Having read about powers of positive thinking over all these years, it wasn’t difficult for either one of us to gather ideas. What was important was to express them. I gave her the classic example of two men watching a glass half filled, the pessimist one saying “The glass is half empty”, and the optimist one saying “Wow, The glass is half full”. Our conversation progressed. I explained to her that positive thinking is all about seeing the good element in any situation, even if the situation is bad. Under any circumstances, we always have a choice to select between the positive and negative thinking. Everybody makes mistakes and everybody falls. You can either stay in the same state in despair, or learn from those mistakes and move on. Positive thinking is about seeing the silver lining behind the every dark and gloomy cloud. H. Jackson Brown Jr. once wrote: “Your mind can only hold one thought at a time, make it positive and constructive one.” Simple but true words. We went on.
Being more talkative of the two, I told her about one of my experiences when I was on my way to lunch on a hot summer afternoon. The temperature outside was almost 44C. Glare of very bright sunlight was teasing my eyes. I had two pair of glasses in my bag. I quickly pulled out the spectacles with plain glasses. My eyes were not relieved, instead the glare increased. I put off the plain glasses and pulled out the spectacles with green shaded glasses. The moment I put them on, my eyes felt cool. Everything I looked turned green. Green glasses gave me a soothing experience, although the situation externally was unchanged. I went on to compare the white glasses to negative attitude which does not improve the situation, but worsens it instead. And a positive thinking is to our mind what green glasses were to my eyes. It changes the way we think, and improves our reaction to any situation.
Now it was her turn. So I asked her about any instance in her life when positive thinking helped her. Thinking for a while, she recollected the time when she scored miserably in the first year of her Masters in English Literature. She was in pain, not being able to fulfill everybody’s expectations. But, she chose to think positively. She told herself: “Unlike others, who miserably fail in the final year, I still have a one full year. I still have a chance to prove myself”. She made up her mind and started studying very seriously, and experienced a positive outcome. It is all in the way you think. If you think you are miserable, you are bound to be miserable and nobody else can help you out of the situation, except you.
Soon, I realized that it was the time to sleep. We ended our conversation with a resolution that we will always choose to think positive. We slept well that night!
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