It IS Half Full.

I have been living with optimism my whole life. The majority of it was spent with plenty drama and trauma. Not giving in to rectal myopia is sometimes difficult, but I have some tricks up my sleeve to help bring my outlook back up.

Smile. Things could be worse.” ~Stanley Graham

My grandfather was a wise man. When he said that, my reply was, “OK. I smiled…and they got worse.” It always made us both smile.

It is FREE.

Smiles are contagious. Even the grouchiest curmudgeons will return a smile. The most inexpensive gift you can give to yourself everyday is a smile in the mirror after you brush your teeth. This will help you face the day with a powerful optimism.

Yeah, but…

All ‘but’s are cracked” ~ Ann Marie Dwyer

When you feel as though rock bottom is in the penthouse of your building, try on someone else’s shoes in order to put your situation in to perspective. This will give you a new viewpoint when you return to your problem. For instance…

  • Visit a nursing home with an inexpensive bouquet of flowers. Introduce yourself to a patient in the day room and give them a flower. You will find they will share with you an experience that will show you inner strength. When you are out of flowers, you will have made new friends and learned everyone has value, even if it is not apparent at first glance…you included.
  • Volunteer for a lunch session in a soup kitchen for the homeless. You will learn that those with the least are appreciative of what they have.
  • Pick flowers (if you are too embarrassed to be caught in your neighbor’s yard- a mum bouquet from the grocery store is fine) and visit a veteran’s cemetery. Walk amongst the headstones and put a flower on the ones which make you think. Celebrate the sacrifice these men and women made for you that you may be there to pay tribute.
  • Volunteer to help out at recess at a school for the handicapped. You will revel in all that a child can teach you. Their presence at school alone is a testimony to the perseverance to overcome.
  • Read to children at your local library. Find that book your parents had to read twelve times before you drifted off to sleep. Share that warm feeling with a complete stranger, content to sit on your lap while you read.
  • Sign up for nursery duty at your church, temple or mosque. Spend one service caring for infants. These truly helpless little people can teach you unconditional acceptance.

When you get back home, you will notice you are not in the basement anymore. You will have taken a moment to share the truly good qualities you have to offer. This strength will show you a solution you otherwise might never have found.

~~~~~~~~~~

Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Have you gotten more so over time or changed to the other camp?

~~~~~~~~~~

(c) Ann Marie Dwyer 2011
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26 Comments

  1. Hi Red
    I’ve always been an optimist and the glass has always been half full. The only problem I have is I’m far more cynical now than I ever was. I am always tell others to think of those worse off than we are and one thing I always do when I’m struggling with something is to say to myself “Guiliano would love to be here to do this now.” Guiliano being a close fiend who died in a plane crash before he was 40.
    Keep it up
    Nigel
    PS please tell me how you get the chance to be so prolific with your writing, there always seems to be something else I have to do here.
    ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Reply
    • Nigel, that, my friend, is my motivator. I have always another post to write. It is my Mantra, who you can meet in Telling Tuesday, has no concept of time, as a Muse is likely not to do. I often jot down notes when I am doing other things to remind me of those things I should write!
      Red.

      Reply
  2. Sorry about spelling and grammar, I knew I should have read it again but that broken light switch beckons lol

    Reply
  3. I think that as I’ve gotten older, life has gotten more challenging and decisions more difficult to make, I’ve come to embrace optimism. It is the perfect solution to keeping your head out of the hole you want to hide in when life gets ugly.

    Reply
    • That is such a healthy attitude! Truly, some days I wish the hole was big enough to drop all the problems into, but alas, my excavator only has a three yard bucket! It helps for you to keep the chickens close, too. Good to see you this morning, Em. Red.

      Reply
  4. I am an optimist at heart with an intense wish to change the things that create pessimism. Sometimes it seems the glass is eternally half full- but I know from experience all you really have to do is smile, get moving, ignore the naysayers, negativity, the holes, pitfalls and bad weather, –and work hard to add some more LIFE to it. Works every time! Great post, Red!

    Reply
    • Wow! That is a busy approach to warding off the blues! Glad it works and good to see you this morning. Red.

