Chapter 72 A Fresh View, Optimism and Humour.
Life has shown that hardship causes people to think, and a crisis can lead people to a new perspective. Michael Stern noted, "A dead end is one of the strongest motivations for making people look elsewhere. It is the good people that leave the sinking ship, and the dead wood that stays. E. Hall prompted us, "If your spirits are low, do something; ifyou have been doing something, do something different. We must change our perception before we can change ourselves, and we must change ourselves before we can change our lives! Hope, cheer and a new outlook can work wonders, not only in uprooting our negative and destructive emotions, but in whisking us off to health and wealth.
Albert Einstein remarked: "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Thus, it is important to have a fresh picture, a new angle, a closer look, a distant panorama, or even a view through other peoples eyes! If the sight is through the glasses of hope, optimism and positive thinking, it is even better. To have that, we must believe that no failure is final, that our limitations are imaginary, and that change can come in an instant. No one can judge our future from here! A. Schopenhauer, philosopher and scientist agreed: "Whatever fate befalls you, do not give way to... great lamentation... All things are full of change, and your fortunes may turn at any given moment. Even if it doesnt, you can speed up change by playing up a pressing or painful situation; there, you have no choice but to change!
You cannot change the past, but you can act on the present and create a better future. Dont let what you cannot do hinder what you can do. There is no future in keeping the past! The philosopher Epictetus wrote: "He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. Watch out, regret over the past and fear of the future are thugs robbing us of the present. Happy, winning people only look ahead; they live for now, and hereafter.
Addington, who counselled over 20,000 people wrote in 100 Per Cent Mind Power that"Whenever a person was willing to change his thinking, giving new conscious direction to his subconscious mind, there was an immediate change in his outer experience. Emerson noted: "To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illuminated mind, the whole world burns and sparkles with light. Often our problem lies not in the thing itself but in the way we evaluate it. M. de Chazal mused, "When indifferent the eye takes still photographs; when interested, movies. Let us see movies! Keep our hopeful eyes on the future, while we live and progress cheerfully in the present. We have to change to grow, even to be reborn, let us do it now, with optimism.
Do not underrate the might of optimism. Optimism draws great results, while pessimism brings bad ones.This is the minds amazing power over matter. Some psychologists did a research on insurance sales agents, and they found that among experienced ones the positive-thinkers sold 37% more insurance than the negative ones! The Company under study then recruited more optimistic candidates and the results were affirmative. Studies have also confirmed that optimistic people are healthier and more resistant to disease, which is not surprising. D. Bonhoeffer, the German theologian wrote: "The essence of optimism is... a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned. Now lets learn from a first class optimist here:
1. The superior optimist is cheerful in all situations, even when he cannot be really happy. He generates love in his life, and spreads fun and good news.
2. He assumes control of his life and his future, believing he has limitless potentials for stretching and achieving.
3. He is proactive and he anticipates difficulties. When things go wrong he acts promptly and gathers resources to surmount his predicaments.
4. He looks for the good in bad situations and shuns negative thoughts, instead he visualises and rehearses success.
5. He is well-prepared and is seldom baffled by problems. He accepts things that cannot be changed. Nonetheless, he is realistic and he looks for options, solutions, renewal, growth, and not perfectionism.
The pessimist falls miserably on the other side of the fence, full of sad stories, wrecks and ruins. In worse cases, a pessimist may fear failure and dwell on it so much that he becomes nervous, phobic and neurotic, and fails conclusively. That is why almost half of worlds illnesses are now psychosomatic - where the mind expects and generates the sickness! Dr Joseph Murphy, in his great book The Power of Your Subconscious Mind tells us about a happy and robust relative of his, who visited a fortune-teller in India and was told he would die at the next new moon. This man accepted it completely, became obsessed about his oncoming death, told everyone about it and made preparations. Guess what? He died as predicted. Elvis Presley believed that he would die at the age of 43 like his mother; he did too! Their minds had prepared their bodies for the demise, with hopelessness. B. Siegels encouraging line to us is "In the face of uncertainty, there is nothing wrong with hope.
Hope is a prerequisite for everyone trudging on lifes tough journey. It is a great stimulant that brings cheer, optimism, energy and enthusiasm. The proverbs say, "While theres life, theres hope. "Where one door shuts another opens. Clare B. Luce, the American writer stressed: "There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them. Barbara Johnson the humorist writer chimed: "An optimist laughs to forget; the pessimist forgets to laugh... A pessimist has no starter, an optimist has no brakes.
It is easy to smile when things are going well, but the time to be cheery is when you are world-weary and war-torn. A sense of humour is a great blessing that drives away all kinds of troubles, big and small. Laughter is indeed the best medicine and the fastest way to dissolve sadness and anger. Remember Norman Cousins, who cured his terminal illness with laughter? Often the best way to solve a problem is to find some humour in it! Jokes, jest and joy boost our ability to harmonise with others, bringing sunshine to all. W. M. Thackeray observed: "Good humour may be said to be one of the best articles of dress one can wear in society. A jocund nature lifts self-esteem and staves off fear, frustration and depression. Washington Irving wrote, "An inexhaustible good nature is one of the most precious gifts of heaven, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather.
In concluding I beg you to etch 4 points on your mind:
1. Take a fresh look, dwell on todays opportunities, not yesterdays blunders. You cant go back, but you can begin now to make a new and smashing future.
2. Love today, it is the first day of the rest of your life. Love yourself. In this world you are the most important person to yourself!
3. Be an optimist always, but not a lazy one who neither worry nor work. Take action, move ahead of the crowd, go the extra mile and build a beautiful life ahead.
4. Happiness is something you must carry with you wherever you go. If you have it inside you, you can easily find it everywhere. Cheer turns a dish into a feast! It makes a world of difference. The trick is to make the best of life and the most of it.
"Learn to see backwards, inside out and upside down." - J. Heider.
"The foolish and dead alone never change their opinion." - J. Lowell.
"One of the best things people can have up their sleeves is a funny bone." - Richard L. Weaver II.
"Common sense and a sense of humour are the same thing moving at different speeds. A sense of humour is just commonsense, dancing." - Cliff James.
"Humour is a prelude to faith and laughter is the beginning of prayer." - Reinhold Niebuhr.
"We cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us, but for ours to amuse them." - Evelyn Waugh.
"A smile is the beginning of wisdom." - Dr. Maxwell Marx.
"The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease." - Voltaire.
"Humour is the spice of life... makes us tolerant, and keeps us gay and young... If you have a sense of humour you will always find something to amuse you when the world has proved unkind." - Patience Strong.
"Life is too short to tackle without a sense of humour. With it, you can place any seemingly large problem in its proper perspective and laugh about it." - Robert L. Shook.