We here at Nobody’s View have a lot of teachers. People we trust and like to learn from. You should never ever ever stop learning in life. Could be car care. Could be a new language. Could be the guitar. Just learn SOMETHING.
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let me share some wisdom that this particular teacher passed on. It’s a little phase you may or may not know, and it comes from the tradition of our Jewish friends in Nobody Nation. It’s the phrase “gam zu l’tovah.” In Hebrew, (I think) it looks like this: גם זו לטובה
The phrase has a nice meaning. It translates to, “This too is for the good.” The phrase is apparently so great, that many (many!) years ago, a Jewish teacher (rabbi) named Rabbi Nahum, adopted the phrase. He said it no matter the situation–whether the circumstances were “good” or “bad,” he would say “this too is for the good.” Eventually, it earned him the nickname, “Nahum Ish Gam Zu.” The sentiment and the man essentially became one. It was said that great miracles followed him on the merit of this phrase, even miracles that saved entire nations (you can read more about his story here).
This teacher talked to us with great reverence about this man, Rabbi Nahum, and it was all very interesting. And it got me thinking about the things we say to ourselves day in and day out in Nobody Nation. About how we view the power of positivity (I’m considering that a real word for this post!).
What is our self talk like? What are the phrases we repeat to ourselves over and over? Do we do ourselves in by bringing ourselves down?
Consider this: if you are a writer and you want to get a book published, you will often begin the search for a literary agent. This search can bring hundreds of rejections. Many have the book. Few have the luck. If each rejection results in dejection, we may begin to project an air of negativity. In many ways, we become negativity. I’m no physicist or famous spiritual teacher, but even this Nobody knows that can’t possibly be good.
But what if we adopted Rabbi Nahum’s “for the good” mentality? What if we took a page from Nahum’s ancient book on positive thinking and decided that, even if we get that awful feeling in the pit of our stomach, we resolved to say, “This is for the good!” What might that mean for us?
I can’t give you the absolute answer to that. But what I can share are some meditations I had on how positive thinking in general can help all of us.
1. Keeping a positive attitude can’t hurt: Whether or not you are a believer in the “new” age philosophy of the power of positive thinking, can it really hurt? Does it really harm you to have a good mental outlook? You can bemoan your state of affairs or roll with them. Your choice. But I’ll clue you in to this: the negative thinking way will always win if you don’t push back.
2. Keeping a positive attitude may help: If we’re constantly walking around with our heads down, we miss the view. What if that view contains the next clue to happiness? What if the break we’ve been looking for is right in front of us? If we try to keep our heads held high, even in adversity, maybe we can discover a powerful presence we didn’t even know was there.
3. Keeping a positive attitude makes us more fun to be around: Face it–no matter how good your reasoning for your stinky attitude, people don’t like to be around gloomy gusses or nasty people. We are more attractive to people when we project a positive air. And think of it this way–if we stay positive as much as we can, then when we can’t be at our best, people are more likely to help. We build rapport and trust with positivity, thus giving people a reason to invest in us when the chips are down.
4. Keeping a positive attitude is good for our health: According to the Mayo Clinic, positive thinking helps us to better manage stress. And I don’t need to go into why THAT is so important (but just for kicks, let me tell you that the Mayo states positive thinking may help increase life span, lower depression rates, reduce cardiovascular risks, and lead to general well-being). Look, folks–nobody expects you to be cheery and bright all the time. But at the end of the day, you have to live with yourself. And your health. Even if being negative pays some kind of dividend in the outer world, it can still harm you internally through stress. So try this: if you catch yourself feeling down in a situation, stop. Take a deep breath. Commit to break the pattern. And say, “This is for the good,” or “This will work out.” Cheesy? Maybe. Corny? Possibly. But what do you have to lose? NOTHING! What do you have to gain? Perhaps longer and better life. More friends. More opportunity.
5. Keeping a positive attitude is just plain good for all of us in Nobody Nation: This one is a catch all. Look around at Nobody Nation. We’re not rolling in dough. We aren’t all pleased as punch with our jobs. We all need to be uplifted, to have a helping hand, or to have something or someone to look forward to in our day. If you adopt an attitude that events in life are for the good, or you can just get yourself to see through a somewhat rosier lens, then maybe you’re doing something good for all of us. Maybe you’re making someone else’s day by being happy. Maybe you’re affecting a life in a way you don’t even realize. And that, my friends, is enough reason to stay on Monty Python’s “Bright Side of Life.”
So that’s it. That’s all I have. I’m no expert here, but I do speak from experience. Trust me. And, please know that I am not minimizing anyone’s pain. I understand this is a process. Sometimes we’ll put on that brave face even though we don’t want to. Sometimes we’ll smile with weights in our cheeks and have them dragged down to a frown because we just can’t keep that positive face.
But if you read a bit about Rabbi Nahum, you may see how one phrase can not only change the fate of an individual, but of a nation.
And that’s something to be positive about.