and wonderful.

Surprising ways to instantly improve your mood

by Gretchen Rubin

Being happier doesn’t have to be a long-term ambition. You can start right now. In the next 30 minutes, tackle as many of the following suggestions as possible. Not only will these tasks themselves increase your happiness, but the mere fact that you’ve achieved some concrete goals will boost your mood.

1. Raise your activity level to pump up your energy. If you’re on the phone, stand up and pace. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Put more energy into your voice. Take a brisk 10-minute walk. Even better…

2. Take a walk outside. Research suggests that light stimulates brain chemicals that improve mood. For an extra boost, get your sunlight first thing in the morning.

3. Reach out. Send an e-mail to a friend you haven’t seen in a while, or reach out to someone new. Having close bonds with other people is one of the most important keys to happiness. When you act in a friendly way, not only will others feel more friendly toward you, but you’ll also strengthen your feelings of friendliness for other people.

4. Rid yourself of a nagging task. Deal with that insurance problem, purchase something you need, or make that long-postponed appointment with the dentist. Crossing an irksome chore off your to-do list will give you a rush of elation.

5. Create a more serene environment. Outer order contributes to inner peace, so spend some time organizing bills and tackling the piles in the kitchen. A large stack of little tasks can feel overwhelming, but often just a few minutes of work can make a sizable dent. Set the timer for 10 minutes and see what you can do.

6. Do a good deed. Introduce two people by e-mail, take a minute to pass along useful information, or deliver some gratifying praise. In fact, you can also…

7. Save someone’s life. Sign up to be an organ donor, and remember to tell your family about your decision. Do good, feel good?it really works!

8. Act happy. Fake it ’til you feel it. Research shows that even an artificially induced smile boosts your mood. And if you’re smiling, other people will perceive you as being friendlier and more approachable.

9. Learn something new. Think of a subject that you wish you knew more about and spend 15 minutes on the Internet reading about it, or go to a bookstore and buy a book about it. But be honest! Pick a topic that really interests you, not something you think you “should” or “need to” learn about. Some people worry that wanting to be happier is a selfish goal, but in fact, research shows that happier people are more sociable, likable, healthy, and productive?and they’re more inclined to help other people. By working to boost your own happiness, you’re making other people happier, too.

Here at Only Positive News, we’ve written about The Homeless World Cup in the past, one of our favorite organizations. The eighth annual Homeless World Cup, held this year in Rio de Janeiro from Sept. 19 to 26, uses soccer as a vehicle to help homeless people come together and make positive changes in their lives.

Russia is really cleaning up this year:

Team Russia have shown a 100 per cent result in their group at the Homeless World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, scoring 30 goals in four games.

Russia thrashed Switzerland 9-3 in their latest games, beating Greece (5-2), Lithuania (7-4) and the Czech Republic (9-4) in their previous clashes.

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“In Rio de Janeiro, the Russian national team starts every match with a strong winning attitude. There are different ways of people getting into distress, but the thing that unites everybody who came here is the desire not to be a loser,” Arkady Tyurin, Russian team’s leader, said.

Russia is known as a powerhouse of homeless football, having grabbed the World Championship title in 2006 and reaching the finals two years later.

The UEFA-backed tournament is aimed to represent a lifetime opportunity for homeless and excluded people from more than 60 nations from all around the globe.

According to the statistics, more than 70 per cent of the participants of previous homeless championships were subsequently able to normalize their social status, and one of the players – Bebe of Portugal – even signed a contract with Manchester United.

Source: RT

In addition, a Palestinian team is in attendance for the first time:

Palestinian refugees formed a national football team to attend Rio 2010 Homeless World Cup in Brazil for first time during 19 – 26 September as a civilian move, in a move Palestinian youth tries to defy the walls surrounding them in both, homeland and refugee camps abroad.

Organised by the Palestinian Sport Office in Lebanon, The Palestine Homeless World Cup team was selected on 25 August from homeless people living in the refugee camps of Lebanon, Homeless World Cup Foundation said on its website.

Palestine will stand proud with 64 nations, hosted by Brazil, from 2010 at Copacabana Beach, Rio, Brazil.

President, Palestinian Office for Youth and Sports in Lebanon, Mr. Mohammad Zaidani, said: “These Palestinian camps have suffered hunger, murder and aggression. Today sport is the only outlet for these youths who have experienced such loss.”

