Attitude shift

Mind is a very powerful tool which can be shaped and used in many ways. It is often neglected and looked down upon as it does not show any symptoms in the physical body at least in the earlier stage. Attitude and mindset determines the person’s qualitative aspect of mind.

We often neglect smaller things in life for example making our own bed, trying to learn small things like gestures, polishing our way of behaviour towards others, taking responsibility, etc. Many of these small things have the potential to create a huge impact on our personality. Observing and enjoying the smaller things for some occurs naturally while it comes from a constant and conscious practise for others. The smaller things will play a huge role in activating the reward system of the brain by motivating us to perform better and ultimately help us in taking control of our thoughts, emotions and actions.

Once we start appreciating the smaller things in life, we develop an attitude of acceptance and tolerance. This will help us to integrate ourselves and empathize with the rest of the humanity and the world. Once we start empathising, there is a fundamental attitude shift towards people. We start perceiving things differently. For example in workplace if one of the colleague is behaving differently showing a hot attitude, normally we would get angry. But when we change our perception to think differently and empathise, we no longer see that human as a problem, instead we see that human as having some problem. We feel sorry for that person. We realise that the person in front of us is like that because of his/her many life experiences and individualism. Each and every individual is different and experiences life differently. This realisation allows us to be non judgemental. Yes, being non judgemental is very difficult, but as we start practising empathy, over a period of time, we judge less and understand more. This is a very important aspect of attitude shift.

Judgement comes from prejudice or preconceived notion. Everyone has a prejudice or bias about the things and people. This prejudice is shaped from our past experiences, learning and the way we are socialised in our society. Having a preconceived notion in itself is not wrong as it is a natural tendency of humans but judging a person from the angle of that preconceived notion is not correct. For example, I know a person that can’t drive without background music as a matter of fact. If that person meets with an accident and I blindly claim that it’s her fault because she can’t concentrate and is distracted while driving, then it means that I have already judged that person based on my prejudice. This is a very narrow minded approach. Each individual is fundamentally different and have their own strengths and weakness. This kind of attitude shift will help us maintain our emotional stability in the long run.

Having prejudices and making judgements often leads us to think negative about others and generally the world. But we have to realise that this negativity is coming from within us and is the beginning of personality degradation. We have to understand that nothing is permanent in this world. It's all relative with respect to time, place and person and this will protect our emotional space from unnecessary negativity. So let us all judge less and love more.