Nontoxic Positivity Embraces Both Bad and Good Happenings

That’s because nothing is only positive. The word “positivity” has become fraught because it’s often applied toxically. The “power of positive thinking” is bandied about like the ultimate cure to what ails you, but it’s often shared incompletely. What that means is this: The idea that staying positive, focusing only on positivity, and denying, disregarding, and/or ignoring bad, negative things is the only way. Put on your rose-colored glasses, make sure the blinders are in place, and tiptoe through the

Paths Are Meant to Change and Evolve

Everything changes and evolves, after all. Life is seldom stagnant for long. Sure, you might get several years where nothing much changes, but small things can, will, and do. Change is inevitable because it’s the one and only constant in the universe. Everything, be it person, place, or thing, changes. The majority of that simply is, and is neither good nor bad. A lot of people find this hard to swallow. Some cling to what they know, the familiar, the

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

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