Thank you everyone for your posts on this subject to date.

Dear Arthur,

Your post was awesome and very informative my friend. I too have spent many a time with people during the last minutes or seconds of life. In the ambulance service we get to spend time in the Hospice and obviously the journey into hospital is spent with the patient and indeed the relatives. We are trained to deal with Patient Care which includes how to deal with the dead and dying. I understand your comment about people not knowing what to say to someone who is dying but sometimes the silence says it all.

With reference to Positive Thinking I am a firm believer in "what you think is what you get". But obviously Arthur we cannot change the big picture. If I am going to lose a relative in a road accident my positive thinking will not bring them back, however the way I deal with that situation will be helped by a positive mind. I will overcome the issue faster than if I curled up and gave up. I would see a way through it more clearly with a positive mind than with a negative mind.

I have seen the forum on Adland knocking positive thinking and that you need negative thoughts too. Yes I can accept that the two go hand in hand but ever since I discovered positive thinking my life has changed for the better. I am more confident, I do things that I would never dream of doing before. I will gladly stand in front of any size crowd and give a speech. I have two large spiders as pets when in fact when I was growing up I had a real phobia with spiders and I could go on and on.

If we can conquer fear with a positive attitude then we cut down our stress levels and anxiety. If we cut down on these we reduce the risk of Coronary heart disease and Strokes.

The health benefits my forum promotes here today will do more good than harm and in my book that is the right balance.

Thank you for posting and your views are always welcome here Arthur.

Have a fun day

Hello future King Chris and thank you for this magnificent post ...

I am all for positive thinking ... As a survivor of a 200 mt fall off a mountain ... lost and left for dead for 24 hours ... and having spent 2 years in rehab ... just to be able to walk properly again .... Nobody can tell me that positive mental attitude has nothing to do with it ...

I had no muscles left in my legs, as they were battered to a pulp, I broke all my ribs, had a dislocated lung, fluid on the lungs, a cracked skull in 3 places; cuts and bruises beyond belief and by the time they found me I was suffering hyperthermia and de-hydration and I had bled out pretty bad ... It was the most I could do to to make myself survive through the cold and damp night.  Everyone thought I was dead ... I was told one negative statement about my health after the other .... but I chose not to listen.

It was my mind and my faith that kept me alive ... since none of the body parts were working.... and just recently I was told I would "have to have" an operation on a hernia spanning 5 discs in my neck, pressing against the spinal cord and trapping the nerves ... They told me there was no alternative ... that I could be paralysed if not .... well, here I am AGAIN ... just me and my little ol stubborn mind with its positive attitude of I know I can ... and therefore I will ....

I believe, in life, people are either fighters and ... that may even mean having to fight with their inner self ... or they may be the resigned to accpet all that happens to them without protest... (the defeatest) ...

I believe that negative thoughts exist only for those who cannot face the fact that life can be better and improved by a change in mental attitude ... and I feel that fear of change has a lot to do with it...

People actually start to feel comfortable in the negative mental attitude zone, because they fear they may fail if they become positive ... so rather than risk being a "possible" failure, we content ourselves .... and that's when we cease to want the best for ourselves ...

 Yes, there are things that try and wear us down ... but as you ... quite rightfully ... posted in one of my forums ... you have two choices .... mope or improve ... shrivel up and give up ... or choose to live and stand up tall ....

Only we stop ourselves in life .... because of our choices ... nobody can change for us ... In Italian we have a saying ... "Dio aiuta chi si aiuta" .... God helps those who help themselves ...

Big huggers my friend and I am waiting for the POTW cake and shampers!!!!

Love n hugs

V.