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How does having a Positive Attitude help
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A personal true story which shows how does
having a positive attitude help when unexpected
unpleasant experiences happen while traveling
and that positive thinking plays a big role
in overcoming difficult situations, offers
many advantages and brings many benefits.
For the night between the 6th and the 7th
of August 2014 I was supposed to be hosted
by someone but things didn't go as planned
and it happened that at half past ten in
the night I had to leave the house of my
potential host.
I was
in Hutki,
a tiny
village
located about 15 km south of Czestochowa, in Poland.
All of a sudden I found myself walking on
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the side of a countryside road in complete
darkness, without having food with me nor
another place to sleep for the night. I did not have my tent with
me either, only my sleeping bag. But I didn't
get desperate, as inside of me I knew that
the role of positive thinking was determinant
for the outcome of the end of that day and
I decided to preserve my positive mindset
and find out what benefits of having a positive
attitude this circumstance would have brought
to me. I said to myself: "Adriano, have
faith, things will work out for the best
also this time".
I put my headlamp on my head and I attached
the red beacon to my backpack. I decided
to head towards the closest petrol station,
located about 4 km from where I was, to eventually
try to sleep there. After about twenty minutes
that I was walking on the side of the road,
a car stopped and the driver asked me if
I was in need of help. I told him where I
wanted to go and he offered to take me there.
While I was in his car I became curious to
know what made him stop when he saw me, so
I asked him. He said that it was mostly because
of my lights, the white one on my head and
the red one on my backpack, and that when
he saw also my mattress attached to my backpack
he realized I must have been a hitchhiker, and given that he also hitchhiked sometimes
he understood my situation.
(If I had no lights, he wouldn't have noticed
me in the darkness of the night, and would
have been also very dangerous for me to walk
on the side of the road. Including lights
among the things to bring while hitchhiking and backpacking is of fundamental importance - many times
they won't be used, but sometimes they will
make a huge difference.)
On our way he suggested that maybe would
be better for me to take me to Czestochowa
as there were supposed to be many pilgrims
around the Jasna Góra monastery and I could
sleep together with the pilgrims since the
environment was safe and friendly. I accepted
and he took me to the location of the monastery.
As he told me about this famous monastery,
I expected to find many people of all ages
sleeping in their tents or simply on the
grass around it. When I got there it was
almost midnight. I didn't find anybody, but
I continued to believe in the importance
of having a positive attitude, I kept believing
that something good will happen again. The
man who gave me the ride was already something
good that happened. I said to myself "Adriano,
keep looking around, have faith, there are
advantages of positive thinking, a solution
will come out" and decided to just have
a walk all around the monastery to see it
better from more angles.
When
I arrived
in front of its main gate,
up on
the hill,
I saw a pilgrim who just
arrived
on its
bicycle. We started talking
and,
among
other things, told me that the
pilgrims
are all
accommodated in a special
house,
built
on purpose for them, and that
maybe
I can
also be accommodated there for
free.
We went together to this house. At the reception
I found out that some sort of payment was
expected so I left.
In front of this house there were guarded
parking lots, and between them, scattered,
there were big tents which had big long tables
inside where pilgrims could sit and eat the
food they had with them. From distance, these
tables looked like ideal surfaces to sleep
on since they were long and wide enough and
they were protected from rain. I decided
to go to one of the guards and ask for permission
to sleep on one of those tables. The guard
said it was okay, so I headed towards one
of the tents.
Once arrived at the tent and got the backpack
off my back, I noticed there were three apples
left on the table. When I saw them I felt
like they were there waiting for me. I sat
and pondered over the events that happened
to me during the entire evening, and observing
how having a positive attitude helped me
find a nice place to sleep and something
to eat, made me feel great.
Written by Claudio Adriano Dobre; first in 2014, last updated in 2019. © 2014-2019
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