What is Positive Realism?
I heard the term, “Positive Realism” for the first time here https://heartfulness.org/webinar/glow-webinar-archive/positive-realism-the-journey-through-taking-risks/.
I wondered if it was a type of self-confidence and googled it. I saw this. How we see ourselves in the mirror as soon as we wake up in the morning matters. It further says, how to stop calling yourself “stupid” or “an idiot” or “a failure”, when you make a mistake because all you’re doing is setting yourself up for failure on a consistent basis. Having this attitude will not create any true momentum in your life, it will only drag you down and make you feel even worse. I guess this is all about developing a positive attitude towards oneself.
You all must have read the story of the deaf frog. I love it. The story goes like this — Once a community of frogs arranged a climbing competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to cheer the contestants.
And the race began amongst the tiny frogs.
Honestly, no one in the crowd really believed the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower.
There were lots of voices discouraging them from reaching the top. But there was one tiny frog who did not pay heed to any of them and he went on and on to reach his goal. This frog won the tough competition and reached his goal which was the top of the tower. It was discovered later that the frog was deaf and became a positive influencer to others. So the important takeaway from this story for me was that I need to ignore my own inner negative voices and just focus on the positive voices and listen to my heart.
There are times we all feel down in the dump, right? Those are the challenging times to motivate ourselves, to feel good, and do something which makes us happy. During these times, I would thank god for giving me eyes and all body parts intact, sufficient food, shelter, and clothing.
It’s nice to read this poem, “Thinking” by Walter D. Wintle.
“If you think you are beaten, you are
If you think you dare not, you don’t,
If you like to win, but you think you can’t
It is almost certain you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will
It’s all in the state of mind.
If you think you are outclassed, you are
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!”
― Walter D. Wintle
It is important to focus on one small step rather than focusing on the big staircase and pat ourselves for each and every step we take, to reach the top of the staircase. If we remember, when we would make the 2-year child walk up the staircase, we would applaud the kid to climb more, and then we would clap for him/her after he finished reaching the staircase.
We might have seen kids having a fall. They would cry for a few seconds, and get up on their own and start walking and even forget that they fell. So, this is the learning for me! We are humans, when we feel down the dump, it's important to dust ourselves and get up and start walking again.
I recall an incident of Ms. Arunima Sinha who met with a railway accident and lost her leg When a few robbers pushed her out of a moving train in 2011, resulting in her leg getting amputated. Despite losing her leg, she climbed Mount Everest. She is the first female amputee to climb Mount Everest at the age of 30. In 2015, the government of India honored her with the Padma Shri award, the fourth highest civilian award of India.
But What exactly is Positive Realism. Is it positive feelings and positive actions? Is it positive affirmation?
For some more clarity on this topic, just cannot wait to see this webinar. Please join us for this webinar on Positive Realism — The Journey through Taking Risks, Emotional Learning, Mindset Motivation with Dr. Guila Clara Kessous on 15th May 2021,7 PM IST/9:30 AM US Eastern/1:30 PM London Time.
