Good morning friends
A few days ago, I had planned to meet some girlfriends for lunch at a restaurant near my place. Just as I was getting out of the house to reach the restaurant, I got a call for an emergency visit which I could not refuse. It was from a family friend living in our society, so I immediately went there. It took me about 20 minutes to examine the patient and give advice. By the time I finished this visit, I was getting late for the lunch get together. As the restaurant was quite near my place , it would have been difficult to get an auto to take me to the restaurant and it would take me at least 10 minutes to walk there. Just then, I saw a friend near the gate of our society with his scooter. This was a Godsent opportunity and I grabbed it with both my hands. I requested my friend to drop me near the restaurant and he readily agreed. That is how I could reach the restaurant just a few minutes later than the decided time. We had a wonderful time together, chitchatting, exchanging the happenings during the lock down and enjoying the lovely food. The soup was very good, the starters were excellent and the dal rice, which followed was delicious. I have a sweet tooth, so I had kept some place for the dessert. But when the dessert arrived, it was a great disappointment. It did not match the quality of the food we had had earlier. In fact it left a very bad after taste in my mouth. We left the place soon afterwards and I came home. In the evening my family asked me about the get together and unconsciously I was about to start complaining about the dessert. However, luckily, I caught myself just in time. I realised with a jerk that I was complaining about something which occupied only 10 to 15% of the entire time we had spent together. The rest 85 to 90% of the time was spent very happily, enjoying the company of my friends, relishing the sumptuous meal. Why then, was I focusing on the 10 or 15% which was not to my liking ?
Don’t we do this very often in life? After a bad experience, we label that particular situation (or the place or the person ) as very bad. In fact, if we were to analyse the situation we would realise that these experiences are similar to this lunch get together that I had. The pleasant portion of the experience is much more than the unpleasant one. What if I decided to focus on the enjoyable time that I had at the get together ( including the unexpected lift to the restaurant ) and ignore the dessert ? I decided to give it a try and talked more about the good time that I had and just made a passing mention of the not-so-good dessert.
Can we do this with life situations too ? We generally tend to remember the bad moments, failures, hurts and insults more than the good moments,successes and appreciations. I am sure that if we decide to focus on the positive aspects of any situation and try and ignore or play down the negative aspects, we would be much happier. ( Of course, it doesn’t mean that you take things lying down. You should make every effort to rectify the situation whenever it is possible )
After this wonderful awakening, I have resolved to focus on the positives in any situation and not harp too much on the negatives,
Love,
Anjali Bhatawdekar
