In May 2020 I started practicing a shift in my mindset I've named 'default positive.' The process is simple: whatever happens, I look for the good in it. But the execution is sometimes difficult.

It has been interesting to allow the positive aspects of unpleasant events to reveal themselves, especially ones entirely under my control.

I overate? Great opportunity to show kindness toward myself, since I know from experience that berating myself isn't helpful.

I'm afraid to communicate honestly? I can take notice of where the discomfort lays in my body, or feel gratitude toward the other person for accepting me as I am, or take some time alone to uncover why what's unsaid makes me afraid.

I'm not as productive as I'd like? I can view the more comfortable activities I chose instead as a gift to myself.

The trouble, for me, with following through on default positive is that my emotions are tricksy little things. When I'm calm and relaxed as I am now, default positive hardly takes any effort. But when anxiety, self-loathing, or misery dominate my thoughts, it's as though a program called negativity.exe is executing internally, and I am helpless to force quit it. It must run its course.

But what better opportunity to practice default positive? I see the positive here by zooming out. As I sit here in late June 2020, looking back, both the frequency and intensity of negativity.exe are in decline. These trends comfort me and are good reasons to stay the course.

I admit that default positive has not yet been stress tested. It may crumble under the weight of some Terrible Inevitable Event that will arrive some day.

But maybe it won't.

And if it does, that's new and useful information that will help me rebuild. It's all in how I look at things.