The way I see it, you have to take every single positive that comes your way and rejoice in it. Refusing to do that leads (in my opinion) to misery and negativity. Anyone who has done any research about their illness will be very aware of the ups and downs and that just because you are on an up doesn't mean you won't have very serious downs again.
The term boom and bust is widely used and I think particularily applicable. You feel great so unless you are careful you do far too much, if I do this, I get to the point where I suddenly can barely take a step or pick something up. To me this is definitely bust.
Again there is lots of controversy about exercise an M.E. I totally agree that a program that is not incredibly flexible that doesn't respond totally to what your body is telling you is absolutely dangerous. I can not see however how if you do no very careful exercise at all, how you can ever get your health back to a point where you can work and generally lead a normal life.
Now I know there are lots of people who claim that there is no way you can get better from M.E., that once you have it, that's it for life. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence of people who have had M.E. and gone on to live successful lives. These people got better by very very slowly and very very carefully extending the range of activities they could do without having payback. This is all that I am trying to achieve.
It is very clear to me however that a cold, a stressful situation etc could put my health back to where it was two or three months ago. If and when that happens, I will very very slowly begin the slow path back to where I am today. I may do this a hundred times or maybe just a few times.
The idea however that not being positive, not trying to take control of the situation you are in, of not doing all you can (even if that means doing very little) to improve your health is repugnant to me. As long as your long term overall direction is upwards then there is nothing to be negative about.