Sometimes You Need to Work Through The Negativity First

Nontoxic positivity is the other side of the coin. Sometimes it feels like everywhere you turn there’s something negative that comes up. It feels like it’s all too easy to find things that make you angry, annoyed, scared, flustered, and downright unhappy. Life is never going to be all sunshine, lollipops, joy, and rainbow sprinkles. Shit happens. We all have negativity rear its ugly head. Someone does something upsetting, the government fails to protect the people, you wake up with

Your Path Should Do No Harm to Others

An important truth about the choices and decisions we make. There is a major false narrative that dominates many aspects of modern society. It’s this: Lack, scarcity, and insufficiency. The entire MAGA movement is based on this. Those who buy it believe that many of the basic elements of life are in short supply, and if you don’t grab yours, someone else will. There’s not enough for everyone, which is why the gays/immigrants/liberals/communists/socialists and whatnot must be stopped. The reality

Where’s Your Positivity Now?

Even when it seems impossible, you can find and/or create nontoxic positivity. Travel can be a real mixed bag. On the one hand, it provides many new opportunities to see and explore unfamiliar places and have new experiences. But then, on the other hand, it can be full of hassles, craziness, and unexpected headaches. Because of this truth, travel can be an experience that invokes both positivity and negativity. When you’re far from home and it all seems to be

Sometimes You Literally Need to Drive Through Fear and Doubt

Action can move you through and beyond your comfort zone in amazing ways. I’ve been fighting a mental block for a while now. Said block has been holding me back, keeping me from taking steps that will get me to the next level I seek to reach in my life. This block has led me to do more with my meditation and mindfulness practices, into therapy again, and to do more to work out how I got here and what

Negativity Doesn’t Truly Dominate The World

Seeing this for yourself takes work, however. I began writing about positivity one Monday some 12.6 years ago. It was in reaction to endless negative posts on Facebook. It was as if everyone I knew, and even people I didn’t really know, had nothing good to say or share. Over the years, I’ve refined my definition and approach to positivity. It became apparent that much of the positivity out there, though well-meaning, is toxic. On the surface, great idea; in

How is Avoiding Regret an Act of Mindfulness?

If your life ended today, what would you regret? I’ve had a desire to cross the ocean and visit Europe for decades. Since my teens. In 2025, my wife and some friends and I started planning a trip to Italy. This was going to be a small group trip. The number varied, but we decided in 2025 to put it off until 2026. We were getting it all together, but unfortunately, we still couldn’t coordinate it. So we are delaying

Sometimes You Leap Out of Your Comfort Zone

This is the only way to grow. As you’re reading this, I’m doing something I’ve never done before. I have crossed an ocean to explore not just a country I’ve never been to before, but a continent. My wife and I have been planning to travel to Europe for years. Finally, we took the leap, and we are visiting England and exploring much of what it has to offer. I’ve visited two other countries, but both are part of North

You Might Disagree with My Philosophy – And That’s Okay

It’s always good to question your beliefs. I began to share this idea for Pathwalking – choosing and deciding the paths you take for yourself – more than 14 years ago. While the core principle hasn’t changed, other elements of it have. Why? Because I’ve learned new things, had new experiences, made new discoveries about tangibles and intangibles along the way. My life has changed in circumstances in more ways than one. That’s because change is the one and only

Finding and/or Creating Positivity Can Be Challenging

But that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. It’s far too easy to feel sad, lost, and even hopeless in today’s world. So many things that make no sense have been almost normalized in distressing, depressing ways. It can feel like doom and gloom is all there is. And for some, this timeline is completely awful. Nobody reasonable can deny that. Yet that doesn’t mean that we can’t find and/or create positivity in the world today. This is not some Pollyanna,

You Get to Choose How to Handle Life’s Obstacles

Many can’t be avoided, so you get to decide what to do with them. I’ve been doing medieval fencing for about 35 years now. I fence in both single combat (one-on-one) and melee combat (teams of two to more than a hundred on each side). A key statement I learned when I began practicing melee command, was this: “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” This applies to life in many ways. That’s because change is the one and only

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