The Positive Pierson Effect

There’s something my dad has said for as long as I can remember. Something that has stayed with me my entire life and, as I've gotten older, something I've realized I feel called to share.

Be a Positive Pierson.

It became a bit of a family motto. Something said in passing, in hard moments, in everyday life, and something that quietly shaped the way my family learned to move through the world.

Along with it came another one of my dad's sayings:

"Attitude is everything."

Growing up, I heard those words more times than I could possibly count. They were the kind of Dad words that followed us everywhere. And like most things our parents repeat when we're young, I don't think I fully understood what he was trying to teach me at the time.

I understand it now.

For a long time, I thought being a Positive Pierson simply meant being positive.

Looking on the bright side. Finding the good. Keeping your head up and moving forward.

And while optimism is certainly part of it, I've realized as I've gotten older that what my dad was teaching me was actually something much deeper.

It's about deciding what deserves to come with you.

Because life is never just one thing.

There will be beautiful moments and difficult ones. Things we planned for and things we never saw coming. Disappointments, frustrations, hard conversations, losses, changes, and moments that could easily take up far more space in our lives than they deserve.

We don't always get to choose what happens.

But we do have some choice in what we continue carrying.

That is the Positive Pierson Effect.

It isn't pretending everything is okay. Although, for a long time, I think that's how I understood positivity.

It isn't forcing optimism when something genuinely hurts. And it isn't ignoring the reality of a situation simply because accepting it feels uncomfortable.

Sometimes being positive actually requires being honest first.

Looking at something for exactly what it is. Allowing yourself to feel disappointed, angry, sad, frustrated, or uncertain. Having the conversation. Learning the lesson. Grieving what needs to be grieved.

And then, when you're ready, deciding whether continuing to carry it is actually serving you.

That is what "attitude is everything" has come to mean to me.

Not that a good attitude magically fixes life.

It doesn't.

But it changes how we move through it.

Sometimes it means taking a breath in the middle of something frustrating, overwhelming, or uncertain and deciding that this one moment doesn't get to define the rest of your day.

Sometimes it's asking yourself:

Can I move through this with a little more ease?

Can I let this pass without holding onto it longer than I need to?

Because what we hold onto has a way of lingering. And what we learn to release allows us to keep moving.

That doesn't mean we ignore what hurts. Some things deserve to be grieved. Some conversations need to be had. Some experiences change us. And some seasons simply take time.

But not everything deserves to weigh us down forever.

There is strength in rising above something without pretending it never happened. There is peace in refusing to carry yesterday into today. And there is freedom in realizing that one difficult moment doesn't have to become a difficult life.

There is science behind this, too. The way we perceive and respond to stress can influence our emotional and physical well-being. But I think this is one of those lessons that doesn't necessarily need to be understood through research to be recognized.

You can feel it.

Because the way we move through life doesn't stay contained in our thoughts. It shows up in our bodies, our relationships, the way we speak to the people we love, and the way we respond when life doesn't go according to plan.

When you choose to move forward instead of continuing to spiral, when you stop replaying the conversation for the hundredth time, or when you decide that one bad moment doesn't get the rest of your day, something shifts.

That's the effect.

And one of the most important things I've learned is that I don't always get it right.

There have been moments when I've held on too tightly. Times I've let hurt linger longer than I wish I had. Experiences I've replayed, resisted, or allowed to take up far more space than they deserved. There have even been moments that challenged the very perspective I'm writing about now.

Maybe that's part of why this lesson means more to me today than it ever has before.

The Positive Pierson Effect isn't about being endlessly positive.

It's about returning to the mindset.

Again and again.

It's recognizing when something has taken enough from you and deciding that it doesn't get any more.

It's choosing to move forward instead of remaining stuck. Choosing to breathe instead of brace. Choosing peace when continuing to fight something you cannot change will only cost you more.

And choosing to live your life fully, honestly, and with a little more lightness wherever you can.

The older I get, the more I understand what my dad was giving us all those years ago.

It wasn't simply a family saying.

It was a way to move through life.

A reminder that difficult things will happen. That we are allowed to feel them. That being positive doesn't mean being unaffected. It means remembering that even after life hands us something we didn't choose, we still have some choice in what we carry forward.

Maybe that's what it has always meant to be a Positive Pierson.

Not to find something positive in absolutely everything.

But to believe that, eventually, we can find our way forward from almost anything.

Something my dad said so many times that I probably stopped hearing it became one of the things I needed most as I grew older.

Attitude is everything.

I understand it now.

I carry that with me every day.

I love you, Dad. Thank you for giving me this mindset long before I understood how much I would need it.

To Your Wellness,

~ Summer