Do you believe that you have the ability to choose your attitude? If your day is going very bad and things are falling apart and your cat just got run over by a Jeepney and all your callers are angry, do you think that you would still be able to maintain a positive attitude?
A man named Viktor Frankl thinks so. Dr. Frankl was an Austrian-Jewish neurologist and psychiatrist and founded logotherapy. He was also put into a Nazi concentration camp during WWII, along with his parents, wife and daughter. Only he survived. In the midst of the horrors of the concentration camps (much worse than our regular day-day I’d say), he had some very important insights on the meaning of life and finding purpose in suffering. He said this:
“Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Dr. Frankl was able to find purpose in his absurd loss and trial, and proved he could choose a positive attitude in difficult circumstances. You can too. No matter what you are going through, how bad your day is or how much you’ve lost, you have the choice to despair, or to stay positive.
Staying positive fights against stress, despair, depression, anger, bitterness, sickness, and even disease. Being more positive helps us have more happiness, peace, job-satisfaction, better relationships, mental and physical health. Want to be a more positive person and choose a positive attitude more often? Here are some ways to do so.
1. Think Positively
Philippians 4:8 is a good place to start with this. When we think positive thoughts, read positive things, watch positive programs, listen to positive music and surround ourselves with positivity, we open our minds to see more and more good things around us. Negativity acts in the opposite way. When we filled our minds with negativity we create tunnel-vision of problems and after a while all we can see around us is negative. Positive thinking destroys the tunnel, gives us expansive vision and improves our attitude.
2. Behave Positively
Mostly, we behave according to our mood. But what if can behave a certain way by choice, then allow our mood to follow. I have often not been in the mood for people, places or things at certain times, but I went ahead and behaved in a positive way. After a while, my politeness, friendliness, and positive acts cause my mood and attitude to follow. By the end of it I could barely remember why I was in such a bad mood beforehand.
3. Practice Gratitude
Maybe the most important part of choosing a positive attitude. When we count our blessings we remind ourselves of all the good in our lives, and when we become good at it, it will counterbalance the bad. We are then remind us that a positive attitude is the right attitude. This helps us avoid jealousy, self-pity and selfishness. But it does take work, and practice is the key. Right now, name some things that you are thankful for, even the smallest of them.
4. Live with Purpose
When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed that his Father in Heaven would pass the cup of suffering from him. You see, Jesus was about to betrayed by one of his closest companions, abandoned by his disciples, go through a sham of a trial, get beaten, spat upon, mocked, whipped and hung on a cross naked and humiliated. So we can see how he would like to avoid these circumstances. But after he asks, he say “but your will, not mine.” Jesus lived for a higher purpose. Because he did, he was able to face his trials with a positive, defiant and determined attitude. What are you living for?
