Happy Tuesday! If life has you feeling a little bit like this lately: 

Don't panic! My goal is to have you feeling a bit more like this by the end of the newsletter: 

Let me know which stories and sections you enjoy most from today's edition. I always love hearing from you🥰.

- Kailyn

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today's newsletter takes ~4.22 minutes to read (1,123 words).

P.S. First time reading? Subscribe here for free. 

I am moving closer to the life of my dreams. I create my reality and am choosing the direction of my life.

👆 Meet Hercules, an adorable little cat with quite the story. 

He spent the first six years of his life in an animal hoarding situation. When his rescuers first found him, he was locked in a hot car with nearly 50 other cats. 

• As an organization came to save the cats, Hercules ended up running away – and was missing for a month. When they finally found him, he was discovered with a fractured jaw and injured tongue – and covered in maggots and fleas💔.
• The rescuers weren't sure he would survive the night. But then, Hercules lifted his head and looked right at his rescuer, per the Washington Post. “I got the impression that he really wanted to fight,” she said. 

And fight he did.

Second chances: Hercules was rescued by Nicole Perreault, the veterinarian that runs Tuff Start Rescue, who nursed the cat back to health. When he was finally strong enough to find a foster home, local pediatric nurse Jill LeBrun fell in love with his sweet golden eyes and new permanently silly face (due to his jaw reconstruction).

• While Jill originally took Hercules home to foster him, she soon realized he was home to stay. 

Hercules got stronger and stronger, settling in perfectly to his new home. Then one day, Jill came across and ad from the Animal Connection, a pet talent agency in search of cats with unusual faces. It was scouting pet models for Target – so she sent them a picture of Hercules. 

• The agency loved his sweet, little silly face, and asked Jill to bring Hercules in for a photo shoot. He was a natural in front of the camera, and they said to keep an eye out for his picture in Target. 

From stray to supermodel: By mid-March, Jill still hadn't heard from the agency, so she went to Target on her own to check out the pet aisle – and found Hercules' cute little face on every bucket of store-brand kitty litter😳. Soon after, the agency called to set up a second shoot for later this year (a...catcall?).

💬 What she's saying: “He’s a natural and he loves to be the center of attention,” Jill said, “I feel very lucky to be the person who gets to spend every day with him."

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At 92 years old, Alfredo Aliaga👆 recently became the oldest person to hike the Grand Canyon rim to rim. 

• The Spaniard hiked for a total of 21 hours over two days to complete the voyage, which he undertook with his daughter. The two crossed the proverbial finish line on October 15 of last year. 
• Nearly 100 people were waiting to celebrate with Alfredo at his finishing point. 

🥾 These boots were made for walking... An outdoor enthusiast and lover of the Grand Canyon specifically, Alfredo is humble about his accomplishments. "After all," he said, it's "only one step after the other." 

+Editor's note: This story was originally published in The DONUT in October 2023. It was so sweet we had to share it again🥰.

🎨 Legacy, preserved... Ron Gittins was a British artist who transformed his home into a large, immersive piece of art. When he passed in 2019, his friends and family were shocked to discover the larger-than-life pieces hidden in his home for all these years. They were recently able to get "Ron's Place" Grade II protection status through the UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), making his home an officially recognized museum and public art space.

🌎 Happy belated Earth Day! It was an absolutely gorgeous spring day over here in New England – how was the weather for you? Earth Day may only roll around once per year, but we can take steps to help our planet every day. Check out this article to get started.

💍 Talk about right place, right time... Calivé and Shannon Jackson had been planning an intimate elopement for a year by the time their destination ceremony rolled around. As they said their vows and "I do's," however, they realized they were missing their rings. Thankfully a couple of tourists walked by and noticed the distressed couple – and quickly came to the rescue.

I loved this article about the benefits of setting purposeful daily intentions for a more driven life.

• The act of choosing a specific intention or intentions to live your life by each day helps rewire your Reticular Activation System (RAS). Your RAS is basically the set of "rules" by which you see the world – and through mindfulness and intentionality, we can decide what we see as "true" each day.
• For example: If you repeatedly chose to see your life in a positive and focused way, you'll start to see the positive things all around you🥰.

