Positivity is easy when everything is going your way and you’ve gotten an excellent night of sleep. But what about when you haven’t slept well, it’s pouring rain, and your dog, who abhors being wet, refuses to go outside to relieve himself?

What about when your best laid plans are cancelled? When your beloved family member receives an alarming diagnosis?

What about when we bump up against those who complain chronically, who spread negativity, and who make disparaging comments constantly?

There are so many things to be upset about in the world, and not only in the world, but on the device you’re likely holding in your palm. There are twelve videos playing simultaneously on the screen and each of them might very well be triggering.

Positivity doesn’t happen by accident.

There is ample evidence for us to use if we’re intent on listing grievances.

When we choose to notice what’s going well, acknowledge our blessings, and feel genuine gratitude for the goodness in our lives, our list of reasons to feel good expands.

Like anything else, the more we practice, the more natural a behavior becomes.

Life is everything at once, everywhere, always. If it’s half bad, and some of the best people we know get sick and die, and senseless hatred gets spewed, and suffering seems to be inevitable, it’s still half good. Every day we get to be here, part of the whole grab bag of life, is a reason to throw a full on party.

Inflate the floats and cue the drum major.

If you got yourself out of our bed this morning of your own accord, that’s a whole reason right there.

If you have a job to get up for, a child to feed, an animal to take out, a purpose for being that’s big or small, that’s a Reason with a capital R.

If you are able to walk yourself to your kitchen and treat yourself to a glass of clean water; count three things on your list.

If you get to live in the same space and time as the people you love most, consider yourself luckiest.

If you make the traffic light, list that as a reason. If you miss the light, tell yourself something ominous would have befallen you had you made it, and list that too!

If you have your health, you have all the reason needed.

If you have the ability to notice love and kindness in the world, it exists within you.

Your not having crumpled, hardened, or become numbed by a world that is, at the very least, insensitive in its incohesion, is a reason to feel good enough to carry on. Good enough to live to see if you can find something else great worth listing.