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This edition of ChangeLinks features lots of great tips and tools about a subject that is near and dear to many of our hearts: positive thinking. It seems like we all want to get better at this skill, but progress can be frustratingly slow - at least for me.

Fortunately, these bloggers have shared ideas that helped make them happier and their thoughts more positive. Perhaps they’ll work for you.

Complaining is a big cause of unhappiness, and it’s one that is almost epidemic in a lot of families, offices, and groups of friends. Two A-list bloggers have written some great advice for putting the kibosh on this bad habit. In How to Stop Complaining, Steve Pavlina suggests observing your negative thoughts from a distance and recognizing that they are not your identity. He argues that assuming total responsibility for everything in your life gives you action steps beyond complaining.

On a more concrete level, Tim Ferris shared his Real Mind Control: The 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment. In this experiment, he wore a wristband which he had to move to the other wrist every time he complained. I’m a big fan of this technique because it reinforces mindfulness and gradually retrains thought patterns.

David Rogers at Confident1.com has more practical tips for training your mind. His post, Distract Yourself From Self Talk, suggests that you use a disruption technique such as clapping your hands to interrupt a negative thought.

Some of the most positive people I know are always working in pursuit of their dreams, but they do so in very down-to-earth and achievable ways. The Simple Dollar post, When Everyday Life Gets in the Way of Your Dreams shares a great process for continuing to work towards those dreams while still fulfilling your responsibilities at work, with your family, and in your community.

Finally, for those of you interested in learning about some of the more theoretical aspects of happiness and positive thinking, Loving-awareness.org offers Joy at All Times. This post features a great illustration of the spectrum of joy which starts at joy at just being alive and goes all the way through the joy of being one with everything.

So, here you have a great collection of ways to increase your positivity within a few days. What are you waiting for? Grab yourself a rubber band and start thinking positively Then come back and tell us about your experiences in the comments.

Over the past few days, I’ve read some material that has gotten me thinking about the single moment in time when we make a choice to change.

LindaF recently commented on my Putting It All Together post:

A major turning point in my life was when I decided to quit my job as an assistant coach for a community college athletic team.

It was a rapid change rather than a gradual one. The head coach I worked for was emotionally unstable and verbally abusive. It had come to a point where I found that I spent a lot of my time and energy as a mediator, smoothing over situations where she had acted out of line with players, parents and coaches.

Sometimes I feel like I could have handled my resignation in a more “professional” manner (I packed up at an out of town tournament and got a flight out), but I don’t regret my decision to leave at all.

That was definitely a rapid change and reminded me of the guy who left AmeriCorps in the middle of the night. Then I read the Threshold of Tolerance thread over at Steve Pavlina’s forums which discusses ways to reach the “threshold” where a situation just isn’t tolerable anymore to hurry change along. I began to consider the idea that more uncomfortable a situation is, the quicker we will change it. It’s a bit like the old story of the frog in a pot of boiling water. In the version I’ve heard, if you put a frog in a pot of cool water and gradually heat it up, the frog will just stay there until it cooks. However, if you put a frog in a pot of water that is already boiling, it will jump out right away.

The moments in my life where I have been only vaguely unhappy (like when I suffered through confirmation class in 8th grade) have been easy to get used to. When I have been truly upset or miserable (like when a potential employer hit on me in a job interview!) I have been able to act quickly and decisively.

This leads to an interesting conclusion. Maybe, in order to be at our most efficient and effective when it comes to change, we need to suffer more!

Huh.

Joanne at I’m Happy Fish has tagged me to reveal 8 completely random facts about me. Here goes:

1. I’m a Gemini and, boy do I feel it. I’m so good at seeing two sides to every situation that it can be paralyzing. That’s why Rock, Paper, Scissors is so important to me!
2. My father’s parents were born in Poland and survived World War II in labor camps in Germany. I like to think I’m made from tough stuff.
3. I broke my toe once just by stubbing it really hard on my bed frame.
4. I still own my Transformers and Masters of the Universe toys from my childhood. Anyone interested in purchasing a Battle Armor He-Man?
5. Kurt Vonnegut is my hero. I had the chance to hear him speak when I was an undergrad. He assigned us to all write a poem with rhyming couplets that very evening and said, “We don’t do art to make money. We do it to make our souls grow.”
6. I “won” NaNoWriMo last year. Still haven’t finished the story, though.
7. I’m always on the lookout for new lentil recipes.
8. I once got to pet a cheetah.

So, there you have it. Since it’s my obligation to pass the meme on, I’m tagging:

• Brooke at Plain Advice
• Leigh at All for Women
• Pamela Slim at Escape from Cubicle Nation
• Henrik at The Positivity Blog
• and, just to see what happens, Steve Pavlina