I originally got the idea to do positive thinking for my social experiment when I was driving to work one day. I work about 20 miles from where I live, but I generally have to be there at 5:00 p.m. and it sometimes takes an hour to get there. It can be really frustrating because the traffic is different every day, so sometimes I get there early and sit in the parking lot whereas other days I’m rushing not to be late.

I was stuck in traffic one day getting worked up when the thought came to me to think more positively. I had been stressing about what I was going to do for this project so the timing was perfect. It caused me to think about all of the little things in my life that I get upset about and realize that it doesn’t help anything. Negative thinking and stress only brings you down and makes everything harder than it needs to be. I had been having a lot of anxiety issues in the recent months, so I welcome anything I can do to eliminate unnecessary stress.

I started thinking about how lucky I am to have a job, especially in this economy. I also thought about how fortunate I am to have a nice, working car that I drive to work, rather than having to ride the city bus. I thought about how some people would kill to have to drive their nice car to a job, even if it did mean allotting an hour drive.

This epiphany was a couple of months ago, and I have noticed that now on my ride to work, I don’t get as angry when people cut me off. If they want to drive like an idiot because they are in a bad mood, that’s fine, but I try not to let it affect me. Also, I have noticed an increasing number of people begging for money when I get off at my exit and I realize that overall, my life is pretty darn good.

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