Small Positives Add Up
All the little, small positives you encounter are huge.
Positivity comes in all shapes and sizes.
Often, we look at these “big picture” notions and ideas of the world. Lots of people spend a tremendous amount of time focused on these things. Hyperfocused. And that makes it easy to get drawn into them.
It’s great to be in the know. I totally advise it. But there is a difference between informed and inundated. Yes, you should know all about the hypocrisy of the GOP and the Trump impeachment trial in the Senate. The minute, super-sharp details of all the nuances of it, however, don’t serve you. It’s good to know – but not at the expense of your sanity.
We live in a fear-based society. It is sold to us like babies fed with a bottle. Injecting reason into the fear-base is challenging – but worthwhile.
Why bother? Because you are worthy and deserving of living a full, interesting, and good life. You are not simply here to merely survive, but rather to thrive. You are capable of just about anything you set your sights on.
The fear-based society loves to deny this. Those “in power” work to disempower everyone else so they can hold onto their (largely made-up) power. When you and I are empowered – we learn that we don’t need them to the degree they want us to think that we do.
One of the best ways to empower yourself and take control is by working with positivity. Much of our fear-based society is based in negativity. With reason, positivity changes the direction of the discussion.
Positive things in your life are much more abundant than you might realize.
You, alone, are responsible for what and how you feel
You are here. Alive. Living in this time and this place.
Granted, for numerous reasons your life might be tough right now. Almost everyone is still impacted by COVID-19, the ongoing false narratives in politics, money woes, job struggles, schooling issues with kids, and so and so forth. You might well be struggling – and that’s perfectly valid. Nobody lives happily and contentedly all the time.
But you have a choice. That’s because, unlike the rest of the animal kingdom on Planet Earth, you and I are empowered to apply a greater depth of creativity and complexity into our thoughts. We’re not just here to survive, seek shelter and procreate to propagate the species – we are capable of a hell of a lot more.
Ultimately, you are responsible for what and how you feel. You get to choose and decide if you want to feel negative or positive.
For some, this is an automatic red flag. How dare I suggest your feelings are invalid! But I’m not. They ARE perfectly valid. But you ARE empowered to be responsible for them.
You can, will, and should feel negative, bad, frustrated, angry, and so on. Congratulations, you’re a human being. But how long you hold onto those feelings is your call.
This is how people develop grudges, insecurities, and it feeds depression and anxiety. All of which makes you feel disempowered. Which means you don’t believe you can take that control over what and how you feel.
But you can. Because you are the only one who’s in your mind, heart, and soul. It’s all only you, no matter how much that’s influenced by outside sources.
One way to shift what and how you are feeling is via seeking, finding, and/or creating positive things.
The small positives of every day
This statement will look to many like a lie. But it’s not:
There is ALWAYS something positive to be found. Always.
No matter how lousy a day, week, month, year, or life you’ve had – something positive is out there to be found and experienced.
A lot of people think this needs to be some HUGE find. Large sums of money, perfect soul mates, success, achievement, and so on. But that’s not what it takes to see positivity.
Positivity is little things that you encounter that make you feel good. And they tend to be in the everyday experiences you have.
For example, these are some of the little things I encounter that make ME feel good which I count among little positives:
- Sunlight
- Purring cats
- Laughing children
- Taking a good deep breath
- Cooing babies
- The theme music to any Star Wars movie
- Fresh-brewed coffee
- The click of my keyboard as I type
- Driving
- Caramel melting on my tongue
- Moonlight
- My wife’s eye-rolling after I make a pun
- The books on my bookshelf
- Sitting down to read
I could spend all day coming up with small positives, but I think this makes the point. Every single one of the items on the above list are potentially everyday occurrences. All of them generate positivity with little to no effort. Some are simply there, while others can be created.
The best way to experience this is via mindfulness.
Mindfulness empowers you
Mindfulness is simple. It’s a matter of being aware and conscious, here and now, of yourself. That consciousness reports to you your inner being – your mindset/headspace/psyche – or as I wrote earlier your mind, heart, and soul.
You gain awareness of your conscious, present self through the input of your six senses, and your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
Mindfulness, however, is an ongoing practice. Because you, your environment, and your situation are constantly changing, so is your awareness. Hence, when you are aware that you’re unhappy, in a bad place (literally or figuratively), or otherwise NEED to make a change, mindfulness gives you control to make it.
Consciousness of your mindset/headspace/psyche gives you control over it. And since nobody but you can control you – that’s empowering as all get-out.
With mindfulness, recognizing and using the small positives to make your life better gets a lot more practical and doable. But it does take practice, effort, and work.
All the little positives you encounter are huge. When you recognize and acknowledge this, you’re empowered to use those little positives to build bigger positives and an overall better life experience. You are worthy and deserving – so go for it!
Finding, creating, and using small positives isn’t hard
It begins with mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
Knowing that you are responsible, ultimately, for what and how you feel – you can use small positives to take feelings of negativity and change them. When you are responsible and accountable for your thoughts and feelings, and release negativity and seek and/or create positivity, that ultimately empowers you.
When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and can spread to people around you. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity.
You build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That can be the impetus to improve numerous aspects of your life for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude. You are worthy and deserving of all the good you desire.
An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of pure positivity. That positivity can generate even greater positive energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.
This is the three-hundred and sixty-seventh entry of my Positivity series. It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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