Is Your Cup Half Full, or Half Empty

Tomorrow why don't you wake up and smile first thing? Why don't you move out of the way of people rushing down the street instead of moaning? Maybe they have a real problem.
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I write regularly for the Huffington Post and I have been touched by the amount of comments my blogs have been getting.

Many generous, supportive and empathetic with big life situations - losing a parent, leaving your homeland, falling in love and friendship.

But I am also staggered by the amount of cynics out there.

People who think the worst of everything. If true love happens then it will only turn bad in the end. If the Greek economy is screwed it's their fault.

It is easy I suppose to sit in judgement from behind a computer screen, but this is not just a web phenomenon.

Ask yourself, how many people around you are positively affirming you and your choices?

I remember when I first met my beau, the number of friends that rolled their eyes and suggested that being French meant he'd be an untrustworthy seducer.

I get off the phone sometimes from conversations with people and feel the vestiges of the negative vibration. They will NEVER meet a guy. Work is just for money. They will never be able to make that move to a new home, a new country, a new career as there are too many mountains to climb to get there.

There is a fine line between realism and scepticism.

But my fellow spiritual healers, Buddhists and more, would say that these bad thoughts lead to bad actions and consequences.

Today at a macro level we are talking ourselves into a big economic whole.

The media is spreading fear with words like double-dip recession and the masses are panicking so stop buying and the markets drop. And it continues.

We like drama, we choose it over a miracle.

The headlines are set up to shock, scandalise or worry. This week France announced that many baby bottle teats on the market are carcinogenic. How can that make any mum feel better? She can't change what's been done and all she will feel is that she has done wrong by her baby.

In Bhutan they have declared their national state one of happiness. Their guiding principle is being loving and kind to their fellow citizens.

New world countries like Australia, Brazil and Africa also seem to get it. Despite natural disasters, crashing economies and disease, people smile back and want things to work out.

We are so far off from that? Many of you will be cynically muttering that this is a utopian state.

Why not?

Tomorrow why don't you wake up and smile first thing? Why don't you move out of the way of people rushing down the street instead of moaning. Maybe they have a real problem.

Why can't you sit in traffic calmly instead of honking your horn. Raising your blood pressure will only harm you in the end.

I know I will get a barrage of comments back criticising my overly optimistic, naïve outlook.

But actually I couldn't give two hoots. I'd rather see life from my rose-tinted standpoint. Little things should make us happy, not unhappy. We need to save our energy for the big, bad things.

For when they come, the daily irritations pale into insignificance.

My dad dying, losing my job and getting divorced made me realise how lucky I had been before.

Yet I was too busy measuring how empty my cup was to appreciate that it was actually overflowing.