Help! My attitude's fallen and it can't get up

Ask my sister, my brother, heck anyone who knows me. I am the eternal Pollyanna. Gullible some would say. Lord knows I've found myself in a pickle or two because of my eternally optimistic outlook. Pragmatic is not the first word that comes to people's minds when describing me. "always smiling" would be more like it. but now, I'm horrified to say, my attitude has fallen and it's struggling to get up.

I vowed yesterday to stop watching the news. This will probably take a 12 step program because i was mainlining CNN and MSNBC during the election. NO more. These guys are total doom and gloom; yesterday I considered just napping all day; maybe catching episodes of "The Girls Next Door". Why bother working? According to the Washington Post (as gleefully displayed on Morning Joe) we're on edge of a total economic melt-down, catastrophe, apocalypse, Sodom and Gomorrah... you get the picture. ay yi yi. gimme my mommy, and throw in some twinkies while you're at it.

Well, now I'm amusing myself. totally. oops, there's a smile. And I confess, I worked yesterday, and today and I have a full day tomorrow... If I try really really hard, I can draw on the place in my brain that reminds me that this is AMERICA. The country people came to on ships, sleeping among livestock and strangers, in stormy seas, bringing barely ANY of their beloved "stuff". This is what this country is made of. It's made of US.

I'm an optimist because I was totally purely randomly lucky enough to be born HERE. Uh oh, my positive attitude, Pollyanna, sunny disposition's knocking. gotta go let it in.

you are here

Yesterday I met with one of the women I'd offered a free 45 minute consult, and we were discussing the nervous symptoms she experienced whenever she spoke to large groups. Although there are numerous theories about why we experience these things (sweating, heart pounding, knocking knees, etc.) - the most common idea is that it's perfectly normal adrenaline that some of us who love the spotlight interpret as a rush and others of us who would just as soon remain in the "shade" interpret as fear.

I think the experience is profound and physical for all of us, especially in this technologically advanced era, because when we stand up to speak we are totally unequivocally physically there. We're not coming in via phone, or email - all eyes are focused on US. We know it, and it's unnerving. I think the fact that we are, by virtue of standing in front of these people, asking for their undivided attention calls into play our own ego issues. Do we really want their undivided attention? Do we deserve it? Do we like it? If we think the answers to these questions are "no" then we're a big ol' bag of nerves. If, on the other hand, we KNOW the answers to these questions are a resounding YES, we're a gigantic bundle of "let me at 'em".

If we know we've developed a presentation with our audience in mind, we know we're about to address some pressing issue, problem or concern, we know we're then going to provide them with a bullet-proof solution, what's to be nervous about? They need what we're there to tell them. We absolutely want their undivided attention. We absolultely deserve it, and (believe it or not) we will like having it. Now the physical symptoms we feel are more like the rush than the fear. It's all in the focus.