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I have often thought like this—“There is nothing I can do to all the misery in the world. It doesn’t matter what I do. I cannot change anything.”
In reality these thoughts are only one of the ways to view the world. The negative way. But luckily there are more ways to view your surroundings. You can be positive too.
There are lots of things to do to practice being more positive. A funny exercise can be to decide with your friends to have a “not”-free time every day. You decide on an time every day when the words “no” and “not” cannot be used. For example you can decide to have twenty minutes every day of “not”-free time. There will be lots of strange circumscribes to laugh at. One uses the words “no” and “not” a lot more than one thinks!
Something else that you can do is to practice thinking positive thoughts. One thing that I often try is, for example, to “think back” the negative thoughts. I simply try hard to be positive instead. In this way I can reformulate my negative thoughts from the introduction—“I may not be able to help everyone now, but I can actually help someone. It does matter what I do, to myself and to others. I can affect the world by my way of being.”
When you think positive it often feels a lot better. Try for yourself! When you’ve had a negative, disrespective or low thought about yourself, others or the world around you, try to think a positive thought. Instead of thinking—“I don’t know mathematics”—try thinking more positive—“I have made much progress” or “I’ve learned so much, I can learn mathematics too”. It can be very hard to think positive in the beginning, but try. The world is a lot more fun if one can see the positive sides!
And above all, stop thinking—“I cannot do anything, and I cannot affect.”—but think instead—“It matters what I think and what I do. It matters to me and to others.”
June 1997