There Is Positivity in Negativity

"To everything, there is a season, a time for every purpose under the heavens."—Ecclesiastes 3:1

Above is a photograph that I took of the same exact tree, three months apart at the beginning of 2018. I was just fascinated at how a tree looks so empty and dead at the beginning of January, begins to transform when the climate changes in the Spring.

As I began to muse on the transformation that occurs in every season throughout the year, I saw a picture of how this is a reflection of our day to day life and how we perceive positive and negative.

We often complain about how hot or cold the weather is during the different seasons throughout the year. Having being brought up in the United Kingdom, the weather is one of the top topics in the mouths of people. I can safely say that there are more complaints regarding the weather than anything else.

Why do we complain about the weather when we know what to expect each and every year? I understand that there are issues like climate change, which is a major concern of many, but seasons is something that has happened since the beginning of time. Could it be that it is in our nature to complain? Why do we act so surprised when we know that the inevitable is going to happen? I believe that if we ask ourselves what the purpose of a particular season is, it would help us complain less about the weather.

"Oh, what a beautiful morning. Oh, what a beautiful day. I've got a beautiful feeling, everything is going my way."—Oscar Hammerstein / Richard Rodgers

These are the well-known lyrics of a song sang by Gordon MacRae from the film Oklahoma! We feel more optimistic about our days when we wake up and see a bright and sunny morning. It is quite the opposite when we see rain and thunder. If I said to you that every day is a beautiful day, what would your response be to that statement?

My perception of every day is a beautiful day came to me as I walked along the park enjoying the sunshine last summer. As the thought went through my mind, I began to look at all the beautiful plants, flowers, and trees that I was surrounded with. It dawned on me that this park wouldn't look the way it did if it didn't rain. The balance of both sunshine and rain brought about what we love so much about natural environments like parks and forests. Growth cannot happen without sunshine and rain working together.

Mediating on these concepts made me see how much nature teaches us about the reality of life and how our wrong perceptions of life can create a mental imbalance in our minds.

It is a fantasy to believe that we can live in a one-sided world where we can only have sunshine without rain. If we have one without the other, how would growth ever occur? Our whole world operates by opposites. Even communication through technology cannot happen without zeros and ones.

Just like nature, we all need to have sunshine and rain, and the purpose of the two opposites is so that growth can happen. The same applies to both good and bad, happiness and sadness, support and challenge, etc. Opposites is a part of life that we cannot run away from, and we hinder our ability of growth if we label events as being either good or bad. I believe the question to ask yourself when any new event occurs in your life is what the benefits and drawbacks are. The second question is to ask how you are going to grow as an individual from a current event.

Dr. John Demartini teaches that the quality of your questions determines the quality of the life you live. Whenever you ask yourself a question, your brain seeks a solution or answer. When going through difficult times, it is important to practice these things for your own mental wellbeing.

Situations in life are never as one-sided as we perceive. Taking time out to ask yourself the right questions and list down all the benefits and drawbacks of any situations really helps you to balance out your perceptions. I have gone through my fair share of experiences from rejection, bullying, sickness, death of loved ones, and have learned over time how I benefited and grew through these experiences.

The key to seeing positives in negative situations is to let go of fantasies and to stop labeling events as being good or bad. Nothing should take us by surprise because seasons in life will always happen in cycles and there is nothing new under the sun. Remember that the purpose of sunshine and rain is so that growth can occur on earth. What is the growth that you can see in your life today? Hold on to that answer because it will see you through your current circumstance.