Never underestimate the power of a movie. It can be just the ticket when you feel down. Whether the movie moves you to tears or laughter, it still moves you. And that’s what really matters.

This site contains a directory of uplifting movies but here are some of their top contenders:

• Alice
• An American President
• APOLLO 13
• Babe
• Before Sunrise
• Camilla
• Cinema Paradiso
• Corrina Corrina
• Dave
• The Distinguished Gentleman
• Forrest Gump
• Frankie Starlight
• Impromptu
• It Could Happen To You
• Little Buddha
• The Little Princess
• Muriel’s Wedding
• Nine Months
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• Party Girl
• Secret of Roan Inish
• The Secret Garden
• Three Wishes

Feel free to send us some of your favorite pick-me-up movies!

Secret of Roan Inish

Funny. We study and work hard and focus on a career choice for years. Sometimes that pans out and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the thing you do for fun ends up being lucrative. Such is the case with Michael Maloney. A Winnipeg teen with an unusual skill: mimicking animals. At a recent music festival in Canada, he was entertaining children with his monkey sounds while up in a tree. It just so happened he was discovered by a casting agent and will now be doing voice-over work for an upcoming animated film.

Lesson learned? Think outside your skill-set. Perhaps there are talents you’ve developed just for fun that need to receive a little more notice.

Also, play and put yourself out there. This young teen was discovered because he had the bravado to perform in public. Don’t be shy!

Here’s a CNN video of this upcoming talent in action:

michael-moloney-animal-noises.html

At Only Positive News, we’re happy to spread the word about other sites that are doing a wonderful job spreading only positive news. The more, the merrier!

The website Zen Habits offers up this great entry about simplifying life. It’s entitled “10 Odd Little Minimalist Things I Do:

As I noted last week, I consider myself a minimalist. Does that mean everything I do is minimalist? No, but there are some odd little things I do that you might consider minimalist.

Today I felt like taking a minute to share them with you.

1. No watch. My watch broke a couple of years ago, and I decided I’d go without it. It saves me from having to put on a watch every day, and I feel much lighter. Plus, it has the advantage of making me less conscious of time, and more conscious of what I’m doing and who I’m with.
2. No wallet. This isn’t an original idea, of course, but about a year ago I put my wallet in my car’s glove compartment. Now I only carry a few bills in cash, my driver’s license and my debit card, bound with a clip. My membership cards, discount cards, etc. are stored in my wallet in my glove compartment, and you know what? I never need them. I think I’ve only gone in the wallet once to get out a card in the last year.
3. No keys. I began to simplify my key ring until it just has a few keys: office, home, car and post office box. Then I decided I didn’t need to carry them around with me. Now I just leave them in my glove compartment, and only carry around my car’s remote key (that little clicker thing that locks and unlocks the car). My pockets are so much emptier.
4. No cell. Well, actually, I do own a cell phone. And it’s usually in my car. But I just have it for emergencies, mostly because I have kids and want to be available for them. However, I rarely make phone calls and if my kids are with me, I turn the cell off and leave it in the glove compartment. Man, I love that glove compartment.
5. No bed. Actually, I have a bed. But it’s just a king-sized mattress that sleeps myself, Eva, and our two youngest babies. As our babies sleep with us, we decided it would be safer if the bed was low. Plus, I love the minimalist look of having only a mattress.
6. No desktop icons. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but my computer desktop is completely free of icons. They are just visual clutter, they slow the computer down (it takes extra cpu cycles to draw icons), and they are an inefficient way of organizing or accessing your programs and documents. I use keyboard shortcuts for everything.
7. No desktop storage. I don’t store my info on my computer’s hard drive. First, because I got tired of emailing myself my work files, so I could access them from home, or putting them on a flash drive or uploading them to web storage, or syncing my files. I decided to put everything online, and use online apps so that I could access info from anywhere. And it has made my life so much easier and simpler. I sometimes use desktop apps, but I then transfer it online and delete the file from the hard drive. I still have stuff on my hard drive, of course, but that’s just because I haven’t bothered to delete my old files — I don’t actually use them.
8. No mobile Internet. I know iPhones and Blackberries and laptops with WiFi and other such mobile computing is all the rage these days, and I’ve been sorely tempted myself, but I’ve opted not to get such a device. The cell phone I mentioned only makes and receives phone calls. Actually, it can send text messages, but I’ve never done it. I like the freedom of being away from the Internet when I’m out doing something, either alone or with my family. It’s liberating to be disconnected.
9. No cable TV. I’ve mentioned this before too, but a few years ago we made the decision to cut out cable TV from our lives. It was partly out of frugality, but also because cable TV tends to run your life. There is so much junk … er, I mean entertainment … on cable that you never do anything else. For a few months, we used rabbit-ear antennas to get the few free channels they have here on Guam, but we soon scrapped that too. Now, we watch DVDs, but not even every night. In fact, we haven’t watched a DVD for a few days now. Instead, we do miraculous things like read, and talk, and go outside.
10. No ipod. My teen-aged daughter has an ipod. It’s almost always hooked into her ear. It makes conversation difficult. I have a cheap mp3 player that I bought for running, but it made running less enjoyable for me. Now, I run with only my thoughts and nature in my head, and I go places without the distraction of constant music. It’s nice.

