Finding the good in negative or stressful situations frequently boils down to looking for a silver lining. You may have to look a little harder and dig a little deeper than you would want, but it’s typically there. Another approach that can assist is to modify your viewpoint by viewing the issue through the eyes of someone else, as seen in the video below.
In the video, a stay-at-home mother welcomes her husband at the door; based on the worn expression on her face, he didn’t even need to inquire how her day went.
A series of flashbacks skirt through her exhausted and overwhelmed mind: one daughter calling from her bed while the baby cries, and having to mediate when her daughters start fighting.
Then there was the stressful trip to the grocery store where little hands were everywhere, yanking items off the shelves; and the icing on the cake, was when her daughter literally spilled a cake on the floor, frosting and all.
“So yeah,” she says, almost shaking her head in surrender. “It was just a normal day.”
But when he asks the same question to his older daughter as she prepares to turn in for the night, she has an entirely different take – almost as if she were describing a completely different day.
Where her mother saw nonstop chaos, she tells her father about a day filled with playing with her baby sister, “lots of kisses” from mommy, a “fun ride” in a shopping cart – and the best part: sitting on the kitchen floor and laughing as she and Mom dipped their fingers into the spilled cake and frosting.
Her mother looks on from the doorway, face crumbled with emotion, as her daughter describes it as “the best day ever!”
On days when nothing seems to be going your way, take a quiet moment to reflect, and think back from a different perspective. Maybe you’ll find the silver lining you were looking for.
Watch the video below and share!
