This week, you may have noticed smiley face tee-shirt adorned students sauntering down the halls or optimistic post-it notes covering the windows in the cafeteria. It is mental health week, and positive vibes are spreading.
Towards the beginning of the year I read a book that completely changed my perspective. The book was called The Secret to Teen Power, by Paul Harrington. The documentary is on Netflix’s instant queue.
The book’s message is simple.
Everything in your life, you have attracted with your thoughts. I know it seems vague, but that is the beauty of the theory. It can apply to many ways of thinking.
For religious people, the message is a parallel to prayer. For spiritual people, the theory goes hand in hand with the idea of a universal energy force, where all things are interconnected. Even for atheists like me, the message has legitimacy.
Imagine you just woke up late, rushed to school, missed breakfast, and are about to fail that quiz you forgot about. Your morning probably sucks and everyone who sees you grumbling though the halls knows it from your body language.
Whatever your attitude, either way you are unprepared for your quiz. However, you can choose to focus on how you going to fail and how unprepared you are, or you can push those thoughts away and try to focus on what you do know and go into the quiz with hope, not pessimism.
The way you deal with these problems is more important than the issues themselves. Reacting negatively to a “bad day” leads to unhealthy thoughts about other areas of yourself and life. However, looking on the bright side when the bad day rolls in encourages positive thinking and an optimistic outlook.
What I love about mental health week is promoting this way of thinking, because it works.
I see windows filled with messages about what we love about ourselves, instead of what we hate. Having a high sense of self-worth is vital to maintaining optimism in other aspects of life.
Earlier this week, I was handed a smiley faced “tag” tee shirt and told to pass it on. Just for kicks, try this- walk down the hall and smile at someone new, I bet they smile back and your day will be a little better.
