The importance of a positive view of life

I belive we all should feel better if we try to see the positive in life, even when life consists of adversity and trouble. I do not mean that we should all go around missionaryizing the messages of joy and love, those who missionaryizing are often both self-absorbed and unhappy. To see positive, even in what may seem negative, is just for our own sake.

The Sisifys legend, I think, illustrates this wisely; you are a loser when you feel like a loser and consequently, you are a winner when you feel like one. You can influence your attitude to things even if you cannot influence the actual conditions you live under. It is yourself who feels bad over burying in your problems all the time.

Seeing something positive in something that can be perceived as negative does not necessarily mean that you like the actual situation you are in. However, if you cannot influence the actual situation, you can always find something interesting or positive in the inevitable. You can also learn about yourself by analyzing and thinking about how to react in different situations.

A positive attitude of life can also spill over onto the surroundings. If you come home after work and say “what a terrible day it have been” or “what a bad weather it is” to my family, you send out a negative atmosphere that risks affecting them for the rest of the evening. If I you on the contrary start by saying “how nice to come to your” or “I’m glad that it is raining, now the vegetables are growing’, then I am spreading a positive atmosphere that will spread like rings on the water. But here, of course, you must mean what you are saying, and you can always find something positive just about all situations if you try. If you try long enough, you will automatically see the positive before all the black.

Similarly, children are being positively affected when the parents are showing that they think it is funny and exciting to watch their children participate in theatre performances, concerts or sporting events, compared to if the children is told that they find it awkward with all these events that they feel compelled to participate in when they have so much else important to do.

But as I said, the person who benefits from seeing the positive and bright in life is primarily oneself, the one who suffers from burying himself in trouble is also oneself. Secondarily, the environment is also on the winning side.