Your outlook on life and overall well-being can be linked to your perspective. It goes back to the old question, Is the glass half full or half empty? What lens am I going to look at my life through? Will I choose the lens where I see the positive and cope with the negative to the best of my ability or the lens where I see the negative and can’t find the positive in my life?
In his talk The Last Lecture, Professor Randy Pausch talked about perspective and how to look at situations in life by introducing the Tigger vs. Eyeore debate. He said that people could choose to either be a Tigger – a person who looked for the positive things in their life and had a “bounce in their step” so to speak or they could be an Eyeore – and look at the negative things in life.
Yes, Professor Pausch dealt with a lot when facing his pancreatic cancer- and I am sure there were many days when he was nearly beaten down to his knees – maybe even wanting to take the Eyeore outlook on whatever he was going through, but somewhere inside himself he was able to get back up and look at everything from the Tigger perspective.
There may be days when it seems nearly impossible to find any positive thing in your life and it isn’t always easy, but you can choose how you perceive whatever you are facing. You can decide which side of the Tigger or Eyeore debate you are on. After all, happiness is an inside job.
Lisa Cypers Kamen is a filmmaker, positive psychology coach, author, host of Harvesting Happiness Talk Radio, professor and lecturer specializing in the field of sustainable happiness. She is widely recognized as an expert on the subject. Lisa’s acclaimed documentary film co-produced with her now fifteen year-old daughter, Kayla, “H-Factor…Where is your heart?” explores how people in varied circumstances find, generate and share happiness. In addition to her film on happiness, Lisa has also published a number of articles and books entitled, Got Happiness Now?, Are We Happy Yet?, Leadership: Helping Others to Succeed and Reintegration Strategies, about combat trauma and using positive psychology principles to create wellness in a post-war new normal. Lisa’s written work is featured on blogs for the Huffington Post, PositivelyPositive.com and InspireMeToday.com and she is a TEDx community event speaker. In addition, she is the Happiness Expert for the Florida Department of Citrus/ Florida Orange Juice in its Take on the Day campaign.
Harvesting Happiness for Heroes™ is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that delivers stigma-free integrated combat trauma recovery services to warriors and their loved ones. Modalities include scientifically proven strengths based Positive Psychology coaching and interdisciplinary tools such as film, yoga, meditation, art and creative writing designed to mindfully empower the client to achieve increased self-mastery, self-esteem and reclaim her/his life. HH4Heroes focuses on the balance of mind, body and emotion resulting in greater overall wellbeing and the transformation of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) into Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG). HH4Heroes offers retreat workshops, one-on-one coaching, Battle Buddy programs, as well as our new R.E.B.O.O.T Online virtual community coaching classrooms designed to reach underserved areas. In addition, HH4Heroes deploys Return to Duty™ civilian and corporate training to help welcome a warrior home and into the community and workplace.
Lisa is committed to teaching Happiness is an inside job™ and helping others end their needless suffering through intentionally cultivating greater joy.
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