I’ve done it. You’ve done it. We’ve all found ourselves looking at the glass half empty.

And who could blame us? Sometimes, no matter where we turn, we find ourselves surrounded by negative news, social feeds and people complaining about this, that and the other thing. It’s enough to turn the most skilled Pollyanna into a bunch of sour grapes.

But wait. What if we looked on the bright side?

I recently heard someone say that how you view things in life solves 99 percent of our problems. A born skeptic, I snarked at that a bit. But then I thought why not give it a try. Is that positivity talking?

So how does a wannabe sunshine slinger turn it on? Ask Google, of course. My search yielded 36 million results. That leads me to believe there are lots of us out there. Here’s what I’ve learned so far. It’s OK to be positive and happy. Give yourself permission.

1. Be the person you want to hang out with. Have you ever asked someone how they’re doing? Who are you more drawn to? The individual who starts complaining or the one who responds in a positive way?
2. When people around you are negative, it’s easy to fall into that trap. And while you can’t change someone else, you can change your reaction.
3. Negativity rubs off on others. That’s not a gift I want to keep on giving.
4. Being mindful of your responses helps set the tone. Instead of lamenting over issues, I try to be more solution-oriented. I still am strong, vocal and determined in my viewpoints but I try to solve rather than wallow.
5. Physical activity and reducing crappy food makes a huge impact on your psyche. Apparently that’s not new news to some. but to me it was and I find it’s working.
6. Sometimes you have to search for a positive angle and sometimes it doesn’t present itself.
7. By replacing ifs with whens we can change the trajectory of a statement.
8. Just because you try to be positive doesn’t mean you can’t and shouldn’t be negative. There’s a time, place and reason for everything.
9. Positivity is a work in progress. Always.

Am I there yet? Hell no. And that’s not negativity talking. But I do recognize my small steps have made my glass half full. You might give it a try.