Week 6: Optimism
Knowing we live in an abundant universe
“Everything is a gift.”
That’s not just a nice quote from Brother David Steindl-Rast. It is a dividing line between optimism and pessimism. Life is a kaleidoscope of events: some joyful, some painful, with many being two-edged swords … good for one person bad for another. You land a great new job; someone else is heartbroken because they didn’t get it. Someone dies in a car crash; your mom gets a new heart and an extension of her life.
It takes practice … a lot of practice and often a lot of time … to see the gift in everything that happens. And, even when we eventually recognize the gift, we still have moments of grief and frustration and just want to send it back. Optimism grows when we notice connections … if X hadn’t happened, Y wouldn’t have happened and we wouldn’t be in this particular place at this particular moment.
Along with our allotted measure of DNA, we are created by our experiences and our reactions to them. When we recognize the gifts in everything that comes our way, we move beyond victimhood and begin to look for lessons. Asking “What can I learn from this?” is a positive action, a rejection of powerlessness, claiming the one thing we can control: our reactions to whatever comes our way.
Optimism is not the naive belief that things will never go wrong. It is the understanding that you are capable of accepting any situation and make changes, even when it’s only how you react to the event. It is recognizing your strength and resilience and growing from your challenges.
Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl stated:
“Everything can be taken from us but one thing — the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.”
What is a challenging time in your life where there might be an unrecognized gift lurking?
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Wow, Susan, life demanded a lot of you very early. Thanks for sharing your son's bitter-sweet wisdom. And savor the gratitude you receive from your students ... what you gave them, they have passed on to others, creating an unseen ripple around the world.
Attitude is everything as we struggle through life challenges. When we stop for but a few seconds and recognize that this moment is not only OK but actually good, we're in a better position to put off the "What if's". It's getting mesmerized by the what ifs that can kill our spirits.