Photo by cristina4K

Mary was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona
when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road. As
the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo
woman if she would like a ride. With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.

Resuming the journey, Mary tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with
the Navajo woman. The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at
everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Mary.

“What in bag?” asked the old woman.

Mary looked down at the brown bag and said, “It’s a bottle of wine. I got
it for my husband.”

The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two.

Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said:

“Good trade.”

Who says you have to dream big? Dreams can be as small and simple as a paper airplane. Just ask Mong Thongdee:

A boy with no official nationality who lives in Thailand captured third place in a Japanese paper airplane contest Sunday after his tearful pleas to be allowed to attend prompted authorities to grant him a rare temporary passport for the event.

Mong Thongdee, 12, won a national paper airplane championship in Thailand in August 2008 after he threw a plane that flew for 12 seconds, and was later chosen to attend the Japanese contest in Chiba, near Tokyo. But Mong, who lives in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, is the son of Myanmar migrants who are stateless and so have no legal right to travel abroad.

His first application to leave Thailand was denied, but after national media coverage of him quietly sobbing after the refusal captured the hearts of many Thais he was granted a temporary passport.

Source: MSNBC

Generosity of spirit is a magical, transformative thing. A little goes a long way. Here’s a story about a two rival football teams who come together to make one boy’s day:

At 5’3 and 110 pounds, 15-year-old Matt Zeisel isn’t your typical burly running back. And despite his desire to get in the game, Matt had spent much of the football season sitting on the bench, watching his teammates at St. Joseph Benton High School in Kansas City race across the field. Matt has Down Syndrome, and his doctors have said that it isn’t safe for him to get involved in contact sports, so, for his own good, his coach, Dan McCamy, has kept him on the sidelines.

But at the game last Monday, Matt’s team was down by 46-0 when Coach McCamy had a bright idea. He called a time-out and went to ask the opposing team a question. “I’ve got a special situation,” he said. “I know you guys want to get a shutout. Most teams would want a shutout, but in this situation I want to know if maybe you can let one of my guys run in for a touchdown.”

The team quickly agreed to the coach’s request. Then, for the first time all season, Coach McCamy called in the “Matt Play.” With Coach McCamy and his teammates’ urging, Matt jumped up off the bench and raced out to the field. He took hold of the football, and, as soon as the referee ended the time-out, he ran a full 60 yards from one end of the field to the other, throwing the ball down to score a 6-point touchdown. After cheering on Matt’s play, his teammates scooped him up for a big group hug.

Coach McCamy posted a video of Matt’s touchdown on YouTube the next morning for his parents to see, and, since then, the heartwarming play has been watched more than 275,000 times. Matt’s mother claims that everyone she knows who’s seen the clip has broken into tears while watching it.

“It’s spread not just to the community of St. Joseph, but now it’s spread across the region. How something so simple can impact so many — to me, that’s the amazing part about it.”

If this picture doesn’t make your day….

Here’s a video the winning touchdown.

Source: Gimundo

Mondays can often be a difficult day for people. For many, it indicates the beginning of a long work week. If you’re not exactly thrilled with your job, this can be tough! Mondays also seem to be a day where we need to return to tasks at hand: paying bills, returning phonecalls and emails, fixing, repairing, cleaning, etc.

Interestingly, Monday is often not the day for full work submersion. It’s often the day to ease yourself into your week, not plunge. This means taking some time to do some relaxing or creative work and mix in some of that business. It may be the time to simply look at the week ahead and see what needs done. Maybe take care of a task or two. Then add a little fun and relaxation into the mix. Go for a long walk and listen to some music, paint a picture, chat with an old friend, sing a song, take a bath, write in a journal.

We’re all trained to believe that Monday is our “business” day when our minds and souls don’t always reflect that old schol ethic. Maybe its a day to tap into how you really feel and leave the limiting social constraints behind.

Monday could be easy like Sunday morning, if we let it.

Monday, Monday - The Mamas and the Papas

or if you’re in another frame of mind:

I Don’t Like Mondays - The Boomtown Rats

Some facts about polio:

• Polio is a viral disease that can damage the nervous system and cause paralysis.
• The polio virus enters the body through the mouth, usually from hands contaminated with the stool of an infected person.
• Polio is preventable by immunization.
• Since polio immunization has become widespread in the United States, cases of polio are rare. However, polio remains a problem in many parts of the world.

