A Life Full of Glitter: A Guide to Positive Thinking, Self-Acceptance, and Finding Your Sparkle in a (Sometimes) Negative World

by Anna O'Brien

Overview

A modern guide to optimism from the plus-size fashion blogger and founder of Glitter + Lazers—“a beacon of body positivity and no-bullshit takes” (Revelist).

Bullying, loss, regret and fear impact our lives in tough-to-deal-with ways. Learn how to confront these and other challenges like the world’s happiest people do—as opportunities. Armed with humor and a good attitude, author Anna O’Brien will teach you how to combat the negativity of life in this motivational self-help guide.

It can be difficult to process and move on from unresolvable issues that are holding us back from our most positive lives. A Life Full of Glitter introduces the concept of “long-game” thinking, which will help you re-frame temporary setbacks and focus on long-term happiness. Discover easy-to-use tips and tricks to increase your positivity and personal growth.

Modern research shows that positivity improves almost every aspect of your life. A Life Full of Glitter will walk you through the findings of this research with real life examples and humorous teachable moments from author Anna O’Brien’s own life. Allow Anna’s book to help you increase your happiness and self-esteem.

A Life Full of Glitter is a modern guide to positive thinking presented through relevant research, captivating storytelling, and plenty of humor. In reading this book, you will:

Learn quick tips and tricks for shifting your mind to think positively

Be introduced to new ways to address everyday challenges

Master how to move on from feelings and experiences that are holding you back from happiness

“I’ve never seen anyone write with as much authenticity and spark as Anna.” —Megan J. Crabbe, Instagram star and author of Body Positive Power

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633538153
Publisher:	Mango Media
Publication date:	07/22/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	197
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Anna OBrien was born with a big mouth, big heart, and big ideas. She shares her life, learning, and fearless fashion sense daily on glitterandlazers.com. Once a side project, Glitter + Lazers has quickly grown to become a cornerstone in the plus size, motivational, and fashion communities. Anna is also an accomplished global speaker-having presented in almost a dozen countries, at events such as SXSW, adweek, Social Media Week, emetrics, and M2C. She is known for her candid and captivating presentation style and her ability to transform difficult concepts into executable steps. Over the past ten years she has built a career on innovation and creative problem solving-helping some of the worlds biggest and best brands shift the way they engage and learn from their consumers. An early advocate for social media, Anna helped to build the initial social media program at Citibank. Most recently Anna worked at Sprinklr, first consulting with the worlds top brands on innovating through social media, and later leading the development and strategy behind Sprinklrs Content Marketing and Influencer software. Where left brain meets right is where youll find Anna. A data-centric individual since day one, Anna has a masters degree in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences from Columbia University. She is deeply embedded in the new technology, social media, and digital communities and intimately familiar with the latest and greatest trends, strategies, technology, and social networks.

