Why Do I Keep Pushing Genuine, Non-Toxic Positivity?
Because the world needs more genuine positivity to combat the fear.
Whether we like it or not, we live in a fear-based society. All around us are messages aimed to keep us afraid.
Why? This might come across as cynical, but I can’t disprove it: Because capitalism demands sales. One of the best ways to get people to buy goods and services is via fear. Fear of lack, scarcity, and not getting what’s rightfully yours. A fear of the “other”, be they LGBTQA+, black, liberal, conservative, Muslim, Jew, or what have you. The fear of suffering, especially if the war over there somehow finds its way over here, you don’t buy the right car, acquire the right home, and so on. Fear of missing out, cutely called FOMO to disguise just how cloying and insipid it is.
Most of these are expressed to us in subtle ways. Advertising, for example, seldom is blatant in its use of fear to make you buy things you don’t necessarily need. News media needs sponsors, and to get them they need many viewers/listeners/readers/etc. What better way to do that than stirring pots with fear, sometimes subtle and other times shamelessly? Then there are our so-called “leaders”, be they political, religious, business, or other. To maintain and increase their so-called “power”, many (no, not all) use fear to disempower while building cults of personality.
The best way to combat a fear-based society is with reason. Reason, tied to logic, is the antithesis of fear. That’s because reason often exposes fear for its bullshit.
Getting to reason and logic, though, can be challenging in the face of all the fear blanketing society. Since fear ties to negativity, another tool to combat it is positivity.
Unfortunately, that also has been abused, misused, and misappropriated.
Genuine, non-toxic positivity versus toxic positivity
The use of toxic positivity has made genuine, non-toxic positivity seem hard to distinguish. It causes many to automatically dismiss all positivity, genuine or otherwise.
Neutrality doesn’t help anyone when all is said and done. Look at Nazi Germany, for example. Those who didn’t choose to side against the Nazis, many wishing to remain “neutral”, were the catalyst for Hitler’s rose to power. That led to the near genocide of Jews and Romani, resulting in 12 million (12,000,000) dead (6 million Jews, 6 million other people).
Today, many wishing to remain “neutral” won’t take a stand against fascist wannabes, such as Trump, who has already “joked” he’ll start as a dictator to “take care of” certain things, but then he’ll pull back. FYI, if you believe him, I have some lovely ocean-front property to sell you in Iowa. But I digress.
Neutrality can’t combat negativity. Positivity, however, can. Genuine, non-toxic positivity.
The difference between toxic and non-toxic positivity is easy to recognize. Toxic positivity tells you to ignore, disregard, walk away from, and turn a blind to any and all negativity. If you walk around with rose-colored glasses and blinders to negativity, focus wholly on positivity, and ignore all else, you’ll be in a great place.
It’s not possible to live without negativity. It can, will, and does occur. There is nothing you can do about this truth – save choose how to react when it happens. Because it will.
Shit happens. People die. Friends leave you. Jobs are lost and stolen. Life will unexpectedly turn to shit. Welcome to the human experience. Genuine, non-toxic positivity recognizes this absolute, unavoidable, undeniable truth.
It’s a matter of choice in the face of negativity
When shit happens – and it will – you’ll experience an immediate, visceral, automated reaction to it. That varies from person to person, and it takes more forms than this article can cover. Something happens – good, bad, or otherwise – and you have a reaction at the moment of it happening.
After that initial reaction, however, you have a choice. Feed the negativity or feed the positivity.
Certain happenings indeed appear to have no positivity tied to them. That’s the nature of uncertainty. Yet they can teach you something, help you grow and evolve, and open you to make choices and decisions for change. That’s a positive, is it not?
You might not reach that point right away. How long you linger in negativity is wholly up to you. If you choose to be negative and stay in a bad place or make no choices at all and allow negativity to dominate your life experience, it becomes increasingly entrenched. The more it settles in and upon you the harder it is to remove, replace, and change.
Often this comes down to seeing reason. At some time past that initial, automated reaction, you start to recognize your state of being. If it’s not how or what you desire it to be, you are now empowered to change it.
What it takes to change will vary depending on the person, place, situation, and whatnot. However, no matter what that is, you have a choice. Choosing is how you employ reason, genuine, non-toxic positivity, and direct/control change.
Choosing positivity is often not easy.
The challenge of outside influences
People might see you choosing to move on from something via genuine, non-toxic positivity, and form an opinion. Then, they might share their opinion. It might run completely counter to what you’re doing.
Whose life is It anyway? Nobody but you is in your head, heart, and soul. Ergo, there is nobody else who can think for you, feel for you, act for you, or intend for you. It’s all yours.
Because of this, other people might see a choice you make counter to what they’d do, and pass judgment. They then might choose to share that with you, expressing their concern, telling you where you’re going right and/or wrong, and possibly letting you know how they’d do it.
Worse, they might imply or state outright that they find your choice to be selfish, inappropriate, rose-colored, or otherwise difficult to understand.
Choosing genuine, non-toxic positivity in response to whatever might cause others to comment. However, you know what’s best for you and they don’t. You know what you need to do to find your center, work with reason, and take whatever control you can over your life experience.
One of the best ways to overcome negatives, bad happenings, and restore balance and reason is via genuine, non-toxic positivity.
What does genuine, non-toxic positivity look like?
First and foremost, it does not apply to anyone other than you. You cannot force, push, coerce, or otherwise try to control how anyone else thinks, feels, acts, and intends.
You can offer an example by showing yourself as someone who is centered, balanced, and able to work with shit happening. However, the impact that has on anyone else is utterly outside of your control.
Genuine, non-toxic positivity begins by recognizing shit has happened. You recognize and acknowledge the world can be an imperfect, illogical, even awful place. Bad things might be happening/have happened, and they’re not to be disregarded.
Then, you practice mindfulness to be consciously aware of yourself. With that active conscious awareness – here and now – you can know what you’re thinking, what and how you’re feeling, what your intentions are, and what you are and/or aren’t doing. Then, you can choose to change any or all of these to shift focus to genuine, non-toxic positivity.
What this looks like is recognizing something has happened, but that either/and/or it’s a learning opportunity, a blessing in disguise, an unavoidable change, or a chance to start something new, change direction, and so on.
This comes down to making choices and decisions for how you approach life here and now, and then moving forward. Genuine, non-toxic positivity is working with potential and possibilities to live life on your terms and in your control.
You can only do one thing to combat the fear in our society. Choose not to let it dominate you and your life. Make choices and decisions to seek and find reason and use genuine, non-toxic positivity to overcome the fear. Perhaps, as you do that, it can help others see what’s possible for them and their lives, too.
Recognizing genuine, non-toxic positivity isn’t hard
It’s all about working with mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, and intentions to direct your actions.
When you recognize and acknowledge that shit happens, lots of things in life are out of your control, and you can’t do anything for anyone else on that level, you can see more clearly how our fear-based society works and keeps us largely disempowered. Knowing the difference between true positivity and toxic positivity, you can make choices and decisions to seek reason and take the control of your life that is rightfully yours to take.
This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.
Taking an approach to positivity and negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens more dialogue. With a broader dialogue, you can 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 in the now, the more you can do to choose and decide how your life experiences will be. When that empowers you, it can spread to those around you to their empowerment.
Thank you for coming along on this journey. Happy New Year!
This is the five-hundred and seventeenth (517) 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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