You Know This

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Positivity is better than negativity. You know this already.

Why? Because positivity is good. Good can be applied to any number of things in your life, both tangible and intangible.

Negativity is bad. Bad can be applied to any number of things in your life, both tangible and intangible.

When it comes to feeling, I think I can safely say that most of us desire to feel good. Feeling good leads to being capable of getting stuff done, making things happen, and thriving. Feeling bad, on the other hand, leads to being incapable of getting stuff done, things not happening, and receding.

You already know this. I am not telling you something new. However, because we tend to go about our lives unconscious of how we are actually thinking and feeling, we allow ourselves to be drawn away from the positive and into the negative.

Largely, I think this is unintentional. We talk to our friends, whether via messenger, phone, text or e mail, and they start to talk about something or someone they are having issues with. Before we know it, as we are being sympathetic and understanding of their issue, we unconsciously have taken it into ourselves, and unintentionally we are now also feeling negative.

Sometimes it’s even more indirect. Peruse Facebook or Twitter of any other social media outlet, and you are going to come across memes and stories and posts about government atrocities; inequalities; unkind, unsympathetic people being petty, greedy, selfish and otherwise horrid. Worse, because we are inundated with this information, it can really soak into your psyche before you know it, despite your intent otherwise.

The key word in much of this is intent.

Nothing I write here is new information – you know this already

There are a number of famous quotes about the idea of good intentions, and how they frequently go wrong. I think most of this is because we mistake the idea of good intentions as being for someone else’s own good as a means for how we can effect change.

Except the truth is, the only person we can do anything for is ourselves.

Sounds super-selfish, right? The thing is, it’s not. To be perfectly honest, the only person whom you can change is YOU. Why? Because the only thing you have any control over at all is your own thoughts, feelings, and actions.

When you are communicating with that friend or reading through social media, you will come across things that will put thoughts and feelings into your head and heart. A lot of this is because we are, for the most part, sympathetic creatures who desire good over bad…positivity over negativity. So we feel with our friends or for those people otherwise suffering.

It’s really important to keep in mind that no matter how much you want to help your friends or other people going through problems, great or small, feeding their negativity or taking it into yourself is not actually going to help anyone. We know this; yet in the interest of empathy, we all tend to get caught up in the drama. This can allow the negativity to feel pretty overwhelming.

Be there for your friend. Be sympathetic to the plight of the stranger. But don’t become a cog in the machine of negativity in the process. You know this. You’ve got this. Keep being amazing.

Finding positivity is not hard, but it does require action.

Knowing that feeling good is more desirable than feeling bad, you are able to be aware and mindful of how outside stimuli, personal or impersonal, make you feel. When we remember that we know this already, and we can be sympathetic and empathetic without taking in negativity to ourselves, ultimately we empower ourselves. When we feel empowered, we become more aware and mindful, and tend to spread that feeling to others around us. As such, we can build more positive feelings.

We can use the positive feelings this generates to dissolve negative feelings. When we eradicate negative feelings, we open up space to let in more positive feelings, and that is something we can be grateful for.

Gratitude leads to happiness. Happiness is the ultimate positive attitude. An attitude of gratitude is a positive attitude that begets even more good energies, and that is always worthwhile.

This is the two-hundred and fifty-eighth 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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