Realist

Yesterday saw this video by Marissa Peers, where she gave a simple demonstration of the power of our thoughts. She asked the whole audience to close their eyes and hold both arms stretched horizontally in front of them. Then she went on to talk about heavy bucket of cement they kept in their left hand and the right hand was tied to a huge helium filled balloon. Almost all left arms went down a bit and the right ones up.

There were no buckets, no balloons, just thoughts.

So thoughts do have a strong effect on us.
That is why we better choose to think positive.
For pessimists this may sound as a lie.
But for optimists, the negative thoughts of the pessimists
 sound every bit as much as a lie.

The world is supporting us.
It provides with all the water we need.
All nutritious foods are found easily
The air is full of oxygen.
And if you really look out for opportuinity,
the world is full of opportunity.

So we have a choice to be pessimist, and tell ourselves negative lies
which will end up to be self fulfilling prophecies like the imagined bucket was pulling the left arms down or we can choose to think positive thoughts which will also become self fulfilling prophecies like the imagined balloons were pulling the right arms up.

We do not have to become surreal dreamers.
But somehow expecting the best to happen is not surreal.

I think all of us went to a few huge disappointments:
expecting the best but getting it not.
The disappointment is a real bad feeling.
Too quickly we learned to expect the worst, so we will not be disappointed.

In the process of expecting the worst we manipulate circumstances so the chances for a good outcome decrease very significantly
In the process of expecting the worst, we go through the agony of anticipating the worst, even if the worst may not come our way in the end.
In the process of expecting the worst, we create lot of fear and worry that may affect our physical health in many ways.


If we expect the best, we remain alert to all opportunities coming our way and are more likely to notice and take the opportunities with both hands
If we expect the best, we will be generally much more happy and outgoing, increasing the likelihood of good things to happen
If we expect the best, occasionally we may have big disappointments, but so be it. The occasional disappointment is much preferred over the continuous fretting, worry and fear of the pessimists with their occasional pleasant surprises, which tend to happen rarely exactly because of their negative attitude and actions.