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One night, a tune got stuck in Laurel resident Debbie Thomas' head. But it wasn't a current pop song or a classic rock hit.

It was an original song she made up — one that would change her life.

"Right here and now, I am happy. Don't cha know? I've been set free," she said she sang to herself. "Right here and now I am happy and life is everything I knew that it could be."

Thomas, 54, is the voice and force behind "AttitudeZapz!," an album consisting of 12 one-minute long tunes with catchy words and simple music that reinforces positive thoughts.

"A lot of things ... converged at once, but that was the major catalyst," Thomas said of the fateful night two years ago, after realizing her air purifier entrepreneurial selling venture had failed. "I was in a bad place one night and a little song popped in my head and it just started from there."

Now a material engineer for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, she credits the jingles with turning her life around.

"You get in this space where you start feeling bad and you can't get out of it, and this is a rope to grab onto or a switch to flip," she said.

Thomas' daughter, Victoria, 14, recommended her mother record an album. Thomas' first album was released last winter. She said she spent about $10,000 recording and releasing her self-produced album last winter. She said she has made back about half of that through CD sales through her Web site, www.attitudezapz.com.

Thomas, who writes the lyrics for the jingles, said the next album is due out in early summer.

Thomas' son, Adam, 19, a freshman at West Virginia University in Morgantown, W.Va., said he keeps her CD in his car to listen to whenever he's having a bad day.

"I would say the best way to describe it for me is inspirational," he said.

Her husband Tim Thomas, 48, said the jingles effect on her is noticeable.

"There's definitely a difference in her approach, her demeanor and her attitude," he said. "She wakes up to a purpose everyday – it's not just the normal routine."

Susan Laporta, a Mineola, N.Y. resident and kindergarten teacher for children with special needs in Long Island, said she found out about Thomas' music while surfing the Internet, and has found it to be a helpful teaching tool.

"Every time there was a behavior issue, I would put on a song … it was a very positive way to get them back on track," she said. "From a teacher's point of view it's a tool that can be used and it's something that is missing in the classroom: positive reinforcement."

Thomas said she would like to go elementary schools and talk to students about the importance of positive self-esteem.

"I'm hoping that this can get stuck in their head at a younger age," she said, "What if they were getting positive affirmations and really believing in themselves?"

E-mail Timmy Gelles at tgelles@gazette.net.