A few weeks ago Zandra went to a Girl’s Conference put on by our church.
The theme was “Be-YOU-tiful.” It was all about understanding beauty, recognizing your true beauty and seeing the inner beauty in everyone.
It was about an hour away, so on our drive home, Zandra shared with me all that she had learned by reading me the notes she had taken. It promoted an amazing discussion about beauty, self esteem, self respect, confidence, media and perspective.
She had some GREAT quotes – many of which I will steal in weeks to come:)
The one that struck me this time was:
“What you see depends mainly on what you look for.”
Isn’t that good?
It is applicable in so many ways!!
If we look for flaws in ourselves and others – we will surely find. If we look for beauty – we will find it everywhere too.
But it goes so much deeper than looking at ourselves superficially.
It’s how we look at life, as a whole.
Do you ever notice some people have constant drama in their lives? Do you ever notice some people really do have constant drama – but it’s not that big of a deal?
Or some people just always seem to have more problems – and there is never any solution that they could try? Or some people just shoot solutions down without even really considering them?
Some people are surrounded by black clouds? Some have a negative aura?
Yet some people radiate light, and kindness and good. Some people you just want to be in their presence.
Perhaps it’s all a function of what these people look for in their own lives.
Some people just look for the positives in everything.
That is really hard to do. It can sometimes be really annoying to be around those people who do it too. We often may think that they are being fake. Which sometimes they are.
But when I heard this quote, it struck me hard. We are a product of our thoughts. We are a product of what we surround ourselves with – and who we surround ourselves with. We are a product of what we focus on, invest our time in, and what we look for.
If we look for the good, we shall find it.
The “bad” is always there too, but it’s a question of what do we want to highlight and magnify?
Which side of us do we choose to feed? The dark side or the light side?
We are not victims who have to succumb to the environment around us. It will influence us for sure, but we have the ability to choose to look for good, to focus on that good and to look in the mirror and focus on the beauty rather than the flaws.
I was told as as I was growing up by my mom that to look at life positively and that the glass is half full not empty. This always has stuck with me and even now I try to find the good before the bed in something. So, I truly couldn’t agree more with your quote here today!!
It is so important to be filled with gratitude. Gratitude is life changing really!
I love this quote!!!
All those things you said about some people seem to be surrounded by drama….so very true. When you apply the quote it really does make a lot of sense.
Thanks for sharing the quote and advice!!
I thought it as a great quote too!
I love this quote and your examples are very supportive of it. The theme for the conference was beautiful 🙂
It was a great conference for 12 year olds!
Love the quote, Leah! It is so true. There are people in my life where drama seems to find them 24/7 and after awhile I realized it wasn’t because their life was so much more dramatic than me – but they cultivated that drama and invited it in. I very much believe that how you look at like and think about matters and affects what you see and experience. We practice a lot of gratitude in our home and I can’t help but think it’s just one of the reasons why we have so much to be grateful for.
Love “they cultivated the drama and invited it in”. We all have opportunities to invite drama in – or we can just shut the door on it and move on!
That’s a great quote! You can tell a lot about people by paying attention to how they view an event, a situation, a person, etc. And, you can also change the way you look at things (another great quote–“change the way you look at things and the things you look at change”) by becoming conscious of your thinking process. I just love psychology! And I love that your daughter came home with this quote–sounds like a great experience for her!
I love that quote too! I love psychology too!
Luckily my dad is a super positive force in my life (and my husband is definitely an optimist as well!) because I tend to worry about things that may never happen. I definitely don’t dwell on or create drama because I can control one thing and that’s MY attitude and MY response to situations. This is fantastic and I’m so happy to hear of your women getting this kind of education early on!!
It is so nice to be surrounded by positive people. And you are so right, we can only control OUR attitude and OUR responses.
I definitely have a friend or two..in which you can’t believe all of the bad stuff that happens to them – as if they have dark clouds over their heads. I think they feed the dark side. I can’t believe that anyone or anything can really be that negative, just as I wouldn’t believe that someone’s life is perfect sunshine always.
Smart quote, there!!
It’s like you can see the dark clouds surrounding them! And they suck the air out of a room! No one’s life is that dramatic – or that positive as you said!
I love that quote and your post! This is all so true!! People often do feed into the positive vs negative. And this is a good reminder to try to stay on the positive side of things even if you aren’t feeling good about the situation. I can use that thought right now!
We totally decide which side we feed!
I LOVE that quote and it reminds me of a book I just finished – 100% about how we find what we look for. I believe this wholeheartedly. I also believe that so much of life is perception. Those negative folks would find issue with winning the lottery and those positive ones will see the good in everything. I can’t wait to see more of your quotes from Zandra’s conference.
What book were you reading? Life is so much about perception. So true!!
I know someone who isn’t happy unless there is drama to gossip about. It’s tiring to listen to and yet fascinating to watch how the person responds when there’s nothing to react to. Overreactions and exaggerations take place.
My husband is a positive person. Sure he has some moods, but he looks for the good. He says, “Bad things happen to good people. It’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do when it happens.”
Oooh, I love what your husband says! Wise man!!
I think I need to paste that above the ceiling on my bed, on the rear view mirror of my car and inside my sunglasses. I’ve been trying to attribute positive motivations to people, but that’s really hard sometimes!
great quote!! This really made me reflect on the things I have been seeing lately. I need to post this somewhere for everyday viewing!
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