Avoiding Negativity is Both Impossible and Unhealthy

Negativity is part of the human experience. Many messages in today’s world stress the importance of positivity. Many of them are highly toxic because they imply, if not outright state, that positivity is everything and you’re nothing without it. I’ve been writing about nontoxic positivity for over 12 years now. It’s important to recognize how nontoxic positivity, and its recognition of negativity and everything in between, differ from toxic positivity and its blinders. However, I think I sometimes make it

Learning from The Past, Looking to The Future, Living in the Now

We can learn from the past and look to the future by living in the now. For a long time, I envied people who had certain childhood memories that I lack. A home they grew up in that was unchanged for 30 years, large families living within just a few miles of each other that gathered to celebrate milestones, childhood friends they remain in touch with today, and the like. That’s certainly not everyone’s story, and definitely not mine. I

You and Your Life Is the Best Place to Start

Your life is the only place you have any real control. Spend any time on social media, watching the news, or even interacting with people, it looks like the world is going mad. So many crazy, bizarre, distressing things are happening in the world, across the country, and probably among people you know more intimately; it can all feel utterly out of control. For some, getting involved and organizing protests, leading boycotts, driving people to polling places, and the like,

Caring About Other People Is NEVER a Weakness

Caring about other people reflects our own desires, after all. Too many of the people in the current US Government administration don’t care about anyone other than themselves. Read any social media post from the President, the words of most of the department secretaries, and too much of Congress, and it’s utterly clear. The message is guard yourself, your “people,” and fuck those guys. It’s incredibly disheartening. What’s more, too many people are accepting it as the new normal and

No Two People Desire the Same Thing

Most desires are intangible and abundant. Apart from greedy, intentionally cruel, terrible people, nobody wants war. History shows how time and again, despite some technological advancements, war only gets us dead people on both sides. Today is Memorial Day in the United States. On this day, we honor those who gave their lives so that our democracy and its principles could remain. Whether the war they fought was just or unjust, today we honor fallen soldiers and their ultimate sacrifice.

Fear Has No Place On My Path

Time to send the fear packing! I’m tired of living in fear. And in this instance, I’m not talking about the fear-based elements of this society. I’m talking about the fears that have kept me from being less than I know I can be. More than once in my life, I shrank away from doing something I believed I could/should do. Maybe I went halfway, maybe I started. But on too many occasions, I backed down, self-sabotaged, and/or allowed myself

YOU Are Worthy and Deserving

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. One of the most difficult things to deal with in the world today is how many people want us to live small. A relatively tiny percentage of the so-called “wealthy” and “powerful” care for only what advances them. The rest of us are expected to be grateful for the table scraps they’re “generously” tossing us. The messages are overwhelming. Do this, that, or the other thing, in the way we insist, or else you’re

What Internal BS is Blocking Me This Time?

Something in my head, buried deep, is holding me back. There are two reasons I write these explorations into mindfulness, nontoxic positivity, conscious reality creation, and the like. The first is to share these ideas, put the notions out into the universe in plain language so that I can help others discover a different approach to life, the universe, and everything. Too many forces in the world want to keep us small, and anything I can do to address this

You Can’t Provide Awareness For Another

Awareness is an individual inside job. Genuine, nontoxic positivity is relatively easy to find. Unfortunately, real positive things are easily eclipsed by – *waves around, inarticulately, at the current world situation* – all of this. Some weeks, it’s especially hard to write about this, because various and sundry things keep it hidden and make it look disingenuous and false. I love watching people. Seeing how people are, their body language, expressions, how they carry themselves, and such, is utterly fascinating.

Digging Into Mental Blocks Dislodges Obstacles on Your Path

This is not something to be done lightly. I’ve been in and out of therapy most of my life. It began after my parents’ divorce when I was 5 or 6. Over the years, I’ve seen a wide variety of psychologists and psychiatrists. Some have been incredibly helpful, some less so. But good therapists have helped me understand myself and the world I live in more clearly mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually. Mental health is too easily taken for granted.

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