Seeing the sunny side up

Updated on: Wednesday, August 10, 2011

It was all about seeing the glass half full than half empty. The Newspaper in Education (NIE) session under the ‘Secret of Success' programme encouraged standard VIII students of Carmel Matriculation School to cultivate positive thinking as an important ingredient for happiness and success.

Resource Person Anuradha Umashankar began the session with a story, ensuring all eyes and all ears were tuned to her. The story of Meera who woke up worrying about her maths test went down well with the students. The girl felt down in the dumps as she worried about her test performance impacting her tennis tournament. Fortunately her father intervened encouraging her to replace negative thoughts by counting her blessings. The girl went on to score well both in the scholastic and extracurricular activities, proving that performance is often determined by positive thinking.

Explaining the power of positive thinking in achieving set goals, Ms.Anuradha encouraged students to relate personal anecdotes where positive thoughts has ultimately lead to positive results. Dwelling on the brighter side of life was at the heart of the second activity intended to trigger a feel-good mood among students. The resource person asked students to jot down three things they had a knack for doing well, things they liked others to notice about them, people they loved, important achievements, happiest moments, and feelings they liked to have always.

Though positive thinking is a mental attitude and cannot change overnight, efforts should be made, Ms.Anuradha said. “Smile more, use positive words and disregard the urge to quit. When negative feelings surface occasionally, visualising a positive picture to replace the negative picture will do the trick,” she reassured.

Seeing the sunny side up

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