Positive emotions: The perennial resources of life
In our quest of happiness, we forget that sufferings are a part of life. When we confront them, a stream of negative emotions and thoughts, starts gushing within us. The flow of this stream is so strong that, we cease to think about the positive facets of life which are present around us. It is really important to know the significance of these hardships. These adversities shape life and give meaning to it.
A few days ago, while ascending the stairs of a government hospital, I was on the verge of collision with an adorable little girl. She was playing in the hospital corridor with an attached urine catheter. In an effort to avoid the bump, I stepped back and stopped her by holding her shoulders. Quickly, she looked at me and in a fraction of second, curled up the corners of her lips with a spark in her eyes. For a moment I forgot everything. After a few minutes her mother told me that, she was fighting with leukaemia and was recuperating after a urinary obstruction surgery.
While returning home questions were striking my head one after the other. I just kept on pondering , whether it was optimism, innocence, expression of the inner feelings or acceptance in that child, which made her exceptional. After some time I realized, it was a combination of all these positive characteristics of life, which that child had learnt in a tender age. The kid made me gain an understanding of a prime aspect of our existence on that day once again. The treasure box of positive emotions was kept open right in front of me by a seven years old girl. She taught me the significance of understanding and expressing our own, as well as others’ emotions/feelings. Most importantly, she enlightened me about the role of distress in sculpting life. Without uttering a word her radiating beam conveyed, to never let the buoyancy of ‘positive emotions’ fade away. Like me, many others must have absorbed the explicitly constructive perennial resources of life from her.
When a seven years old child can fight like a warrior for survival, scattering happiness, hope, love, joy, inspiration, optimism and resilience…Why do we fail to understand life and live like her ?
