What do you see?

What do you see?

Simon and Bob wanted to expand their shoe company into a new market. They travelled to the third world to explore the market opportunities there.

Simon said; there is no market here; nobody wears shoes.

Bob thought; there is a huge market here; nobody wears shoes.

• They both saw the same environment but had two different opinions. It is up to us how we see the world.

• As humans, we can choose in which state we want to be. It is a decision rather than the circumstance which determines how we see the world. 

The way we see things is a consequence of our thoughts regarding a situation and past experiences, not only the current event.

Half-full Glass.

• Some people see life as a half-empty glass, while others see it as a half-full glass. The first is a pessimist, while the second is an optimist. They were both in the same situation but had different outlooks on their surroundings.

• The idea is if we say the glass is half empty, we negatively see the world. If we say the glass is half full, we have a more optimistic viewpoint.

• A pessimist makes difficulties of their opportunities while an optimist makes opportunities of their challenges. We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorns have roses.

• What we see is a choice. We take actions that produce positive results when we expect good things. Things go wrong when we fail to take steps to avoid or prevent a bad outcome.

Coaches of winning teams have this positive attitude: Even when they lose, the coach treats it as a learning experience that will enable them to win future games.

What do we do when our hearts hurt? We wrap them with friendship, shared tears and time, till they wake hopeful and happy again. Never forget that we matter, we are important and loved, and we bring to this world things no one else can.

Gratitude.

• Gratitude is an attitude that reflects how we see the world and all the good things in it with a feeling of appreciation regardless of whether or not our current situation is favourable.

• It is a heart-centred approach to being at peace with ourselves and with all we have. When we practice this feeling of gratitude, it attracts even more things into our lives for which to be grateful.

• One way to influence our subconscious mind is by being grateful. John Templeton, the billionaire investor, said that the secret to a successful life is gratitude. Real success is not about money.

• Take, for example, the late Robin Williams; he had money and fame; people from around the globe loved him. Yet, he took his own life. How can one of the funniest people on the planet be in such a suffering state?

On the other hand, some people have seemingly nothing. And yet, they are grateful for what they do have – life itself. Hence, they are rich beyond compare.

• A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which read, “I am blind, please help.”

• There were only a few coins in the hat – spare change from folks as they hurried past. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. 

• He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. Then he put the signboard back in the boy’s hand so that everyone who walked by would see what was written.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon, the man who had changed the sign returned to see how things were. 

• The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”

• The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said differently.” I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.”

• Both signs spoke the truth. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign conveyed to everyone walking by how grateful they should be to see.

• When our life seems full of troubles, it seems challenging to maintain an attitude of gratitude, doesn’t it? All we see is our problems, like a blackened storm cloud casting a dark shadow over our lives.

• And the times when everything just seems to be going smoothly? We often take these precious moments for granted, don’t we? Caught up in the bliss, comfort, and familiarity of it all, we can simply forget to be thankful.

Fight or Flight Mode.

• Many years ago, when our ancestors encountered a predatory animal like a lion? They reacted immediately by not standing around thinking about the lion, admiring its beauty or wondering why it was bothering them instead of tracking down some tasty antelope.

• Our primitive brain still operates in fight or flight mode. However, in this modern age, we do not need to perform on an emotional basis. Our minds can work for us or against us at any given moment; it is a choice we can make.

• The fight or flight response is an automatic physiological reaction to an event perceived as stressful or frightening. The perception of threat activates the sympathetic nervous system that triggers an acute stress response that prepares the body to fight or flee.

• Our body tells uswhen and how to respond to danger. However, when our body becomes triggered, it can undermine our mental and physical health and become harmful.

• It can happen in the face of imminent physical danger (such as encountering a growling dog during a morning jog) or as a result of a psychological threat (such as preparing to give a big presentation at school or work).

• It is about learning how to function despite the fear, to put aside our instincts to run or give in to the anger born from fear. 

• It is about using our brain and heart when every cell of our body is screaming at us to fight or flee – and then following through on what we believe is the right thing to do.

• The aggressive person fights. The passive one runs away. But the assertive person stands ground, assesses the situation, adapts, and acts with purpose and passion. Sometimes we have to fight our way out of a paper bag.

A Beautiful State.

• The most critical decision we can make in life is the decision to live in a beautiful state. It means choosing not to engage in negative thinking. It means being present in the now and recognizing the possibilities in any situation, no matter how bad it may seem at first.

• It is a set of beliefs that shape how we make sense of the world and ourselves. It influences how we think, feel, and behave in any given situation.

• We believe our talents and abilities can be developed over time through effort and persistence. We are a constantly evolving work in progress and, the more we challenge ourselves, the better we become.

• Traumatic life events are a leading cause of anxiety and depression in people. It is how we think about an event that raises our stress levels. In other words, it isn’t just what happens to us that matters, but how we think about it that shapes our beautiful state.

• Happiness depends on our mindset and attitude. Our mind is just like a muscle – the more we exercise it, the stronger it gets and the more it can expand. It has a powerful way of attracting positive or negative situations.

• Training our brain to flip negative thoughts with positive ones is like training a dog. We reward ourselves when we succeed to create pleasure in our minds.

• Our primitive mind works to keep us safe inside a miserable yet familiar feeling. A key factor in altering a state is by being aware of it. When we acknowledge suffering, we shift toward the beautiful state naturally.

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. Our eye sees only what our mind is prepared to comprehend.

What we see depends mainly on what we look for. In the same field, the farmer will notice the crop, the geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring, sportsmen the cover for the game. Though we may all look at the same things, it does not all follow that we should see them.