8-year old Felix Pepin had a crash course in driving…luckily not literally!

His mother, Dahianara Sanchez, who suffers from diabetes, started experiencing dangerously low blood sugar while driving her car several weeks ago through West Reading, Pennsylvania. Suddenly, she lost her sight

“All of a sudden my vision started going a little bit flaky and I told Felix, ‘I’m losing my vision,’” Dahianara said.

Felix then jumped into action, giving his mom verbal driving instructions.

“I told her which lane to go in and which lane not to go in,” Felix said.

The vehicle traveled several blocks before Felix discovered a spot to pull over. That’s when Dihianara finally blacked out.

“I put the car in park and I took my mom’s phone and dialed 911,” Felix said.

“When asked how it feels to be a hero, Felix replied it was scary at first, but now it makes him feel happy.”

Ah, a reluctant hero…that’s what all good stories are about!

What are hobbies? Does anyone know?

We’re all so busy moving and shaking and multi-tasking, we often forget this rewarding, truly rejuvenating practice.

Hobbies have been shown to lower your blood pressure and quiet your mind. For people who don’t quite “get” meditation, hobbies are a perfect replacement. They allow time to stand still, your mind to wander carelessly, like a kite on a breezy day.

So why do they take such a backseat in this day and age? Hobbies are no longer deemed important or needed. Hobbies seemed to abound when there was more time. Now, time is of the essence!

Today, make some time for a hobby. Whether its reading or knitting or painting or refinishing a dresser or making a doll or fixing a broken mug or fishing. Bask in the glory of a hobby.

Bring back hobbies!

Positive News for Hobbies

As the World Harmony Run website puts it:

The World Harmony Run is a global relay that seeks to promote international friendship and understanding. As a symbol of harmony, runners carry a flaming torch, passing it from hand to hand travelling through over 100 nations around the globe. The World Harmony Run does not seek to raise money or highlight any political cause, but simply strives to create goodwill among peoples of all nations.

The International World Harmony Run team has recently arrived on the beautiful island of Borneo in the city of Kota Kinabalu, capital of the Malaysian region of Sabah.

Nelson Mandela and his wife Graça Machel hold the torch with founder Sri Chinmoy

Keep the torch lit, global friends!

Excuse me. I don’t mean to get too personal here, but what’s the story behind your underwear? What do I mean, you ask? There is no story, you proclaim indignantly!

Actually there is. Your underwear were made somewhere (just like everything you’re wearing) and it behooves you to know more about the source.

Many people throughout the world work in abysmal conditions making clothing and the farmers making the cotton for your underwear are often underpaid and price gouged.

Pants to Poverty is a positive social enterprise that aims to draw attention to the issues surrounding cotton farming: sweatshops, unfair prices and overuse of pesticides.

According to one website:

All of the cotton used in Pants to Poverty is provided by Agrocel Pure and Fair Cotton Growers’ Association, sourced from a group of cotton farmers in the Mandvi area of Kutch, Gujarat in Western India. Due to salinity of the soil, cotton is one of the only cash crops that farmers can grow here, yet for years they were unable to get a stable price for their crop.

Pants to Poverty

We all like it when the underdog wins. And nowhere was that better displayed than the sweep Slumdog Millionaire made at the 81st Oscars last evening. Slumdog is the Cinderella-type tale of a Mumbai orphan who rises from rags to riches, a film made on a “paltry” 15 million dollar budget.

As one reviewer put it, “It was a stunning triumph for a film that, not unlike its hero, was orphaned by one distributor before it was picked up by another and adopted by audiences around the world.”

Last night, it scored all eight categories in which it was nominated, including best picture and director.

Let’s hear it for the slumdogs of the world!

“‘If I can get here, so can you,’ director Danny Boyle told the audience in a brief acceptance speech. ‘Dream kind, dream hard.’

Producer Christian Colson, right, and Anil Kapoor celebrate after the film "Slumdog Millionaire" won best motion picture of the year during the 81st Academy Awards Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) ( Mark J. Terrill )

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.

Positive News for Athletes

Many athletes have experienced chronic pain such as tennis elbow and tendonitis. Some careers have been cut short because of unmanageable injuries.

Well, there’s a new therapy that’s been unleashed that’s strikingly simple and effective - injecting the blood of the injured athlete into the injury itself. It’s called platelet-rich plasma therapy and is changing the lives of many who’s livelihood relies on their bodies working optimally.

