Positive boomerangs flying around Burma

We arrived in Burma during special days: Thingyan Water Festival. These five days of New Year celebrations - in which everyone gets soaking wet - include stages, hoses, buckets, water pistols and bottles. What was originally a cleansing ritual grew out to epic proportions. During these hottest days of the year, there’s no better way to celebrate and cool down. Overcrowded trucks and pick-ups full of people drive past the stages to get wet. Yangon was filled with music, dancing and singing, which made the most happy and positive welcome imaginable. Even though I must admit we got seriously tired of all that water throwing in the end, the people throwing were always welcoming, sweet and appreciative.

But what has actually started, is a brand new year for the people from Burma. The by-election, which was held this April, was an expected beautiful victory for the NLD-party of Aung San Suu Kyi. Later this month she - 'the lady' - will be installed in the Senate. Although power wise this is only a very small step for Burma, the government is actually opening doors that have been shut for a long time. From this year on, the people from Burma have a sense of new agendas and changing social and political circumstances. It adds to the positive vibe, although people don’t seem to overdo it. Optimism and hope go hand in hand with scepticism and carefulness, which only seems realistic considering the situation today and the challenges ahead.

Nevertheless, positivity rules over scepticism. I feel that - even without Thingyan or NLD-victory - I would have been hugely impressed with this ability of the people from Burma. It’s in their curiosity and openness. It’s in their being realistic and sincere even though hope and opportunities lour. It’s in their kindness and their appreciating closeness. To me people seem to demonstrate what positivity is all about. Not a jump for joy emotion, but honest and realistically happy behaviour that actually affects wellbeing.

Why is positivity so important? Well, first of all because most people are more creative when they feel positive. When facing problems, people tend to have more ideas on what to do next. People are also more likely to bounce back from adversity. But what I find most important is how positive emotions make people more socially connected to others, even across groups. Experience has proven how positive emotions make it easier for people to look past racial and cultural differences. Experiments show that positive emotions make people more trusting, more often looking for win-win outcome. These are what you might call transformative effects of positivity; effects that help us promote positive change. Thank you people from Burma, for showing me so vividly.

Being too positive often backfires; like false hopes. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to play sunny day all the time. It almost levels with overdoing complaining and throwing dark clouds; it gets to you. I would guess similar backfiring would happen if the people from Burma were too positive. That’s why I am so happy to meet appreciativeness, realism, curiosity, openness and kindness instead of jumps for joy. Burma has suffered from the dark side of politics, underdevelopment, decline and many political and ethnical issues over the last fifty years. The challenges of today are very serious, with loads of tasks at hand. I feel that needs positive realism.

Our thoughts - positive or negative - tend to color our experiences. And behaviour - positive or negative - somehow always seems to get back at us, as it affects others. It’s almost like a boomerang. Some say ‘don’t toss a boomerang around you don’t want to catch yourself when it comes back.’  We should be grateful for all those positive boomerangs flying around in Burma. This is how people positively reinforce each other. It is my hope these boomerangs result in the creativity, flexibility and connectivity needed to work things out.

Eyes of the world, take a look at the people from Burma. Watch them make their steps. And while you’re at it, provide these wonderful people - in their turn - with all the positive boomerangs you can throw at them.

Water Festival Yangon: Happy Thingyan!