It’s There When You Choose to Look For It
You can always find positivity somewhere.
Over the past couple of months, I’ve needed to lessen my time on social media. Why? Because there is so much fear, uncertainty, and negativity pervading every channel, it’s difficult not to be left feeling bad.
Bear in mind, I am in no way, shape, or form, advocating for putting on blinders, adopting a Pollyanna attitude, or ignoring the shit going down out there. Awareness is important because knowledge is power. What I am choosing for myself is just staying on top of the basics without doing deep dives into all the nitty gritty, horrific, scary, surreal details.
Why? Because the truth is that there isn’t a fucking thing I can do. I can’t make these people stop being selfish, or help people view kindness/compassion/empathy as good rather than bad, or recognize that they’re being played. You can’t help people who don’t see the problem or understand the broader implications to wake up (or, for that matter, understand the irony of viewing “woke” as somehow a bad thing).
Because there’s nothing I can do, lamenting on all the awfulness only makes me feel bad and disempowers me. Soaking in hopelessness closes all the doors, creates the path to a downward spiral, and makes you increasingly ineffectual.
That’s why, as a first step, I’m reducing how much information I absorb via social media. This is protection for my own sanity.
You choose
Chances are, if you’re reading this, you see the same things I see. Increasing acceptance of racism, hatred, partisanship, bullying, and worse. You’re probably seeing the increasing disregard and outright shunning of kindness, compassion, and empathy. It’s terrifying, surreal, and distressing beyond words.
When you put all your focus on this, you give it more power. The more you view the media the more you tell them that’s what you want to see. Even mainstream media is all about getting more views to make their sponsors and shareholders wealthy. More views means more attention and that leads to emphasis on the titillating, the dark, the scandalous, and negativity.
That’s why I am choosing to spend less time on social media. Which is really, really hard. Social media lets me keep up with friends far away. But it also distracts and disillusions me.
You choose for yourself what you watch, where you surf online, and what you focus on. When you choose negativity, you get more negativity. Why? Because consciousness creates reality.
Finding genuine, nontoxic positivity to counter all this madness is challenging. Nonetheless, it’s there when you choose to look for it.
It’s there when you choose to look for it
Positivity is often overshadowed by toxic positivity. Toxic positivity is the idea that if you ignore, disregard, and where blinders regarding negativity and unpleasant, bad things, everything will be alright. This, of course, is total bullshit.
The Universe is made of opposites. Yin and yang, black and white, etc. Hence, you can’t have positivity without negativity. They need one another. And, more than that, negative happenings can drive positivity in response.
People come together that didn’t before to resist the awful things happening in the world. Separate marginalized groups learn they’re stronger together. People who’ve chosen not to vote before realize that they need to vote if they want any say at all in how an election plays out. Rather than roll over and give up, many use negativity to spur them, inspire them, and drive them to new and better places.
Positivity is there when you choose to look for it. But this isn’t positivity in the extreme. This is more about small victories, general good things, and celebrating other seemingly insignificant bits and pieces.
For example, I have air in my lungs, the sun is shining, and I have a roof over my head. I have the technology and means to share these ideas with you. My clothes are comfortable and in good repair, and I have clean water to drink.
These are all positive, good things. Positivity in the wild. Real, genuine, and nontoxic. And, most importantly, it’s there when you choose to look for it.
Why does it matter?
If you give up, give in, allow fear, hopelessness, and uncertainty to dictate your world, you’ve ceded your power. You are a creator, a powerful being, and you have the ability to choose positivity in the face of negativity to work with potential and possibility to build better. That’s your power, and only you can exercise it for you and your life.
Positivity is the faucet you can open to start the action to change the collective consciousness for the better. It’s there when you choose to look for it. The choice, however, is wholly yours to make or not.
Recognizing that it’s there when you choose to look for it isn’t hard
It’s all about practicing mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach to direct your actions.
When you recognize and acknowledge that genuine, helpful, nontoxic positivity is there when you look for it, you can make choices and for what you give your focus and attention to. Knowing that consciousness creates reality, and allowing hopelessness to overwhelm you harms your health, wellness, and wellbeing on every level, you can choose to look for even the small, seemingly insignificant bits and pieces of positivity you have to improve things.
This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.
Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. From that broader dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.
Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.
The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, that can spread to those around you for their empowerment.
Thank you for coming along on this journey.
This is the five-hundred-and-eighty-first (581) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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