Read an Excerpt

Positive Thinkers Cope Better With Stress When I was younger whenever I would get a message that I needed to meet with a teacher or boss, I would spend the rest of the day engulfed in worry. Bullets of sweat would run from my forehead. My palms would get sweaty. I was certain I had done something wrong. How could I do anything right? I worry that entire day about what that ominous meeting could be about. Maybe I failed. Maybe they were mad. Maybe somebody has said something terrible about me and I was going to have defend myself. I would spend every hour until the meeting running over every potential negative reason and every catastrophic potential outcome. By the time the sit down was scheduled, I would have to drag my anxiety ridden, stress ball self into the room only to find out I just forgot to submit some paperwork or some other mundane thing. All my fears. All my anxiety. They were pointless. The stress I carried with me through everything I did that day was unnecessary. A huge amount of my precious emotional energy was like a kid on the night of their twenty-first first birthday—wasted. Most of our day to day stress—just like mine in this example—is self-created. When research stress I was surprised to find that stress itself doesn’t exist in an event, but rather in our perception of an event. In simple terms it means no matter what happens in life, you have the ability to be in the emotional driver’s seat. Pessimists (aka my previous self) approach common-place life situations with the expectation they’ve done something wrong. In the previous example, I used to assume that the only reason a boss or teacher might ever speak to me is because I had done something wrong. This type of thinking created additional heartache for me. It also closed me off from opportunities, friendships because I assumed that people were entering interactions with me only for negative reasons. This also affected my ability to manage my stress in the long term. Optimists on the other hand (aka present day moi) don’t apply a sentiment to a situation until all the facts needed to fairly assess it are available. It’s not that I’m assuming in the same situation that something amazing is going to happen. I’m not sitting anxiously, counting down the hours until my next office pow-wow so I can get some super fun prize. I’ve simply stopped assuming anything at all. If the event is negative, I benefit from the fact I haven’t been mulling over it, dissecting the situation and creating a million and one negative outcomes in my head. As a result, I am more prepared to manage the real results of the situation. I’m also less likely to overreact as result of all my extra ( and unnecessary) pent up emotion. I am more able to resolve whatever issues, if any, that result. I should share that this has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to learn. In the early stages of my career when a problem would arise, I would have to tell no less than every single person in my office, the door man, and several strangers I wrassled into conversation on the street before I could put the issue to rest. Sometimes even that wasn’t enough. I’d find myself like a car caught in quicksand—spinning my wheels with all this excess emotion and getting nowhere. Venting our issues, while seemingly harmless and perhaps even possibly therapeutic, can cause us to fixate on a negative incident rather than invest our energy in resolution. This story always serves to remind me that I have a choice in where I invest my energy. Most of the stress in my day to day life can be avoided or even reduced by keeping an upbeat attitude. Research has found that optimists not only create less stressful situations, but also experience stress less overall than others. As a new found optimist I find I tend to let go of negative events more quickly. This keeps stressful situations from piling up and becoming overwhelming. I’ve also been able to build better support systems, because I’ve stopped assuming the worst of every situation I enter. When stressful situations arise, Im able to reach out to my friends and rely on them to help me through. In short choosing to see the good in things the has resulted me having better relationships, less stress, and helped me let go of some of my baggage. I think we can all agree that the world could use a few more people that leave the baggage at home.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents Introduction Chapter 1: Intro: The Benefits of a More Positive Life Chapter 2: Identity: Accepting That You’re Different, and That’s OK Chapter 3: Self Love: Reframing Negative Self Talk Chapter 4: Worth: Recognizing Your Self-Worth Daily Chapter 5: Goals: Creating A Cause for Self-Celebration Chapter 6: Bullying: Overcoming Bullies and Naysayers Chapter 7: Fears: Getting Uncomfortable and Why It’s Important Chapter 8: Challenges: Creating Opportunities from Life’s Problems Chapter 9: Failure: Learning How to Recognize and Grow from Failure Chapter 10: Gratitude: Acknowledging the Gifts of Life Chapter 11: Love: Loving Yourself More Through Loving Others Chapter 12: Community: Making the World Better for Everyone (Including You!)

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“I've never seen anyone write with as much authenticity and spark as Anna. Her wit, fierce individuality, and wealth of life adventures to draw on means that she truly is a master storyteller, and the world needs to hear more of her.”
—Megan J Crabbe, Instagram Star + Author, Body Positive Power

“Anna O'Brien of @Glitterandlazers is a must-follow for fashion advice and real talk. [This] full-time blogger and vlogger is a beacon of body positivity and no-bullshit takes.”
—Revelist

“Beauty, brains, and bravery is a hell of a package.”
—Josh Bernoff, bestselling author, Groundswell

“I’ve never met anyone as uncontrollably great as Anna. She tackles everything life throws at her with a smile and sharp witticism, and I can only hope to be 10% as cool as she is.”
—Kate Bryant, Head of Social Media Blizzard Entertainment