Is The Glass Half Full Or Half Empty? You Choose
“You should see that the glass is half full!” or “You always see the glass half empty! ”. Yes, in this article we are going to delve deeper into this popular expression. That way, if we go behind the scenes of this sentence, we’ll gain an incentive and an opportunity to change our point of view. It would be nice, wouldn’t it?
In this sense, Positive Psychology wants to study and explain how the ideal human functioning tries to promote well-being and health in different adverse contexts. What’s more, when dealing with the point of view of Positive Psychology, variables such as health, well-being and the prevention of mental and physical illnesses are included. This trend emerged in the late twentieth century at the hands of Martin Seligman, former director of the American Association of Psychologists, along with other professionals.
Change your point of view! bet on the glass half full
You are the one with the most power over yourself. You are the one who has control over your behavior and, especially, your thoughts. Since this is a reality that we can recognize, sometimes the simplest thing is to let yourself be carried away by the first thought that comes to your mind and that goes exactly in the opposite direction.
These types of thoughts, negative due to the effect they produce, can be motivated by tiredness from the workday, problems at home and/or personal concerns… However, we need to learn to ignore negative thoughts, rather than allowing them to guide us towards the cliff. A place similar to the elephant cemetery, where those like him reproduce.
What if, instead of looking at the negative, we look at the positive? What if instead of seeing the glass half empty, we start seeing it half full? Putting yourself on the other side is much simpler than people believe. As soon as you produce the first positive thought and accept it as your guide, it will inevitably lead you to the other side, completely different from the elephant graveyard we talked about earlier, a place where you will find more thoughts of the same nature.
These thoughts will feed each other, guaranteeing by their own inertia their survival.
the traffic light in red
For example, close your eyes and imagine this situation…when you are driving home, that traffic light is always red. It’s always red on your turn to pass. As if someone had decided to piss you off! (Which means you’ll be home later. You’re already tired from work and on top of that you’re alone in the car…).
One day you come home with a friend. When you’re getting close to the traffic light, you start saying, “Red traffic light again, I don’t know how I can do this, but whenever I pass here it’s like this!” At that moment, his friend cracks a smile and says: “I love that this traffic light is red!
You just look at what’s in front of you, the red traffic light. But if you looked to the side, you would see a wonderful sea and sunset”. At this point, you realize that on the same path, each person can be paying attention to completely different elements and, above all, offering a different perception. The same traffic light for one person can be a source of stress, fatigue, complaints… for another it is the opportunity to stop along the way and enjoy a few seconds to see the sea or the landscape, even in the company of the radio program that plays in the background.
There is the person who sees the glass half full. Simply seeing a little more than what is in front of us. Simply enjoying where we are and how we are, instead of anticipating how the present can negatively affect the future.
