By Keya Nijhawan
Positivity is a foreign concept to me; I consider myself to be more of a keep-it-real person. For instance, if you were to serve me some green beans, I might gag. My dislike of green beans is not negativity, it’s just… real. (I’ve been told by my dad not to use the word hate, but if I could use the word to describe my feelings about green beans, I would. So maybe it’s a little negativity).
Recently, when my dad said I needed to be more positive, I told him that I was going to Google how. I was joking, but I actually poked around on the internet. I quickly found that there is a whole day devoted to positivity; this was baffling to me.
As I continued my research, I was drawn in by a fact presented by National Today, a website devoted to listing and describing every single national day.
On the Positive Thinking Day page, it says “Studies show that happiness has a genetic connection.” Therefore, I can easily blame my lack of positivity on my genetics (and maybe even my dad!), but as I continued to read, I questioned whether I really wanted to do that since that might mean I couldn’t become more positive. Also, it would give me an excuse not to try…and I don’t like to make excuses.
The site also says “Positive thinking is an essential ingredient for happiness.” So, if positive thinking leads to happiness, and happiness keeps me from feeling miserable, positive thinking might be a good thing to test out occasionally.
Then again, I am quite unsure about how positive thinking works, so as one would, I Googled, “How do I become a positive person?” As Google does, it presented me with a list of things to try…
The list was sourced from Mayo Clinic, which I’ve been told is a very good medical facility by my trusty Uncle, who went there for med school. The article lists ways to change your thinking habits. The first was to identify areas to change. In terms of myself, I would say not to go into things like tests and quizzes with the attitude that it will be the death of me.
They also suggested taking time within the day to check on yourself and understand how you are feeling in the moment. This is hard to do for me because I’m always going from one thing to the next, and I’m not sure how I can fit “checking on myself” when I sometimes have to take a math test on the third floor of the Upper School at the exact same time I’m supposed to be lifting in the MAC.
As for humor, I feel I already do decently well, with the exception that I see myself as the humor in most moments. Can I be positively self-deprecating?
The advice to follow a healthy lifestyle means different things to different people. For some people like myself, having a strict workout routine is what clears the mind, but for others, it may just be going for a 10-minute walk outside; any form of exercise contributes to a healthy lifestyle.
The fifth piece of advice throws me for more of a loop because, for most of the day, I am not choosing who I am with. I am attending the classes assigned to me and hanging out with the people in them. So, I cannot choose to be around positive-thinking people all the time, but I can work (and I do mean work) to be the light of positivity in those situations.
The last piece of advice, in my unprofessional opinion, is the most useful but also the most difficult to follow. I have always told myself that if I set expectations low for myself, I will not be disappointed with my results, making me happier. However, this strategy has caused me to cut myself short of what I could have achieved in many situations. The failure in my strategy has me believing that Mayo’s advice to hype yourself could be the key to success in terms of happiness and positive thinking.
Of course, the Mayo Clinic is very far away in Minnesota, so I had to check in with a local source of positivity, Chelsea Daniel. As Chelsea was studying in the second-floor alcove she explained to me that she was currently “in the trenches.” In order to get herself out of the trenches she has to “lock in,” she told me with the biggest grin on her face.
Chelsea is my breath of positivity every day so I had to ask her how she stays positive even when she’s in the trenches. She said humor, without even knowing it was the number 3 strategy on the Mayo Clinic’s list! This answer made perfect sense to me because Chelsea always manages to make me laugh after a bad test or a bad lift. She’ll smile and say something like, “Only up from here.”
So the humor method works for Chelsea and also improves the mood of those around her; she embraces positive thinking every day.
Positivity Day marks a day in the year for all of us to step back and appreciate the little things we have and the people we are. It is a friendly reminder that we do not always need to be perfect, but we can always strive for perfection with a positive outlook on things rather than a negative one, which I am very guilty of.
So whether it’s National Positivity Day or now, let’s all try to take a step back to appreciate the joys we already have, and maybe even give green beans another go.
