Say Yes to Positivity

 Every picture has two sides. It’s up to observer how does he perceive that picture. The same fact or reality can be interpreted in a number of ways. Everyone has one’s own angle to observe things around. Broadly speaking, there are two aspects of a reality. One is positive and the other is negative. The art of perceiving the tangible realities in a positive way depends upon cognitive training of one’s mind. Most of us have trained ourselves to perceive events in a negative way over a long period of unconscious recurring practices. The purpose of this piece of writing is not only to uncover the reasons of our preferential negative practices but also to emphasize on positive approach in our daily life.

There are a number of reasons which can be mentioned for our negative way of thinking. The top of them is environment we live in. Our caliber to perceive things is inseparable from our environment. For example a man living in a jungle will always perceive things in the backdrop of his experiences in that jungle. He assumes that might is right. This assumption will be reinforced by his continuous interactions with wild animals. In this way environment makes abstract images in our mind. We interpret facts in the light of those broken images. We try to associate tangible things with our pre-assumed imaginations. Finally, we build unflinching perceptions about that particular reality. Most of us have been brought up in a negative environment. We have been seeing our parents and family members to transform realities into perception in a negative way. Our teachers, friends and families are equally biased and negative in their approach towards real world. We interact with our trusted fellows many a time. In this manner, we have very strong images in our minds about outside world. Unfortunately, we have been duped into a negative way.

The second reason of negativity is we have trained our mind to interpret in a negative way. We have been doing so since long. So, to think positive has become a hard nut to crack. It’s not easy to cut out our habitual bad practices. The main responsibility of negativity rests in ourselves. We don’t want to change our mindset. We are all biased. We have our own self-defined realities. We haven’t tried to come out of self-restraint air tight compartment. Both our environment and training of our mindset in that environment make us negative.

The third reason is our lack of self-confidence. We don’t have confidence on our abilities. That’s why we always ask others to interpret for us. Obviously others paint our picture in a way they want to paint. And they are also the part of the same negative environment. Their consultations prove to be devastating for our personality. It should be borne in mind that everyone has one’s own distinct past experience. One’s situation can’t match up that of other’s entirely. Unaware of this gap, we cast ourselves on others. We want to share our burden. But unfortunately we select wrong shoulders. They make us feel in a pessimistic way. All hope runs out.

The fourth reason is our own past experience. We might have a very tragic past experience related to certain event. It’s become natural to foresee similar events and associate them with past experiences. Pathetic past experiences make us assume future pessimistically. We see only gloomy side of our future. This leads us to wrong decisions. Wrong decisions bring on dark future in reality. Our perceptions get reinforced. And the process recycles in our whole life time and again. Ultimately, we’re dead mentally. We lose our potential. Courage fades out. Our whole life has to bear up the debris of our negativity.

Effects of negativity are even worst. We are unconsciously passing it on to next generations. It’s we who make our environment. We dub the world in a way we want to. The young generation is very pessimist especially in Pakistan. An unemployed man becomes pessimist in a few weeks. He breaks the whole inter-knitted chain of our society. The whole of society gets pessimist by an individual. If the same man works hard, he will surely get whatever he wants. Same is the case of a failed student. He should learn that a single examination can’t gauge his potential. A failed student thinks as if he had failed in his life. In reality, his stereotyping makes him a failed one in life. Had his failure boost his energy up he would have not ruined his whole life. It is he who can change the scene. He can either make his life successful or a mockery of others. But the journey starts from positive thinking. It is an amazing biological reality that we are all distinct from one another at gene level. We all have different coding. It’s not only different from all the living humans but also the dead ones. Above all, it’s different from those who will take breath in this planet in future. It means we are unique. By default we have some unique hidden ability in us. We can do what can’t be done by anybody else no matter live or dead.

Last but not the least, Confucius says, “Journey of one thousand miles starts with a single step”. If we want to change our outside world, we will have to retrace our inside. We need not worry over our past experience. The future is bright. Failures in the past give us guarantee for the success in future. The need is to believe in our unique ability and explore it. Positive thinking can change our whole life. Let’s take that single step.