How to Reduce Anxiety with Optimism
I love sharing little stories that pack in a big lesson. As the listener of these stories, we’re often able to connect with the message, apply it to our own lives and get new insights. This story is no exception!
A Lesson on Optimism: The Pony Story (author unknown)
Here is a story of identical twins. One is a hope-filled optimist who always saw the good in everything and the other is a sad and hopeless pessimist. The worried parents of the twins took them to the local psychologist who suggested a plan to balance the twins' personalities. She said, "On their next birthday, put them in separate rooms to open their gifts. Give the pessimist the best toys you can afford. Give the optimist a room full of horse poop.
The parents followed these instructions and carefully observed the results... When they peeked in on the pessimist, they hear her complaining that the toys are boring and broke too easily.
As they were tiptoeing across the hallway to check on their little optimist, she came out of the room asking for a shovel. Very curious, the parents asked, "Why on Earth do you want a shovel?"
To this the optimist replied, "With all this manure, there must be a pony in here somewhere!"
What will you look for in your life? Broken toys or ponies?
One of the very few things we have control over in the entire world is our perspective. We are thrown hundreds of obstacles daily; we don’t get to change that. We can choose to view those obstacles in a way that is most helpful.
Ultimately, our lives are built upon the large and small actions we make every day. These actions are determined by the way we see the world - our perspective. If I see myself or the world around me as broken, dangerous, or impossible, I won’t be able to make the courageous moves necessary to propel my life forward.
Similarly, when we allow our thoughts to run rampant toward a perspective or worry and fear, we are increasing our experience of anxiety.
A step toward changing an unhelpful perspective, is to begin recognizing the unhelpful thoughts that fuel it. For the next several days, take a few moments and write down the thoughts you have most often. At this time, there’s no need to worry about changing the unhelpful thoughts - just pay attention to where your thinking frequently takes you. Are your thoughts more optimist and hope driven or fearful and anxiety driven?
