Allison MaslanCEO & Business Scaling Expert | WSJ Bestselling Author

Half full or half empty? Your brain knows the difference.

18 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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Allison Maslan explains how seeing a glass half empty versus half full triggers different chemicals in your body. Half empty releases stress hormones that make you defensive; half full releases chemicals that foster confidence and openness. The choice you make each morning shapes your decisions and the reality you experience all day.

Chapters

Same cup, same water, 2 different lives. One person looks at this and sees half empty, and the other person looks at this and sees half full. This is not a mindset thing. This is actually a chemistry thing. The way you see this cup sends a completely different signal to every single cell in your body. Half empty releases one set of chemicals— stress, contraction, fear— and then half full releases a completely different set of chemicals. And out of those 2 different chemical states comes 2 completely different set of decisions, 2 different versions of how you show up, 2 completely different realities. Tomorrow morning, before you open your laptop and let the world flood in, which cup are you going to drink from? Half empty, half full? Because your entire day, every decision in it, is about to get built right on top of the one you choose.