"Pura Vida": Living Positive

I want to say a few words about negativity today, specifically in the form of complaining.

I spent some time in Costa Rica recently. Two weeks to be exact.
I was participating in a volunteer medical team of physical therapy students.
Our job was to go into communities in the outskirts of San Jose and provide medical services to people who didn't have a lot of access to health care.

A little about the Tico people: they are wonderful. And moreover, they are wonderful cooks!
A person could literally live to be 150 years old on a diet of rice, beans, and fresh pineapple.
We stayed with nuns at a tiny little convent with a quaint retreat center in the outskirts of the city of Alajuela.

They were the sweetest little ladies, averaging at about 4 feet in height.
Every morning they picked us fresh tropical fruits from the garden and made us juice.
They didn't speak a lick of English, and we didn't speak a lick of Spanish, but fortunately gratitude and kindness are universal languages.

The communities we went to were shanty villages mostly, houses built from aluminum sheaths and crude concrete.

It smelled bad in most places, and there was a ton of bugs.
There was garbage and broken glass in the streets where the kids were playing.
Mangey, matted dogs ambled along the edges of the asphalt.
Most houses had barbed wire and iron cages protecting the entrances.
The people we met with during house calls looked so stressed out. Many had the same kinds of stories. Multiple kids, abusive marriages, sick relatives, single mother trying to balance work with caring for her family, teen pregnancies, etc etc.
On one intake interview we asked a woman the standard medical history question, "Tiene depresion?" or "Do you have depression?" and she answered "I don't have time to be depressed."
The most common ailment we saw was pain in the neck and shoulders. People carry all their stress in their upper traps.
The people we saw came in with these hard looks on their faces. We'd talk to them, mostly listen to them, give them a few exercises to do to prevent pain, give them a good solid massage, and basically just give them a little of the TLC that society has neglected of them for most of their lives. They would walk out of that clinic looking like different people, so much lighter, their faces much softer. I was invited to stay with a number of families if I should ever choose to return to Costa Rica. One woman ran home and shortly returned with an enormous pitcher of fresh pineapple juice for us as a thank you. There was so much love and thankfulness in that clinic, from them and from us as well. Serving others brings that kind of happiness out in people. As I said, gratitude and kindness are universal languages.

What I found most profound about my time in Costa Rica is best illuminated in the words of one teammate of mine. We left the shanty village on one of the hottest and longest days of work of the entire trip. We all crammed onto our little bus and rode back to the convent. The rooms we stayed in were small, but sufficient, and the bathrooms were basic. Most of the time the hot water knobs didn't work for the shower. As we unloaded from the bus, my teammate said "Oh my gosh, I just can't stand it if I have to take another ice cold shower! This is the worst!"

How is it that in this day and age we can be so ungrateful? How can we not recognize how lucky we are to have what we have, especially when we are juxtaposed with those who have so much less? When was the last time you were a little chilly, and instead of fussing about it you just accepted that you don't always get to be warm in life, choosing to be grateful for warmth the next time you have it. When was the last time your stomach growled, and you took a moment to appreciate the opportunity to be hungry, to appreciate the times when you were satiated. For the love of God people, are we so blind as to not see our blessings as they are laid out right in front of our eyes?

Anybody who knows me personally knows I am an advocate of positivity. I believe that negativity drags others down. Think about it: does anyone really enjoy listening to others complain? But we all do it! And so often! Why can't we just find a little contentment? Why can't we be like the sloth, living "in perfect harmony with its environment...a good-natured smile forever on its lips."

Yes, that is a real sloth that I met in Costa Rica. He took the time to leisurely gaze my way in the middle of his afternoon nap, smiling peacefully from his perch 8 feet up in a sour guava tree.

Elizabeth Gilbert said in her memoir, Eat Pray Love, that finding contentment in life is "not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world." Obliterating the negativity in your life "gets you out of the way...you cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else." Only then can you be free to enjoy life. Gilbert also says of contentment that it can only be attained through conscious, personal effort.

So tell me. What are you doing to eliminate the negativity in your life?

COMPLAINT FREE WORLD