Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul, and it’s Wow Wednesday. I always try to share awe-inspiring or surprising stories with you on Wednesdays, so I went back to one of our older books and found a couple that I really love from one of our past bestsellers, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Listen to Your Dreams.

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Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and I’m pleased to share new stories with you from Chicken Soup for the Soul: Let It Go, which is our latest best-selling self-help book. I didn’t really understand the power of forgiveness to change my life until I started doing this editor-in-chief job at Chicken Soup for the Soul 18 years ago. I always thought that the word “forgiveness” meant that you were excusing the person who hurt you, saying that it was okay. But it turns out that “forgiveness” doesn’t mean that. What it actually means is that you have decided not to keep reliving all the negative feelings associated with whatever bad thing happened to you. You acknowledge that the bad thing happened, but you decide to stop having those same negative feelings over and over again. Because if you let the bad thing replay over and over in your mind, you’re letting it – or the person that did it – occupy space in your mind. And that’s not cool. You need to take back that space in your mind for yourself, not let someone else control it.

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Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and today we’re talking about positive thinking because after all, it’s the new year and it’s time for some new perspective. Our book about 101 ways to think positive will give you lots of great ideas for adopting a new attitude, a new more optimistic approach to the ups and downs of life—and how about this?—motivation to reach out and make new connections. I don’t know about you, but I always feel like I should be working on making new friends and expanding our social circle or at least remembering to keep up with existing friends.

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Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul. This is the time of year when we are already re-examining our New Year’s resolutions and deciding which ones are actually do-able. I want to share one today that is an all-year resolution for me and my husband, and that is to face our fears and have more fun as a result. We are constantly fighting off that tendency to NOT do something new, usually for some dumb reason like we don’t know where to park there. But we’ve gotten way better about doing new things, eating new things, going to new places, having new experiences. So when you’re thinking about your New Year’s resolutions, you might want to add one about facing your fears or insecurities. And that’s what I’m going to talk about today, with two stories from our new book about 101 ways to think positive.

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Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and today we’re talking about positive thinking because after all, it’s the new year and it’s time for some new perspective. Our new book about 101 ways to think positive will give you lots of great ideas for adopting a new attitude, a new more optimistic approach to the ups and downs of life—plus it just happens to be very fun read. There are so many ways that our writers found their path to a happier life and their stories about how they got there are pretty entertaining.

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Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul. It’s that time when all those New Year’s resolutions start looking a little less do-able than they did on January first. I’ve learned to be more reasonable and go for incremental changes in my habits. And one kind of resolution that I love is the resolution that you can do inside your mind, one that can work instantly… with no sweating or hunger pangs. So while you’re improving your fitness or organizing your home, you can also do something that will make an immediate difference.

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Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and today we’re talking about positive thinking because after all, it’s the new year and it’s time for some new perspective. Our new book about 101 ways to think positive will give you lots of great ideas for adopting a new attitude, a new more optimistic approach to the ups and downs of life—plus it just happens to be very fun read. There are so many ways that our writers found their path to a happier life and these stories about how they got there are pretty entertaining.

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Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul. It’s time for all those New Year’s resolutions and besides the obvious ones that most of us have every year – eat less and exercise more – I like to throw a couple of painless ones into the mix--resolutions that you can do inside your mind, ones that can work instantly--with no sweating or starving. And what we find is that positive thinking is one of those new things you can do right away, and a resolution that will make an immediate difference.

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Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and we have a new book I’m very passionate about. It’s all about how Self-Care Isn’t Selfish. That’s because self-care is not optional. It’s a necessary, powerful commitment to making yourself a priority. And it also means learning how to stick up for yourself. Sometimes we don’t do that. We are trying to be nice, or we can’t initially believe that someone IS NOT treating us right, so we let it slide, and then it kind of becomes the official way that relationship is going to be.

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Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul, and it’s Wow Wednesday. I always try to share awe-inspiring or surprising stories with you on Wednesdays, so I went back to one of our older books and found a couple that I really love from a fun read, Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Miracle of Love. These stories are about the miraculous ways that two different couples got together, much to their surprise.

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