Keyword: Mental health, nutrition, physical activity
Author: Gabe Rummel
Introduction
People often focus on the negative, bringing negative energy into their life. There is always another perspective to everything that happens in life.
Anyone who goes through life can relate to having something not go exactly how they planned. How one reacts to this is key to the next steps one takes.
In this post, we’ll talk about what viewing the glass as half full actually means, how we can view events in our daily lives as full vs. empty, and how nutrition and physical activity can relate to this with a new path to health.
What is it?
In our everyday lives, problems always arise. There are continuous events around us that can be either good or bad.
Almost everyone has heard of “the glass is half full” or “half empty” saying before. It is a common saying that people often overlook or do not think about it in-depth.
Any event can be perceived either positively or negatively. It just depends on how the person interprets the situation. This interpretation is where the problem arises.
What is the problem?
People do not always look at events as the glass being full. More often than not, they look at the negative portion of the event or the glass being empty.
It is the precursor to the snowball of bad perceptions when this happens. If people focus on the negative aspect of something, then that is what they will be getting more of.
The same will go if they can focus on the positive of something. Then they will have a more positive outlook.
What is a Real-Life Example of this?
Have you ever had a day where it just started not right, and then the next event that happened during the day was just worse, and before you knew it, the day was over, and it was just the trade of one bad event to the next?
You got up to brush your teeth but spilled toothpaste on your shirt. It was your favorite shirt, and you were so happy to wear it for the day, and now you cant.
Now you are out in the kitchen and were going to make toast and eggs but just realized you did not buy more bread. Now you can’t eat the breakfast you were planning on eating.
Right before you were going to leave for work, you realized you forgot your headphones. Now you will either be late by going back to get your headphones or else you will not have any headphones for the day.
Wow, how terrible this perspective seems. This perspective would be an example of the glass just staying empty during your day and not switching your perspective on the events in the day.
How about the opposite? Have you ever woken up and had something great happen to kick start your whole day, and then before you know it, the whole day has gone by with it being a great day.
You got up to brush your teeth but spilled toothpaste on your shirt. It was your favorite shirt, and you were so happy to wear it for the day, and now you cant. But now you can try another outfit out for the day!
Now you are out in the kitchen and were going to make toast and eggs but just realized you did not buy more bread. Now you can’t eat the breakfast you were planning on eating. Good thing you still have other foods you can eat for breakfast. Maybe you’ll even find a new favorite breakfast!
Right before you were going to leave for work, you realized you forgot your headphones. Now you will either be late by going back to get your headphones or else will not have any headphones for the day.
This change could be a great thing. Instead of turning around and being late, you can just think more about ideas that come into your head throughout your day vs. just listening to things all day.
The same events. But a different perspective on them. This perspective is seeing the glass still being full vs. it being empty.
This is the problem. People do not know or realize that they can help these days, which are usually viewed by a majority of people as not-so-good.
What is a solution?
The solution is easier said than done and takes practice. The easiest way to fix this solution of being on a route of negativity is to try and focus more on “the glass being half full.”
The glass can be anything happening in your day. With every event that happens, there is some sort of positive outlook that you can take from it.
Sometimes it is very hard to find a positive view. Other times, you just do not want to search for it.
Following through is the hardest part. Just finding a way to view a positive outlook from whatever event may arise. When you can do this more often, there will be more positivity in your life.
When you can do this, you can move from one positive thing and carry it on to the next. It makes every day and every event better and worth partaking in.
Of course, some things we do in life are not always the most fun of events or events that we are looking forward to. We may even be dreading some of these events.
But if you can view the glass as being party full vs. almost all empty (negative event), it will make the event easier to partake in.
How is this related to nutrition?
You had one unhealthy meal or one unhealthy treat, but that is okay. Think of all the other times that you did not have a bad meal or followed your meal plan.
Think of that extra 100 kcal as just a one-time thing. It is not repeated every single day. It is okay to overeat every once in a while.
You skipped a meal by accident? No worries, ancestrally we did not get to eat three meals every day, it will be okay if you missed one.
Hey, at least you had some vegetables or fruit today. If you did not get the full consumption goal, do not let it ruin your day! at least you tried and had more than if you were not eating any.
How is this related to physical activity?
Just this one day, you were not feeling the workout. You were at the gym and just were not feeling it. At least you were still doing something and got yourself to go to the gym!
Maybe you do not feel like even going to the gym. At least you were walking around during your day.
Physical activity is also a great way to shake up your day. Maybe you are having a very hard time viewing events as positive for the day. An example of a workout break from these bad events would be to go to the gym, go for a run or bike ride and just clear the mind. They may be better now when you get back to your daily tasks.
If you can change even one viewpoint to positive, then maybe that can be the start of all the other positives in your day.
What to do now?
Try to implement this thought process in your daily life. Like everything, starting can be a challenge.
At first, if you need to just focus more on the events in your day that would already be a positive event, do it! Make sure you acknowledge that it was a good thing that happened instead of just letting it pass.
Try to make just one thing per day a positive, even if usually it would bog you down. If you can even do this, you are already improving and winning your day.
The more events that you can view positively, the better. The more you do it, the easier it will get. Like with anything, sometimes it will be harder than others. Sometimes you may feel as if there is just nothing positive about an event, an hour, a day, or anything else.
In these cases, go back to emphasizing any positive, or even just finding the smallest positive from any event and break the negativity chain.
Closing
Over the past years, mental health has been “talked about” but neglected. People have lost sight of how to handle events that may bog them down and make them feel not as good.
The Athletes Health is striving to a new path of health. People should not be scared of mental health. Nutrition and physical activity are two key variables that can aid psychological issues.
That is the goal of The Athletes Health. Viewing events as a glass half full is just one tool in the toolbox of useful tips and tricks to help the psyche and get through each day as being its best.
Call to action?
Focus on the positives.
As long as something is in the cup, there is something to focus on.
Emphasize the great events, and try to find something positive out of everything!
Keep your cup half full, not half empty. The fullness will carry over to the next event, the next hour, and the next day!
