How Can You Be Smiling at a Time Like This?

Cultivating optimism is even harder than it sounds.  It takes resiliency and even courage to look overboard of a difficult situation.

I went to the clinic waiting for a very young doctor to come see me. I didn't thing Dr. Yung would be able to diagnose something as serious as a stabbing feeling  in my colon. She went through the motions of examining me and looking at the ultrasound results.  She informed me there was a mass as big as a small olive yet again.  She was puzzled, saying the mass must be an indication of something too benign to be seen.  She looked at my frightened face and posture and stopped smiling. She touched me and said that the scan would alleviate some fears but that positive thinking may control the outcome of the scan. Either way, she said, the scan results would make me feel better. She rubbed my shoulders and said that it'd all be fine.

The scan was good. There were no problems. The stabbing went away and my digestion would slowly go back to normal. Dr. Yung knew all was well.  She was reinforcing the power of positive thinking. When I met her at a book signing a few months later, I thanked her for helping me understand.  "My friend is the author of this book and he taught me about cultivating optimism. He had a full time job and wrote at night after getting divorced and his  children moved out of province. He'd be poor and lonely were it not for his optimism. " She gave my cheek a slight pinch and said goodbye.

I often think of Jack Layton and other leaders who have performed small miracles and see that they all had to cultivate optimism in their assent. No pill or drug can do this.

The power of the mind is something that needs to always be explored and mastered on the road to optimal empowerment.