Pollyanna is a best-selling novel and a classic of children's literature in 1913 by Eleanor H. Porter. A quick summary on the plot is that a young orphan named Pollyanna Whittier goes to live with her rich but stern spinster Aunt Polly. Pollyanna has naturally adopted a positive and optimistic attitude from his father which she calls "the Glad Game". The core of the game is to find something to be glad about in every situation, no matter how adverse it may be. Looking at the good side of things as her way of life and philosophy, she has brought joy and sunshine to a very dispirited town New England, and indeed to her aunt.
Deriving from this story which then turned out to be a successful film from Walt Disney Productions, the Pollyanna Principal is the tendency for people to remember pleasant things more than the unpleasant ones. This is not hard to understand as people naturally expose themselves to positive stimuli and avoid those that are negative and threatening. Some researchers indicated that at the subconscious level, the individual would like to focus and retain the optimistic. Yet consciously, the reverse is true.
As the conscious mind commands and the subconscious obeys, the former often overrides. The layers of critical-thought functions of the conscious mind becomes the facade to our subconscious which has always been the gateway to our powerful and pure awareness. Another analogy is that the conscious mind is the gardener and the subconscious the garden, and we do have a choice to grow flowers or weeds in the garden of our lives. Then perhaps it is time for us to consciously re-examine some of our thoughts, actions and behaviours and sow new seeds?
No comments:
Post a Comment