When there seems like little hope

Sometimes the world is a bad place.

There's real heart sorrowing tragedy.

Natural disasters. Life ending sicknesses. War. Shootings. Trauma.

When I read the news or hear people discuss current events, it can feel scary. Like there's a real loss of safety.

But I have a quick exercise for you.

Right now, look around the room that you're in and notice everything that is brown. Take inventory of what each object or surface is. Go ahead take a minute and look. When you're done, read this next sentence.

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Close your eyes and tell me everything in the room that is red. Not so easy, when you've noticed all the brown. (Thanks, Tony Robbins, for the exercise.)

The point here is that what you focus on fills your mind, which feeds your emotions, your beliefs, your actions. I'm not saying to ignore all the bad. But what if we, as a society, focused on what connects us instead of what divides us? What if we focused on what we can control – the kindness we put into the world?

It starts with a smile, a friendly conversation, and forgiveness that's not deserved.

It starts with you and me.