Positivity is essential in life. There is no such circumstance where positivity wouldn’t help you come out from it. Positivity makes you calm and helps you to motivate other people. Being a positive person you can influence people. It also helps you to be confident and keep your self-esteem high. A positive attitude helps your inner strength to grow. People who think optimistically are usually more energetic and healthy than pessimistic people. Being optimistic helps you to cope up with your day to day life situations. It makes you avoid worries and stress. If you adopt being optimistic, it will definitely bring constructive changes in your life. You’ll automatically be happier, brighter, and successful.
Any kind of disability doesn’t stop you from being positive and passionate about something in life. If it’s a congenital disability, then the person learns to live with life with it. If the disability is discovered or occurred due to any mishap then the person may feel low for some time. But try to be positive and accept it and start living with it. Don’t think that you are disabled, think that you are differently-abled. Change your outlook towards everything around you. Stop thinking negative things in particular situations, look for positive things in that particular situation. You’ll be able to get solutions more easily and you’ll have less tension. Always try to have positive thoughts come what may.
Forty-five-year-old Swapna Augustine was born with no arms. She was the eldest of four children of Augustine and Sophie. Till the age of 12, she thought that her arms would still grow. She had to face the harsh truth that she’ll never grow arms. Till she was 4 years old, her mother assisted her with her day-to-day tasks. After that, a person was appointed to teach her to work with her legs. Initially, she used to get frustrated as her legs didn’t bend as she wanted and couldn’t hold any object. Her parents were always very supportive. They never lost hope and kept on motivating her.
Within two years she learnt to perform everything with her legs, all one does with arms. At the age of six, she was sent to a convent boarding for children with disabilities. Her parents trusted the nuns and left her under their supervision. With many other children with similar or worse physical conditions, Swapna learned how to make the best out of her drawbacks.
After she completed her secondary school, she started to exhibit her skills in drawing and painting. Once her family and boarding authorities discovered her skills in painting, they helped and provided her with chart-papers, colours, brushes and all that was needed to keep her engaged.
She continued her career with drawing and painting. After attending a workshop on painting with acrylic, she adopted professional means and shifted to the canvas. No later, she was introduced to a community of mouth and foot painters in Kerala by one of her friends. From there she was selected as one among the 27 Indians and nine Keralites to get a membership in the International Mouth and Foot Painting Artists’ Association (IMPFA). After this, no one could stop her from achieving heights. She is grateful to her parents, siblings, and all the other people who believed in her when she didn’t believe herself and who never stopped motivating her. She is a proclaimed painter now.
See life positively. Thinking positive will make you take rational decisions. Swapna was always positive. She accepted herself as she was. She never thought that she cannot attain success with her disability. She fought her own battle with the support of her well-wishers.
Disability didn’t stop her. The support from her parents and family gave her the courage to attain success. She painted her own canvas of life with thousands of colours.