Source: World Bulletin News

Ah, beauty. What a touchy subject! It’s all around us, it’s in the eye of the beholder, of course. But in a world that values perfection so greatly, it’s often hard to find your own beauty without comparing and judging. Here are a few inspirational words on the topic:

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our hearts are drunk with a beauty our eyes could never see.  ~George W. Russell

I’ve never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful.  ~Author Unknown

By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.  ~Rabindrath Tagore

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.  ~Kahlil Gibran

Against Him those women sin who torment their skin with potions, stain their cheeks with rouge and extend the line of their eyes with black coloring.  Doubtless they are dissatisfied with God’s plastic skill.  In their own persons they convict and censure the Artificer of all things.  ~Tertullian

That which is striking and beautiful is not always good, but that which is good is always beautiful.  ~Ninon de L’Enclos

Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty - they merely move it from their faces into their hearts.  ~Martin Buxbaum

Tell them dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for being
~Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Rhodora”

It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.  ~Leo Tolstoy

Beauty comes in all sizes, not just size 5.  ~Roseanne Barr

I don’t like standard beauty - there is no beauty without strangeness.  ~Karl Lagerfeld

Here at Only Positive News, we want to create in our readers a more positive outlook organically. Surprisingly that can come about in some seemingly inauthentic ways. It’s an outside-in approach to positivity, often referred to as “fake it until you make it.”

Here’s an excerpt from a great article that scientifically proves you can make a difference simply by playing a role of happiness:

If social psychologists have proven anything during the last 30 years, they have proven that the actions we take leave a residue inside us. Every time we act, we amplify the underlying idea or tendency behind it. Most people presume the reverse: that our traits and attitudes affect our behavior. While this is true to a certain extent (though less so than commonly supposed), it is also true that our traits and attitudes follow our behavior. We are as likely to act ourselves into a new way of thinking as to think ourselves into a new way of acting.

There is a practical moral here for us all. Do we wish to change ourselves in some important way? Perhaps boost our self-esteem? Become more optimistic and socially assertive? Well, a potent strategy is to get up and start doing that very thing. Don’t worry that you don’t feel like it. Fake it. Pretend self-esteem. Feign optimism. Simulate outgoingness.

In experiments, people have been asked to write essays or present themselves to an interviewer in either self-enhancing or selfdeprecating ways. Those who act as if they are exceptionally intelligent, caring, and sensitive people later express higher self-esteem when privately describing themselves to a different researcher. This saying-becomes-believing effect is harnessed by therapy techniques (such as behavior therapy, rational-emotive therapy, and cognitive therapy), each of which prods the clients into practicing more positive talk and behavior.

Yes, telling people to act or talk positively sounds like telling people to be phony. But, as usually happens when we step into some new role–perhaps our first days “playing” parent, salesperson, or teacher–an amazing thing happens: The phoniness gradually subsides. We notice that our uncomfortable sense of being a parent, for instance, no longer feels forced. The new role–and the new behaviors and accompanying attitudes–have begun to fit us as comfortably as an old pair of blue jeans.

The moral: Going through the motions can trigger the emotions. Surely you’ve noticed. You’re in a testy mood, but when the phone rings you feign cheer while talking to a friend. Strangely, after hanging up, you no longer feel so grumpy. Such is the value of social occasions–they impel us to behave as if we were happy, which in fact helps free us from our unhappiness.

Granted, we can’t expect ourselves to become more upbeat and socially confident overnight. But rather than limply resign ourselves to our current traits and emotions, we can stretch ourselves, step by step. Rather than waiting until we feel like making those calls or reaching out to that person, we can begin. If we are too anxious, modest, or indifferent, we can pretend, trusting that before long the pretense will diminish as our actions ignite a spark inside–the spark that will lead to happiness.

Source: PreventDisease.com

I heard a sermon years ago where the priest encouraged us to do one quiet, thankless act a day - one you didn’t tell anyone about, one you didn’t overly celebrate - just an act you performed quietly, humbly.

This isn’t as easy as one would think. Most of us want notice for the ways in which we contribute. We want to pat ourselves on the back for our act. None of this is bad per se, but there is a higher spiritual place one can attain by keeping the act to ourselves and being quiet, even to ourselves, about it.

What kind of acts? It could be something as seemingly small as a smile to someone who needs it, cleaning up a park or beach nearby, petting a lonely dog, playing with a child, calling a loved one you haven’t spoken to in a while. Or perhaps its time to look into some volunteer services in your area. (Many of us want to volunteer but something always gets in the way, doesn’t it?)

Give. Be quiet. Be humble in the face of your own act.

It’s hard to let go of hurt feelings. Or a broken heart. Or words unspoken.

It’s hard to let go of a loved one who may be ill or just may need to be removed from your life for a while.

Our minds love to grasp, to control. Letting go often feels very counter-intuitive. It’s almost as if we think the more we mull over something, the more likely an answer will arise.

