Why Looking At Things Positively Is Important

Circumstances cannot be controlled, but your response to them certainly can be. Looking at things positively certainly helps your well-being.

Looking at this glass of water, I am sure you will be expecting the question “Glass is half empty or half full?”

For those of you who do not know what this phrase means, let me explain. “Is this glass of water half empty or half full?” is a common expression used to indicate that a particular situation could be a cause for optimism(half full) or pessimism(half empty). This is actually a metaphor used to understand one’s view about life.

A psychologist once asked her audience “How heavy is this glass of water?”

The answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g . The best answer given was “It depends on how long you hold it. If you hold it for an hour definitely you will have an ache in your arm.”

The psychologist smiled and said “Yes. If I hold this glass of water for a longer time my arm will feel numb. The weight of glass is actually not going to change but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

Worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while nothing happens. But if you think about it the whole day, you will feel low and depressed and also incapable of doing anything. So start concentrating on being cheerful and happy, be it home or at workplace.

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The other day my colleague, Niharika, who is an engineer had a very bad head ache and refused to go to work. Subasmita, who is a doctor and her roommate was clever enough to understand the reason behind this. She did not have tablet for headache but at the same time did not want to disappoint her friend. She gave Niharika a digestive tablet without letting her know about it. She told Niharika that she will be fine after having the tablet and asked her to drink lots and lots of water and then take a deep breathe. While she was doing so Subasmita reminded her of the recent trip good moments.

After few minutes she got back to work and told me that her head ache had disappeared within few minutes of consuming the tablet.

The digestive tablet had worked wonders for her. She did know what tablet it was but she had faith in Subasmita. Niharika was told she will be fine after few minutes and that made her train her mind that she will be fine. Few minutes later she could notice remarkable difference in the way she felt. Her headache was only due to loads of work and stress. Once she had emptied her mind she continued to feel good.

Whenever you feel low or depressed, when negative thoughts begin to rule your mind, imagine a beautiful object/person or simply recollect the sweet memories, good days of your life. At first, with the good things, bad thoughts related with these good memories begin to distract your mind. But then simply return your attention to those good things ignoring the bad thoughts.

Another way is to write down all those bad thoughts on a piece of paper and flush it/tear it. Then tell your mind that the bad thoughts have no right to rule your mind.

Mind is all yours. It will focus only on what you command it to focus on and if you ask it to focus on the bad it will make your mind heavier like that glass of water in your arm for a longer time. Train your mind not to get distracted and to focus on those things that are required, because either you control your mind or it controls you.

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