Week Sixty-Two: Finding What’s Special

Listening to a conversation between friends a couple of weeks ago, I found myself again marveling at the power of where we direct our attention. One friend talked about how he missed his home town, all the special things he’d left behind, and how his new home couldn’t begin to compare to the old. My other friend challenged him, asking him to tell her about what was special in his new circumstance. He was stopped in his tracks for a moment, as it seemed he hadn’t bothered to take the time to check out what he liked about where he lives now. After a few moments, he was able to describe some of the things that actually do bring him pleasure that weren’t available to him in his old environment.

The conversation reminded me of the “glass-half-empty/glass-half-full” debate, where we can look at any given situation within either context. If we’re in the “glass-half-empty” mode, we’re likely to see the lack around us. When we move through our world with a “glass-half-full” sensibility, we’re much more likely to experience things we enjoy, or feel more optimistic about what we encounter. What has always intrigued me about the difference between these two perspectives is that the glass has just as much in it whether we interpret it as half empty or half full.

For this week’s experiment, I’d like to invite you to take the time to play with a “glass-half-full” point of view. Give yourself an opportunity to discover what’s special in your life, your environment, in the daily experience you encounter. What may surprise you is that you probably won’t have to look too far or too hard to find some small special moment that you might otherwise have overlooked. Then, when you allow yourself the experience your world through the “glass-half-full” perspective, notice how you feel by the end of the day.

To do the experiment doesn’t mean to overlook things that you don’t like, or things that need to be changed. But, for the sake of this particular journey into discovery, allow yourself to emphasize what’s special to you, or what touches you in a special and positive way and notice how that affects your mood and point of view.

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