OH! Magazine - Australian Version June 2015 | Page 13

HEIDI DI SANTO PERSPECTIVE IS A KEY www.heidi.com.au ( Emotional Fitness ) TO HAPPINESS Heidi Di Santo explains the importance of perspective and attitude for happiness. DO YOU SEE A FLOWER OR A WEED? hat do you see when you look at the above photo – a flower or a weed? The reason I ask is because you can improve your life immediately by using the following tip. W Last new year’s eve, when our family was on holiday in Queensland, my husband came down with the flu and went to bed at 8pm. The unit where we were staying at got flooded when a flash storm passed by. A family member lost control of his bowels and we needed to clean up the mess. I also got eaten alive by mosquitoes when I went to sleep. Despite all this, I can honestly say that I had a fantastic New Year’s Eve. Our family had a lovely meal together, we watched the early fireworks and a feel good movie, we went for a moonlight swim and we celebrated the new year with Prosecco at midnight. At every moment, millions of things are going on and in order to survive this information overload, humans delete much of what’s happening and focus on only a handful of things at any one time. If you want greater happiness in your life, it’s important to realise that you are in control of what you focus on and what you delete. This is where your power lies. It’s not the external situation that causes happiness or sadness, it is how you interpret what’s going on. You can look at a situation and focus on all the negative aspects, or you can look for the glimmers of light. You have the power to delete more negatives and keep more positives. As an experiment, look at something that has happened to you recently which you judged as negative, and analyse how you can change your thinking to make the experience more positive. Then, moving forwards, become conscious of your negative reactions and start to become aware of the thoughts that precede this. From now on, you have a choice. You can look at life and create drama by focusing on all that is bad and wrong. The other alternative is you can look for what’s right and create peace and harmony. There is always a silver lining in every raincloud. Remember, what you focus on grows and you’re in control of that! ( OH! MAGAZINE ) JUNE 2015 13