A young candidate for America’s Got Talent came on stage with her singer. The candidate had a disease that caused her hearing to deteriorate and to lose it completely. For her, music was a vibration felt through every pore of her being. She said she wants to do more with her life than to give up!
How many of us have this power to recover from hopelessness and set out to win?
I often see the opposite: we let ourselves be defeated by unimportant events, by some words said by someone angry, more or less good jokes, by the interpretations that the voice in our head gives to external manifestations.
Studies show that our minds are designed to perceive negativity in the first pșace. This condition saved us from danger throughout the evolution of the species.
However, the neocortex, the evolved part of our brain, can support us in going beyond first-hand interpretations, it helps analyze, see the multiple valences of a situation and choose differently.
I am not saying that we should not give up. I believe that it is good to know when we do not belong somewhere when our principles are not congruent with others; getting out of such situations seems to me a proof of understanding, maturity, responsibility. Our time is valuable, it does not make sense to spend it in situations, relationships (personal or institutional) that are not in line with our values.
But the worst thing is to give up on ourselves, on what makes us happy, on what defines us, on what gives us energy, on our aspirations. Without them, we are like bodies that walk around the world with their light shut.