I guess you have heard about the glass that is half full or half empty. What is it, really? The optimist and positive will not only say that the glass is half full, they will actually see the glass half full. The not-so-positive on the other hand will automatically observe that the glass is half empty. In normal life it is not so obvious, more like the difference between these two variants: the glass is only half full as opposed to the glass is still half full. But anyhow, it signifies a different approach to reality.
How about you? Do you consider your glass of Life to be half full or half empty?
Too often we only see what is missing. We look around and seeing all that is not in our life, we become sad, greedy or even angry. We even might feel that life is not fair and that other people do not have a right to be so exuberantly abundant. It can be depressing to observe the beauty in other faces, the wonderful jobs, large houses and new cars … that we don’t possess. It is a perspective of lack. You can choose a different perspective though!
You can just choose the glass to be half full instead of half empty!
How? Indeed, by looking at what is in your life, really. And if there seems to be only an abundance of challenges, go look for the small things that lighten up your life. The small successes, the little gifts of joy, friendship, food. Enjoy them, celebrate them. If you can, record them, so you can hold on to these gems in difficult moments. If you want to object that it is no use denying how hard life is, I can only agree. But, is it fair to deny or belittle the positive things that happen also? First and foremost it is not fair to ourselves to keep ourselves from seeing the good sides of life. If you can see that the glass of your life is half full at least, you will see potentials instead of lack.
Changing your perspective of reality is not just pretending. The whole of your experiences in life has colored your view of your reality. It is a slow process that starts in the womb and goes on mostly unnoticed for all of our life. But then one day, someone tells you that you can become aware that your experiences do color reality. Neither the optimist, nor the pessimist is wrong or crazy — they both just look at life from their acquired perspectives. It means that we tend to blend out what does not fit in with our usual pattern. But, if you stop and watch closely, you will see that the glass is both half empty and half full. You decide what you will call it from now on.
