How do you view the situations in your life?  Is your glass half full or half empty?  Do you use your ability to choose how you feel or respond in any given situation or do you just jump on the first emotion and choose not to try to see a different side?

I had two incidences yesterday that caused me to reflect on the fact that everyone sees things differently.

The first incident was with my husband who was in the emergency room today for cellulits.  (He was discharged and is doing well.)  The nurse who tended to him brought in a couple very small bottles to collect blood samples in that looked like nips of alcohol.  My husband, who had already built a reputation with the nurse as a joker, asked if that is what they were.  The nurse, who also had a great sense of humor the entire time we were there and who was very personable, laughed and then told us a story of the same question that went in a completely opposite direction with another patient.

Nurse Debbie told us that one day she was treating an older lady and her adult daughter was with her.  She brought in the same style bottles and the mother asked her the same question.  She responded with a joking tone that they were shots for her for after her long shift.  She left the room to get the rest of the supplies needed and when she came back, the younger woman gave her a bible and told her she was a very troubled soul and that she truly needed help.

My husband and I were in hysterics.  I can see why some people would be offended I guess, but she said she thought it was very clear that she was joking.  They, were serious.  We asked how she responded.  She said that she just had to leave the room.

Two separate patients saw the same exact situation in two different ways.  We chose to see the light side of it while the other patient was offended and did not understand that the nurse was 100% joking.  Nurse Debbie says she is very cautious with what she says to who now, which is sad in a way because she was so funny with us.  She had the ability to make a stressful situation a light-hearted visit.

In the second situation, my family and I went to see Grown Ups 2 after my husband discharged from the ER, which I highly recommend, but is not the reason for this part of the post.

As we were getting our popcorn and drinks it started getting busy at the counter.  The lines were growing fast.  I probably wouldn’t otherwise have noticed the new line opening up except that this one young man, who seemed to come out of nowhere was wearing a fake mustache and crowd-calling as if he was a ring leader at a circus.  “Step right up!  Get your hot, freshly popped popcorn right here,” he called.  The lines split as people quickly jumped out of their long line to be in the new, shorter line.

His energy seemed to overpower the other employees as his loudness continued.  He was joking with the customers and even commented to me as I was adding salt to my popcorn, telling me that he was, “in-salted” that I hadn’t chosen his line.  We both laughed as I headed to our theater.  As I walked away I heard someone toward the back of his line comment, “Wow, someone likes his job way too much,” in a condescending and sarcastic tone.

I thought about this.  Is that even possible?  Shouldn’t we all love our jobs at least that much?  The other employees behind the counter didn’t seem annoyed with him, which they very well could have been.  There were two ways to view that situation I suppose.  I chose to enjoy his enthusiasm and the way he interacted with his customers while the woman in the back of the line seemed annoyed by his behavior.

We have a conscious choice on how we view every situation in life. We chose to see both situations in a light manner while others took the same situation very seriously.  I was grateful that I chose the manner I did in both situations.  My night had been stressful, worrying about my husband’s condition and I could have definitely let that affect the way I saw things but I didn’t.

In both situations I feel that my stress was lower than it could have been because I chose to think the way I did.

Take a moment.  How have you been seeing situations lately?  Are you allowing situations to add to your stress or can you see the lighter side?  What types of situations have you been in lately where you could have seen something a different way, for better or for worse?  Please share in the comment section.

I hope to see you back soon.  Thanks for reading!