Positivity: The small stuff

How do you find positivity when you are thoroughly inundated by negativity?

I am frequently amazed by just how many negative things can be found across the internet. In especial, social media is frequently used as an outlet to complain about politics, social dynamics and other life matters. I see so many more complaints than commendations, it can be rather disheartening.

This is of course the reason why I started this particular weekly post. I needed to put something positive out there to see if I could help to turn the tide.

The problem is that negativity begets negativity. The more negative things we put out there, surprise surprise, the more negative things we receive. When we get focused on that, it can be hard to see positives in the world.

But life is full of more positives than negative, when you look at the small stuff. Sure the big picture worldwide stuff can be scary and a real downer, but when we give it our focus and attention we just help to make it bigger and scarier and more dominant.

So let’s look at the small stuff that is so much more positive. You’re alive. You are reading this. You have the sky above you. You have things for which to be grateful. You are able to make choices about the life you want to live. You can seek out positivity over negativity. You have the power over your own life right here for the taking.

Yeah yeah yeah, heard it all before. So what? The thing is, when we start by focusing on the seemingly mundane, small positives in our lives it turns out we will discover more and more positives. The smaller positives will lead to larger positives. Starting small is the key to getting greater empowerment and more positivity for yourself.

Another means to combat negativity: think before you post. Whether an e mail or a tweet or a meme to Facebook or whatever, think about what you are putting out there. Is this something positive or negative? Am I showing a positive and supporting something or a negative and opposing something? Be aware of what you are giving in order to be aware of what you want to be getting.

When we make more conscious and conscientious choices about where we give our attention, we have the opportunity to decide if we will seek positivity or negativity, and we can further choose which of these to share with the world at large.

Finding positivity is not hard, it just requires action. Knowing you can take the seemingly insignificant small stuff that is good and give that your attention, you can use it as a stepping stone to greater positives. When we can find greater positives in our lives, we can use those to empower ourselves. When we feel empowered, we often spread that feeling to others around us, and as such can build more positive feelings. We can use the positive feelings this generates to dissolve negative feelings. When we take away negative feelings, we open up space to let in positive feelings, and that is something we can be grateful for. Gratitude leads to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude. Positive attitude begets positive energy, and that is always a good thing.

This is the eighty-second 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.