Learn Spanish (Latin America): Lo esencial es recordar lo positivo hoy. - The essential thing is to remember the positive today.

In Spanish, when you want to say 'the essential thing' or 'what is essential' without referring to a specific masculine or feminine noun, you use the neuter article lo plus an adjective. El esencial would mean 'the essential one', referring back to a specific masculine noun you already mentioned.

The translation says 'the positive', but could lo positivo also mean 'the positive things'?

Yes! Lo positivo is an abstract concept that means 'that which is positive'. Depending on the sentence, you can naturally translate it into English as 'the positive thing', 'the positive things', or simply 'what is positive'.

Why is recordar in its infinitive ('to' form) here rather than conjugated?

In Spanish, when an action functions as a noun or a core idea in the sentence (like 'remembering' or 'to remember' in English), you always use the infinitive. Here, the sentence equates the concept of lo esencial directly with the action of recordar.

Why do we use es instead of está for 'is' in this sentence?

We use es (from the verb ser) because we are identifying or defining what 'the essential thing' actually is. You always use ser to equate two concepts, which in this case are lo esencial and recordar lo positivo.