      Reply
  5. bear

     /  December 15, 2011

    Very Good and great advice. By helping others you truly help yourself! Bear

    Reply
  6. awarewriter

     /  December 15, 2011

    Pessimist? Who me? Not a chance. McD is a card carrying optimist. Ready for some thought games? I thought so.

    I think optimism and pessimism are two different, control mindsets. The optimist understands that he/she has no control over outside events, that he/she can only control themselves and (very important) they accept that responsibility. Optimists are proactive controllers of their own destiny. Optimists are never victims. Optimists never try to control others.

    The pessimist is at the mercy of outside forces, constantly buffeted by events and people outside of themselves. The pessimist doesn’t get it, doesn’t understand that they are responsible for themselves and themselves alone. The pessimist lives (and dies) by outside control both as victim and victimizer (both ends of the same stick).

    Want proof? She whose name shall never pass these lips (or yours either I’d wager) was/is the ultimate pessimist.

    John

    Reply
    • So very true about being the same stick!

      She probably still is, but to say the name would give her power. Remember, if you do not believe in fairies (and trolls) they cease to exist ๐Ÿ˜‰ *Evil laughter*
      Red.

      Reply
  7. I say the glass is neither half-full nor half-empty. The glass is just too damn big! (Engineering humor, ha ha!) ๐Ÿ˜‰

    What an outstanding list of things to do. Years ago, I remember my son grousing about having to waste a Saturday, while he was taking confirmation classes at Church, working a few shifts in the City Soup Kitchen. The experience of doing it afterward had changed him. We could all use a dose of reality, seeing how petty any real problems we come up with truly are. Thanks for reminding us all. We do need constant reminders.

    Reply
    • What a great experience, Phil. I am the mean momma because I require my children to do such things through teenagerdom. They may as well learn early the world does not revolve entirely around them.
      Red.
      *Slips secret ballot for smaller glass in box.*

      Reply
  8. It’s all in the perspective isn’t it? Depressed? Help someone else…. Good advice, and it always works if you let it.

    Reply
    • The chemicals are good, too! A healthy dose of endorphins, a good splash of dopamine and just a smidge of seratonin make helping someone else a really good recipe for chasing off the blues ๐Ÿ˜‰

      Reply
  9. I am forever the optimist
    and my goblet of wine is
    always half full…

    I like this posting Red as one
    would more than likely never
    even think of venturing into
    another person’s world, it is very
    interesting and something that
    everyone should act upon ๐Ÿ™‚

    You have a wonderful energy
    Red and I truly like your Space ๐Ÿ™‚

    Androgoth XXx

    Reply
    • Sorry for the typo ๐Ÿ™‚ lol

      Androgoth XXx

      Reply
    • What typo? *giggle* I bring a unique vantage point into focus. It is my most annoyingly persistent charms! I wish you the wickedest of weekends, my friend.
      Red.

      Reply
      • Thank you for correcting this one Red ๐Ÿ™‚ ๐Ÿ˜‰
        I have just added my link to your ‘Green Room’

        Androgoth XXx

        Reply
      • Yes, I figure that I can only do my best at
        trying to keep up with everyone, before I
        was trying a little too hard and getting in
        a bit of a pickle so to speak ๐Ÿ™‚ lol

        Besides how can i lock out everyone, I
        mean just thirty five slots for everyone is
        just too ridiculous and sooooo, it is now
        open once again ๐Ÿ™‚

        Have a funtastic rest of evening Red and
        i like that you have changed your Profile to
        ‘Red’ too, that is much better me thinks ๐Ÿ™‚

        Androgoth XXx

        Reply
        • Aye, truer to myself. Enjoy your masses, as I am certain they will come flocking, my wicked friend! XOX for you and Jen, Red.

          Reply
  10. My youngest daughter spent a month in volunteering in Senegal working with young children; out of the 3 daughters she is the one who doesn’t whinge about what she or the others do or don’t have.
    Nigel

    Reply
    • Glad to have another parent with a success story. This does work. I have seen it happen with my own children. Thanks, Nigel!

      Reply

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