Even if you don’t sail, you probably understand the freedom and magic that comes with such an airy pursuit. Sail in your mind today, even if you’re stuck somewhere with nary a breeze!

If you live a life of make-believe, your life isn’t worth anything until you do something that does challenge your reality. And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge, because it’s life or death. - Morgan Freeman

I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full. - Arthur Ashe

I use filming as an excuse to take classes. I got my certification in sailing for ‘Wedding Crashers,’ and now I can handle a 26-foot boat. I played a seamstress once, so I took sewing classes. I love dipping into these other lives. - Rachel McAdams

I have no interest in sailing around the world. Not that there is any lack of requests for me to do so. - Edward Heath

What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous. -Thomas Merton

We’ve heard that “pride comes before a fall” yet we all know that pride also empowers us and fuels our ability to achieve. So what is it? How much should you have before it’s too much?

Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up. It’s all a matter of pride.
Nancy Lopez

A portion of mankind take pride in their vices and pursue their purpose; many more waver between doing what is right and complying with what is wrong.
Horace

After all these years I had the privilege of naming my private part, cause we have nicknames. So I named my private part pride… it’s not much but at least I have my pride.
Jay London

Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up.
Mahatma Gandhi

Despite what people think of cowboys, they take pride in how they look, and that look is important to them.
Steve Kanaly

Everyone I know has attention deficit, and they say it with great pride. It’s a bad time to be right.
Joni Mitchell

It is better to lose your pride with someone you love rather than to lose that someone you love with your useless pride.
John Ruskin

Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves.
Emily Brontë

After all these years I had the privilege of naming my private part, cause we have nicknames. So I named my private part pride... it's not much but at least I have my pride. Jay London

Whether metaphorically or literally, singing is a beautiful way of expressing yourself. So let your heart sing out or sing your favorite song proudly. Let these quotes inspire you to sing today. Sing like you just don’t care.

My heart is like a singing bird.
Christina Rossetti

I spent many years laughing at Harry Secombe’s singing until somebody told me that it wasn’t a joke.
Spike Milligan

Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.
Rudyard Kipling

Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much.
Zora Neale Hurston

My heart is singing for joy this morning! A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil’s mind, and behold, all things are changed!
Anne Sullivan

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?
Bertrand Russell

Nothing I have done professionally will top the feeling I got when singing with John Farnham at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Olivia Newton-John

Singing is the love of my life, but I was ready to give it all up because I couldn’t handle people talking about how fat I was.
Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/singing_2.html#ixzz1nmobtYjx

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.

Read more

“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.