Rotary International is joining violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman and the world-renowned New York Philharmonic, led by Philharmonic Assistant Conductor Daniel Boico, to present the Concert to End Polio, a benefit performance supporting the global effort to eradicate this disabling childhood disease.

The Concert to End Polio will take place on Wednesday, December 2, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City. Program information will be announced at a later date.

Polio eradication resonates strongly with Mr. Perlman, who contracted the disease at age four and overcame serious physical challenges to become one of the world’s most celebrated musicians. In this historic, one-night-only performance — his first with the New York Philharmonic in four years — Mr. Perlman will help Rotary in its effort to raise $200 million to match a $355 million challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. All of the resulting $555 million will fund critical eradication activities in developing countries where polio still threatens children.

“We are honored that an artist of Mr. Perlman’s stature and a cultural institution as revered as the New York Philharmonic are supporting Rotary in our effort to achieve a polio-free world,” says Rotary International President John Kenny. “Their participation demonstrates the importance of this unprecedented global health initiative. It will be our lasting gift to the world’s children.”

“The fact that polio is still around is ridiculous,” says Mr. Perlman, winner of 15 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. “There is absolutely no excuse for anyone to get polio. This is an issue that has to be dealt with immediately.”

Source: Happy News

Even in the wake of the most tragic events, positivity can survive, sometimes even thrive. We’ve all had experiences that floored us, only to look back and see how positive change resulted or see how people come together during a horrendous event, like September 11.

This story showcases that positivity can walk with tragedy. One does not negate the other:

Last Thursday, six cars collided on the Niagara Thruway outside of Buffalo, New York, and within moments, bystanders rushed in to save the trapped passengers from the vehicles. When one of the car’s engines caught fire, one Good Samaritan grabbed a fire extinguisher to put out the flames; another used a saw to cut the cars’ frames apart and pull out the unconscious people trapped inside.

“There wasn’t one hero,” Michael Byham, one of the volunteer rescuers, told the Buffalo News. “There was a bunch of people who jumped in.”

Thanks to their quick and cool-headed work, several people were injured, but only one passenger, 7-year-old Asa Hill, who’d been traveling with his grandfather, seemed to be in critical condition—he was immediately rushed to a hospital and placed on life support.

Sadly, doctors soon declared the young boy brain-dead. His parents, Amilcar Hill and Rahwa Ghirmatzion, said their goodbyes to their only child the next day, and gave their blessing for the staff to harvest Asa’s organs, so that he could save the lives of others.

Despite their devastating loss, Hill and Ghirmatzion are choosing to focus on the happiness that their son brought them in his short life. “He enjoyed being loved,” Amilcar Hill told the Buffalo News. “He enjoyed being our baby. He enjoyed being our son, I know that for a fact. He told us, I know it’s for real. He enjoyed his moments with everyone. That’s who he was.”

Hill and Ghirmatzion had been a couple since they were teenagers, and though they’d never gotten married, they were deeply committed to their relationship. But Asa always wanted them to celebrate their love with a real wedding, and asked them several times if they would get married. Though they told him they would, they never got around to following through.

But after Asa died, the couple decided to pay tribute to their son by honoring his request in an unusual way. Rather than using his funeral as an occasion for grief, Hill and Ghirmatzion decided to turn it into a celebration.

More than 1,100 people attended the funeral service on Monday, which was filled with tributes to Asa from family and friends, African drum performances, and dancing. And, to cap it all off, the service ended with Hill and Ghirmatzion walking down the church aisle, pledging their lifelong commitment to one another in a beautiful wedding. Asa’s parents knew their son would have loved it.

“We wanted it to be a surprise,” Hill told CNN. “We knew it would be a joyous moment. You could see how it lifted them, and we figured, why not make it a surprise at the end.”

Source: Gimundo

At Only Positive News, we’ve often discussed an “outside in” approach to positivity. This means changing some external aspects of your life and seeing the positive reflection internally. (It also means not having to fake a good attitude!)

Take your everyday language, for instance. Have you ever taken the time to notice how your body feels when you say something unduly negative? (I say “unduly” because the goal isn’t to avoid negativity at all costs - sometimes you need to express that side of yourself. But often, we’re needlessly negative.) You feel a certain sense of toxicity, defeat or an overall depletion of energy.

Can you include more positive words in your daily vocabulary? Can you fake it till you make it? If someone asks how you’re doing, can you answer positively, just to see if a little change takes place?

Here are a list of positive words from CreativeAffirmations.com to sprinkle in your average day: