Lemonade from Lemons

We all would agree that sometimes when things don’t go as planned we tend to get disappointed and harp on negative thoughts in our mind. This makes us spiral out of control and might lead to immense frustration and emotional distress. I’ve come across various situations in the past when something didn’t quite turn out as I expected it to and I found myself being dragged down by my feelings and couldn’t really get a hold of myself. Life moves on, and I’ve realized that it’s no use fretting over something that didn’t happen. After all, Allah is the best of planners, and He alone knows what is good for us and what is not.

Here’s a simple exercise we can follow to help us spot the silver lining:

Avoid entering a situation ‘looking’ for the negative, because when you seek the negative, you often find it more than not. Stop negative thoughts in their tracks. If you give attention to negative thoughts, they will get stronger and stronger. What seems like a small matter in the beginning may become monstrous at the end.

What you should do is break the vicious cycle by shifting your focus to something positive. Sometimes, the positive may not be easy to see right off the bat, but if you look deep enough it is there. You can then reinforce this positive attention until you completely defeat the negative thoughts.

If something is bothering you, find the main cause of the problem and learn to deal with it with positive thoughts and self-encouragement. Nothing is too big a task to accomplish. Once you’ve overcome your fears, the sense of achievement you feel is much greater and worthwhile than the sense of regret and remorse you would feel if you gave in and let yourself be pulled down into negative vibrations.