You are solely responsible for your thoughts, and your outlook on life is a choice. If you tend to think negatively, you are choosing to think that way. With practice, you can choose to have a more positive outlook. Choosing to think more positively will not only help you take control of your life and make your everyday experiences more pleasant, but it can also benefit your mental and physical health as well as your ability to deal with change. Being aware of these benefits can help you be even more motivated to think positively on a regular basis.Here are some benefits of positive thinking: An increased life span Lower rates of depression and distress Greater resistance to the common cold Better mental and physical well-being Better coping skills during times of stress A more natural ability to form relationships and cement bonds Recording your thoughts can enable you to step back and evaluate patterns in your thinking. Write down your thoughts and feelings and try to spot any triggers that lead to either positive or negative thoughts. Taking just twenty minutes to follow your pattern of thinking at the end of every day can be a valuable way to identify your negative thoughts and make a plan to change them to positive thoughts. Your journal can take on any form that you like. If you don't care to write long-winded reflective paragraphs, you can just make a list of the five most prevalent negative thoughts and positive thoughts you had that day. Be sure to give yourself the time and opportunity to evaluate and reflect on the information in the journal. If you write every day, you may want to reflect at the end of every week.

Summary: Take responsibility for your attitude. Understand the benefits of being a positive thinker. Keep a diary to reflect your thoughts.

If a food film survived the dishwasher, give it a thorough hand scrub. Use plenty of soap and hot water. Most likely, this film is a protein that has set onto the glass. If necessary, try again with a spot of dishwasher detergent instead of dish soap. Wear rubber gloves to protect your hands from irritation. Eggs, meat, and dairy products are common, protein-rich foods. The high heat of the dishwasher can cause their proteins to set onto the dishes. To avoid this, rinse off most of the food residue before you load the dishwasher. If a deep or round glass often ends up with food film at the base, the dishwasher spray may not reach it. Wash these glasses by hand. A "rinse aid" product added to your dishwashing cycle will help the water roll off your dishes instead of beading up. Try this if your dishwasher fails to remove all the food gunk.

Summary: Wash the glass by hand. Scrub again with dishwasher detergent. Rinse off protein-rich food in future. Use a rinse aid.

Let your mother settle down, and give yourself time to think everything over. Get out of the house if you can, giving both of you the space you need to cool down. Spend time with friends or go for a walk to clear your head. If you are grounded and not allowed to leave home, try other methods to calm down, such as listening to music or talking to a close friend on the phone. Chances are, if you and your mom had a disagreement, you may have said some ugly things to her. Can you see aspects of the fight that were your fault? Did you break a rule? Say a curse word? Get bad grades in school? Or, are you upset with her because she won't give you permission to do something? Think about your role in the fight and try to identify at least three things you know you did wrong. This will help you to build a genuine apology for her later. Sometimes fights happen when we are in a bad mood, tired, or hungry. Were any of these conditions relevant in your case? Did you fly off the handle with your mom simply because you have a bad day at school? Now that you have a better understanding of the fight and what may have gone wrong, try to view it from your mom's perspective. Was she tired from coming in after work? Is she sick or not feeling well? Did you blindside her with an accusation or offensive statement when she was preoccupied? For years, counselors have used a strategy to help people identify when they need self-care and avoid any heated discussions or decision-making. The acronym is HALT and it stands for hungry, angry, lonely, and tired. Taking a good measure of your own and your mother's mood state in the future can prevent unnecessary disagreements. Oftentimes, teenagers and young adults may not understand their parents' train of thinking on certain decisions. The parents say "no" and that's all you hear. You don't see the underlying rationale for the decision. To help you better understand your mother's actions, imagine yourself in her shoes talking to your own child. How would you have reacted in a similar fight with your child? Would you have said "yes" or "no"? Would you have tolerated your back talk or snide comments? Would you have listened to a counterargument when your child's safety was in question? Thinking about parenting from this point-of-view will help you to develop greater empathy for your mom, and also give you some insight into her decisions.

Summary: Take some time apart. Examine your role in the fight. Try to see things from her perspective. Envision a role reversal.

You can limit your Facebook profile exposure by limiting who can see the photo albums you've posted. To do this, go to your profile and click on "Photos" in the top middle of the screen. Then click on "Albums" and scroll through your albums and click on one. Then press the "Edit" button on the top right of the screen and click on the image that looks like a person or globe on the top right of the next window. Select whether you want the album to be visible to "Friends" or "Only Me" or if you want to customize who can see the photos. You can also control the settings for photos you were tagged in, even if you didn't take them. Go to your profile and click on "Photos" and then select "Photos of You." Click on any photo that you were tagged in and select the pencil on the top right of the screen. Then, select the option on the very bottom: "Report/Remove Tag." Select "I want to untag myself" in the window that pops up. Press "Continue." You can also just select "Hide from Timeline" so that fewer people will see that you were tagged in a photo. Facebook's handy facial recognition software makes it so that your friends can upload photos, have Facebook recognize your face, and have you be automatically tagged in the photo. This makes it easy for photos of you to come up often -- if you don't allow facial recognition to find you, you'll be less likely to get tagged. Here's how to do it: Click on the gear on the top right of your Facebook page. Select "Privacy Settings." Select "Timeline and Tagging" from the menu on the left of the screen. Click on "Edit" to the right of the bottom option, "Who sees tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded?" Select "No one." This will help minimize your profile exposure. Just click on the lock button on the top right of your page and select, "Who can see my stuff?" Change the settings under "Who can see my future posts?" to "Friends Only," "Only Me," or a variety of other options. To do this, click on the gear on the top right of your Facebook page and select "Privacy Settings." Under the option, "Limit the audience for posts you've shared with friends of friends or Public?" select "Limit Past Posts." These posts will be removed from Facebook for the people you've blocked. Before you post something on Facebook, just click on the icon next to "Post" on the bottom right, below what you've written. It'll either be set to "Friends" or something else -- adjust the settings to fit whoever you'd like to see the post. Your friends may be using apps that can make some of your Facebook information more public. However, you can easily stop this from happening. All you have to do is click on the gear on the top right of your page, click on "Privacy Settings," and select "Apps" on the bottom left of the screen. Then, next to "Apps others use," select the "Edit" option and uncheck any information that you don't want these apps to provide about you. Save your changes when you're done.
Summary: Adjust the settings on your photo albums. Adjust the settings for photos you were tagged in. Adjust the settings for facial recognition. Limit who can see your future posts. Limit who can see your past posts. Limit who sees each of your individual posts. Limit the information that your friends' apps can provide about you.