Injecting the athlete’s blood into a particular location catalyzes the body’s ability to repair muscle, bone and other tissue. Doctors say that this technique appears to help regenerate ligament and tendon fibers, which could shorten rehabilitation time and possibly rid the patient of the need for surgery.

“It’s a better option for problems that don’t have a great solution — it’s nonsurgical and uses the body’s own cells to help it heal,” said Dr. Allan Mishra, an assistant professor of orthopedics at Stanford University Medical Center and one of the primary researchers in the field. “I think it’s fair to say that platelet-rich plasma has the potential to revolutionize not just sports medicine but all of orthopedics. It needs a lot more study, but we are obligated to pursue this.”

As we become increasingly reliant on drugs and expensive treatments, its rewarding to know that some therapies rely on the power of our own bodies.

Source: New York Times

Every once in a while, at Only Positive News, we toss out a little philosophy to our readers, amidst all the wonderful and inspiring true stories that abound everyday.

Today, I wanted to address the lemonade side of your most sour lemon story. This is not an easy task. Heck, it’s not even a task. Its more of a practice. Think of it as increasing your positivity skills or building your positivity muscles.

Let’s take a bad situation you currently find yourself in. Maybe its an unhappy relationship or a toxic work situation or a loss of someone dear. Maybe its troubling finances or strained family situations or a chronic illness.

First off, acknowledge that your upset about it. Many New Age philosophies don’t seem to allow for any negativity, which seems utterly unrealistic. It’s alright to be upset, angry, hurt. Sit with those feelings before you go any further. Grieve if you need to. Cry if you can (many people have lost the ability to purge their feelings through tears, which is a real tragedy, since its so deeply therapeutic.)

Then look at the situation from a different angle, a different “lens.” Has there been any good that has come out of the situation? Don’t just say no because that seems unimaginable! Open up. Perhaps you’ve learned some new coping skills. Maybe you became closer to a friend because you allowed yourself to share your situation (which is a real honor to a good friend.) Maybe you’ve become a little more spiritual, because you needed some faith and hope.

This is not easy. Bad things happen and bad things hurt. Life can be painfully unfair. And some New Age philosophies can make you want to scream because they ring so horribly false. But grieving and seeing a little golden thread in a seemingly black and bleak situation can be a lesson learned. It helps you integrate the situation, not run or hide from it.

Some day, in years to come, you will be wrestling with the great
temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the
real struggle is here, now, in these quiet weeks. Now it is being
decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you
shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made
except by a steady, long continued process.

– Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) American Bishop

I have some friends who complain that they are too old to (fill in the blank) and they’re in the early 30’s! It’s time like this I thoroughly embrace sharing stories of this magnitude.

Jennifer Figge, a 56-year-old Colorado native, lived out a dream she had since the 1960’s, when she crossed the Atlantic in a plane. The flight was rather tumultuous and she wondered, if the plane crashed, whether she could don a life jacket and swim the rest of the way.

Imagine that…a little idea, based on some very real fear, that grows and grows over decades until you finally watch it manifest. Perhaps all of our “worst imaginings” have a germ of hope in them; a dream deep inside. Nice to think of the next time you’re filled with anxiety over something!

FIgge left the Cape Verde Islands off the western coast of Africa on Jan. 12, contending with waves of up to 30 feet and strong winds. On February 7, she made her Transatlanic destination of Trinidad. She plans to continue her journey, swimming from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands, where she expects to arrive in late February, then back home to Aspen, to see her dog Hank.

Read more about her amazing journey and the preparation behind it.

Message of this story: you never know who you’re messing with!

Three teens posed as good Samaritans as they carried 72-year old Jean Hirst’s bags to her car in Derbyshire, England. Unfortunately, helping wasn’t exactly on the their minds. As one snatched her purse and began running, little did the teen know that Ms. Hirst was a former All England Schools championship sprinter with running in her blood.

As Ms. Hirst put it:

“Suddenly I felt 18 again. The adrenaline just kicked in and I seemed to turn back the years. She had a head start but I covered 70 yards in about 15 seconds and was within two strides of her when she looked over her shoulder and saw me.

She probably thought I was an easy target but she shouldn’t have judged a book by its cover. The look on her face was one of sheer amazement and she just threw my bag aside.”

The only consequence to her unplanned dash?

“I did pay for it a little the next day. I was covered in aches and pains and my daughter turned to me and said it was because I didn’t warm up properly.”