Often, fortunately or unfortunately, nothing could be farther from the truth.

You’ve heard the expression, “A watched pot never boils”? The same holds true with any idea or a feeling we hold too dear.

Change often occurs when we allow ourselves to genuinely let go of something or someone. Why? Perhaps its an energetic issue: when we can release our entrenched thoughts, we allow some room for growth or change. We also give our minds and spirits a rest so we can come up with more productive  solutions down the road.

Allow yourself to give SPACE to your problems and trust that they’ll play out just the way they should.

If there’s a person or a thought that you seem to be mulling over too much, take a break. Send it away on a imaginary trip. Let it fix itself, without your input.

Instead, relax, breathe and remember that you exist on this planet now - and some problems are beyond our control. While that might seem tough to hear for the control freaks out there, there’s actually lots of freedom in that thought: freedom for your mind and spirit.

Let go and let god, whoever your god may be.

Let your problems breathe.

Let yourself breathe.

And don’t try to fix it all.

Forgiveness is more than just an action or a concept. We all know how powerful it feels when you let go of the anger or attachment of pain when we’ve been hurt by someone’s actions. A higher love takes us over. A deep sense of relief is felt.

But did you know that there are some very practical aspects to forgiveness as well?

According to the Mayo Clinic, here are some other perks to genuinely forgiving and letting go:

Researchers have recently become interested in studying the effects of being unforgiving and being forgiving. Evidence is mounting that holding on to grudges and bitterness results in long-term health problems. Forgiveness, on the other hand, offers numerous benefits, including:

• Lower blood pressure
• Stress reduction
• Less hostility
• Better anger management skills
• Lower heart rate
• Lower risk of alcohol or substance abuse
• Fewer depression symptoms
• Fewer anxiety symptoms
• Reduction in chronic pain
• More friendships
• Healthier relationships
• Greater religious or spiritual well-being
• Improved psychological well-being

Most of us are painfully unaware of our bodies…unless there’s something wrong with them. We don’t realize that our body holds a tremendous amount of power. The way you use it sends out subtle cues to all those around you. If you are walking around, slumped shoulders, head down, eyes cast to the ground, you may not be sending the most positive messages to the world.

This is a real “outside in” approach. It has nothing to do with The Secret or New Age philosophies. Changing your physicality is a simple, practical method that can make some very direct changes to your life.

First, take a good, hard look in front of the mirror. Don’t impose any adjustments. Look at yourself “as is.” What impressions does your physicality send? Closed off? Sad? Receptive?

Then make some minor adjustments; nothing too much. Just some subtle changes. Pull your shoulder back a little more. Open up your chest. Open your throat area (an area we can often close off without noticing.) Take a deep breath. Center and ground yourself.

These steps may seem minor but they’re not at all. Your body is intricately tied to your psyche. This has been known for century upon century. But all this time in front of a computer takes you away from yourself, on a very core level.

Luckily simple changes can make a big difference.

Today, hold you head up. Open your chest and your throat area. Feel the vulnerability and conversely, the strength.

Today, be in your body.

This story is so inspirational, positive and ongoing that it deserves a revisit from Only Positive News.

There are over 1 billion homeless people existing on this planet. The Homeless World Cup was established to put an end to this prevalent problem and to also showcase the skills of people who are often too busy struggling to survive. If you think this is a small, grassroots effort, think again.

This event has taken the world by storm. The first tournament began in Graz in 2003 with 17 national teams. At the 5th Homeless World Cup in Copenhagen in the summer of this year, 48 nations, 500 players were brought together for a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country. Melbourne is the host city for the upcoming tournament from 1-7 December 2008.

In preparation, a new Australian team was announced this week to compete. This is the first time a dedicated women’s competition will be held in the history of the Homeless World Cup.

“Apart from coming to Melbourne to represent my country, getting selected to be the Captain of the Women’s team is probably the best thing to have ever happened to me,” Toni Whelan had to say. Whelan was awarded Best Female Player of the 2008 National Street Soccer Championships as well.

Says founder Mel Young:

“The Homeless World Cup has demonstrated the power of sport to change lives, to change the world. The sixth Homeless World Cup in Melbourne is the pinnacle of the year round work by grass-roots football programs in 56 nations, which bring together over 30,000 players for training, to rebuild their lives and communities.

“The Homeless World Cup is growing fast, traveling to the far corners of the globe to engage people who are homeless, to change hearts and minds, and to pioneer imaginative solutions to address this key global issue.”

Australia’s Street Matildas take Uganda’s victory in their stride after their Homeless World Cup match at Federation Square yesterday. Photo: Penny Stephens