Ok, before I talk about the power of positivity, many of you might already conclude that ‘Oh, it’s just one of those girls trying to tell me what to (not to) do to gain a better life/happiness.’ Or ‘She is over optimistic about everything by saying don’t worry, be happy!’ Well let’s be clear… Since I am neither psychologist nor scientist, I am not going to explain/prove how being positive can affect our brain and actions. I am here to share some eye-opening experiments that made me think about how the positive and negative emotion can make a impact in our life and the meaning of positivity. If you are curious about it as well… sit tight… because what you are about to learn may shock you!
The IKEA “Bully a Plant” experiment…
Plants have its own feelings too!
Believe it or not. It literary happened from an IKEA live experiment in the Emirates. They installed their very own plants at a school and the plants were treated with exactly the same amount water, sunlight and fertilizer. The only difference is one of the plants was fed compliments, and the other one was verbally bullied with hateful words using audio recordings from children studied at the school. Guess what? After 30 days, the bullied plants started to look dull and unhealthy while the other one remained strong and thrived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx6UgfQreYY
Although it was obviously an advertisement for their own brand plants, it still raised awareness of the negative effects of bullying.
The Rice Experiment
Now, while you are probably still questioning whether the experiment is scientific or not, let me show you another interesting experiment held by a Japenese researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto (was also well known by his spectacular book The Hidden Message in Water).He put rice in 3 different jars and covered it with water. For a month, He said ‘thank you’ to the first one, ‘you are an idiot’ to the second one and the third one he completely ignored. Again, out of surprise, they could really ‘feel’ the tensions that Dr. Emoto gave by showing us the difference after they were treated differently. By doing this experiment, he thinks this experiment proved an important lesson, especially regard to how we treat children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc-ZmvxfBxE
I know, some of you are rolling your eyes now… How did the ONLY ONE experiment can carry out that the effect is due to what they are testing? Not to mention, there are a lot of uncertain elements such as the bacteria or other types of microorganisms living inside the jars. They could come from different sources…etc.
Really, what are these experiments all about?
In my point of view, both of the plants and rice experiments are not about science. It’s more about what messages they are trying to say? And a topic that I never thought about before just came cross my mind after I watched these videos… How to be positive or happy if those ‘good’ emotions can affect the world? Well, if you ever talked to me in person, you probably think I am generally positive and happy. I often hear my friends or colleagues say ‘How can you be so positive all the time while working in retail? My goal is to be as positive or happy as you are!’ (Oh man, working in retail and being the first contact of customer is another long story!) But wait a second, how do you define positive or happy? Does positivity simply just need to smile or just look at the bright side of everything? Does happiness equal how much time you spend with your beloved one? And how long it takes? While I am still pondering about what it takes to be positive or happy, I hope you enjoy the process of searching for answers. If you have already found your own definition, how do you think you can bring happiness or positivity to the society? You are more than welcome to tap into the power of positivity with me by sharing your ideas or retail experience(if you ever worked in retail) and comment below. Look forward to sharing mine with you. xx
ok! I am definitely starting to express compliment to my avocado plants! ?
Hahaha same! I literally talk to my flowers right after I watched the videos!! I’m thinking to do some experiments toward to positivity too! You will definitely be my subject 😉
Thank you Han Phoebe for sharing your thoughts in this blog. I can feel your energy while reading. You are such an inspiration for all of us. I am glad that you decided to spread your positive spirit!
Thank you Naomi! I just love that how these videos tried to deliver a really important message…our emotion can affect the people around us! It really inspired me that I thought I could get people to really look deeper into it by writing! I’m glad that you enjoyed it;)
Well done Phoe 😉 I’m working for a few months as “Sales Expert” around the Lucerne Region promoting a new product of Philipp Morris in the Kiosks. I know veryyyyyy well the challenges of this kind of job. I watch people coming and going away for hours and I love just watching them, their expression, their style and mouvements. What I can notice is that some people are simply curious about what i’m doing there, they also generally open minded and instead trying to walk away as soon as possible or complaining about my activity they wish me a good day spreading a beautiful energy. Being in our position is not always easy, we know that in a bad day you won’t be able to sell nothing or maybe to be insult or ignored from the people but I think the key to be successful and to not loose the enthusiasm is just to be aware about how people can be different and to just keep inside the positive energy from the speech with those that decide to spent some time with you speaking about the product, about their activities, habitudes, their ideology of life or whatever. After a few months experience I understood it’s a question of how to care about this comments. If you are able to take a distance, to “protect yourself” from the mean comments/answers you can better enjoy the positive ones and just keep going the day smiling and trying to connect yourself with the new customers. Maybe is a question of “consciousness” of what you are doing, if you agree with what you are and what you are doing is much more difficult to loose your smile.
Hey Valeria, I love your enthusiasm! I love how you found a definition of how to be positive through understanding who you are and what you are doing! And yes I agree with you that working in retail could be tough since the customers are variable and unpredictable. However, if you always keep authenticity in mind, change the mindset when you have one of those bad days, you can literally turn it around! Before I got promoted to manger I was a sales for couple of years and I was always one of the best sales and have the best customer satisfaction result. Although, I went through this period that you talked about… I didn’t feel valuable when I couldn’t achieve the sales target. After upseting for few days I decided to change my mindset. Instead of trying to get customer to buy more, I actually trying to help! And that really change the whole result! The feedback that I got from customers were so much more than getting the deal done! I’m really interested in your customer story as well! Do you have any good inspiring story? Looking forward to hearing from you 😉
Hey Phoebe, I love that you write about positivity! I’m always trying to be positive and I truly believe that in everything there is always something good. So I’m curious to hear more about this.
By the way I agree that talking to plants is doing them really good!
Hey Daniela! OMG have you EVER tried to talk to “them” XD Please share your story with me!!! I’m glad that you like the content! And yes, I’m going to share more ideas through my work/life experiences soon, stay tuned 😉
Love your article and energy! Keep going and spreading those positive thoughts. Looking forward to learn and read more from your articles!
Thank you so much for your feedback! It made my day 😉 Are you going to water your plants with compliments now?
I thought it’s a long read, it wasn’t
Like what I learnt from you
Personally I think being positive is about to be greatful to everything/ everyone around you.
Or just being SIMPLE
Not sure if I explained myself right
But simple is the key, personally
Keep the good work going
Love seeing your update. Xoxo
Than you Sasaki 🙂 I can’t believe you made it! Yeah as I promised before, it’s an easy read.By being simple, do you mean enjoy the moment and don’t make things too complicated? I totally agree with you on showing gratitude and being simple. I will share my experience in the next coming blog… How I put positivity into practice and lead the store to gain the best customer satisfaction! Stay tuned 😉
Wow, I love all this plant-talking thing! I used to pet them and call them “beauty” etc :)) and thought it might be a little awkward for others, if they would see it. So I kinda limited myself but I still have a good thought/word for them when I water them. Now I have the confirmation that is actually more to this topic, than what meets the eyes.
Love the article, the positive vibe just bursts out of it (insert heart here)
Wait, have to go now, going to have a chat with my flowers! 😉
Thank you Luiza, I’m so glad I’m not the only one who is talking to the plants now;) and I’m glad you love the article as well!(insert heart here too) I will have more articles/videos coming soon! stay tuned 🙂