As you may imagine, this can be a game-changer. Check out the article to dive deeper into how to write or choose your intentions, and why they're so benefical for us. But for now, here are some of my favorites from the list:

1. I intend to do my best today to achieve my goals.
2. I intend to do something fun solely for joy today.
3. I intend to bring abundance and goodness into my life.
4. I intend to be grateful for at least 3 things today.
5. I intend to see my beauty and accept my flaws.

📈 Choose your favorite and declare it as your intention for the day. The more you repeat it, the more you'll believe it!

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Welcome to my favorite part of the newsletter, What's Your Win, where we celebrate all of the good news happening right here within our DONUT Community. Think of it like the "Stars! They're just like us" sections from early 2000's magazines, but it is actually us – with good news galore (does that click for anyone else?). 

There's truly always something to be grateful for. Check out some of the submissions we received this week! 

🥳 Hannah F. from Broomfield, Colorado, is celebrating her recovery...

• "I just got home from a residential eating disorder program and am reintegrating into life. I’ve had so much support from friends and family and have been reminded of the things I love! I got to see people at my church again, shared a meal with friends, and played with my dogs for the first time in 3 months! I am so grateful for my recovery."

👏 Kim H. from Walpole, New Hampshire, is so proud of her daughter...

• "This is actually a win for my daughter. She graduated from high school in 2020 – so no graduation, no prom, etc. Her first year of college was remote and she was 4.0 student. Her 2nd year she started on campus about 6 hours away from home. It was not a good experience and her anxiety took over and she ended up finishing the semester at home and then dropping out. She has been struggling ever since. A couple months ago, she decided she wanted to finish her degree online and started researching programs for what she wanted. She applied to her first choice, was accepted in less than a week and automatically placed in their honors program! I am a happy and proud Mom of how far she has come since I drove her home from campus three years ago." 

🏺 Tristan S. from Virginia is getting over her perfectionism through pottery...

• "Growing up as a 'gifted' kid, I haven't been one to try many new things or enjoy/stick with things that I'm not immediately good at, maybe some of you out there can relate... Well, over the last year I started doing these little off-brand challenges (shout out to Muchelle B on YouTube for the idea) and they have helped me grow immensely. My current work in progress is a 6 week pottery class that I'm taking with my best friend. Wheel throwing is NOT easy, and everyone else in the class seems to be picking up on it much faster than me, so the first 3 weeks of class have been extremely tough both mentally (dealing with comparison) and physically (actually throwing on the wheel). This week, week 4, was different though, I feel like I finally had a breakthrough with my negative and unhelpful comparisons. I had a great time the whole class and left feeling even better than how I came in, despite not doing great with the throwing! I was able to focus on having fun and uplifting the energy of the room, while also enjoying the learning process. All that to say, it is so worth it to challenge and work on improving the parts of yourself that might be holding you back. It will take repeated effort and time, but you will make progress. You can do it, I believe in you! <3"

Whether you had an energizing conversation with a friend, beat a sickness, met a milestone at work, or even just booked a dream trip, we want to hear about it.

There is always something to be grateful for, and no win too small. And who knows? Sharing a bit of positivity from your own life could inspire someone else to recognize the good in theirs🥰.

Submit your wins here for a chance to be featured in next week's newsletter. We want to celebrate you!

Share your accomplishments – big and small – here.

1. What do you call a fear of especially long words? 
2. What can you find on top of the US Supreme Court Building? 
3. Other than humans and monkeys, which animals have fingerprints? 

(keep scrolling for the answers)

👆 Check out the referral prizes you can get, just for introducing people you know to little old us. 

What to do: Copy your unique link below, then send it to anyone who you think would like Positive DONUT. Once you hit each milestone, you'll get an email with a link to claim your prize.

Start referring.👇

1. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia😳 (isn’t that ironic?)
2. 🏀 A basketball court (known as "The Highest Court in the Land")
3. 🐨 Koalas 

Hit that reply button and let me know, I read every response. Have a great week!🥰

–Kailyn

P.S. Enjoying this newsletter and want to support my work? It'd mean the world if you told a friend or two about Positive DONUT. You can even win sweet, sweet prizes for each person you refer using your unique link (found two sections above).