I have a favorite magazine, called “Spirituality and Health”, which contains many articles with a positive focus on spirituality in everyday life, individually and in a cultural context.  A recent article talked about a police officer in Ashland, Oregon who has a practice that makes an important difference in her community.  She’s made an arrangement with a local ice cream store to offer free ice cream cones to children and teenagers she catches doing good deeds.  She carries wooden tokens and whenever she sees a younger person helping someone or picking up a piece of trash from the street, or doing anything at all that serves the community, she stops them, gives them a token, and they discover they have earned a free ice cream cone.  She does this because she knows that young people, particularly teenagers, so often get negative attention from the police.  She also does it because she knows the power of acknowledgment and appreciation.

As I read the article, I felt that familiar glow I get when I discover another piece of good news.  There are some beautiful things going on in the world, and yet we often hear only about the bad or dramatic things that create fear or distress.  I know I’ve written before about the importance of giving ourselves good psychological food, reading magazines, watching movies and television programs, listening to radio shows that emphasize positive interactions locally and globally.

For this week’s experiment, I invite you to notice good news – or to notice positive activities around you – even in the smallest ways.  For example, the other day as I walked along the street I noticed an elderly woman crossing at a large intersection.  Fortunately, the traffic signals in New York City have been lengthened to give most people sufficient time to get all the way across but, in this case, the elderly woman was walking quite slowly.  I then noticed a young man come out into the crosswalk and stand in front of the traffic with his arms out until the elderly woman reached the curb.  The two didn’t have any interaction – in fact, I suspect that the woman didn’t even know the young man was there, behind her, shielding her from the traffic after the light had turned green.  As the young man finished crossing the street, I was grateful for having had an opportunity to experience that moment of kindness as part of a New York City afternoon.

One evening, a cab driver did something quite lovely.  It was dark, late, and I wasn’t paying attention to the money I handed him.  I thought I had given him a $10 bill and would have been perfectly comfortable with the change I expected.  He pointed out to me that I had handed him a $20, and gave me the correct change.  This wasn’t a huge moment, and it wouldn’t have shaken the world had he not told me, but I experienced it as one of those “good news” moments – one of those psychologically nourishing moments – to receive his kindness and the benefits of his integrity.

During the coming week, give yourself an opportunity to pay attention to these small moments – moments characterized by kindness, generosity, creativity, delight – whatever positive quality they may have.  As you focus your awareness on these moments, notice them in your body – the sensations that accompany your experience.  Also notice the quality of your mental and emotional “tone” when you take the time to notice – and fully experience – positive events and input that come your way in the course of a regular, “everyday,” kind of day.