Negativity is all around us. It literally consumes our daily interactions. Our mind and our senses are assaulted by negativity, constantly. Ask people how they are and they will tell you what’s wrong in their lives. We take every opportunity we can to complain, to anyone who will listen. And, it’s contagious.
I’m revisiting a book I read last year that had a profound impact on how I think. In Think Like a Monk Jay Shetty identifies a few aspects that drive our negativity. 1) a fear of bad things happening (loss of peace) 2) a fear of not being loved (loss of love) and 3) a fear of being disrespected (loss of understanding). I believe we use negativity as a shield, to protect ourselves from the assaults we think are inevitably headed our way.
Perhaps the most difficult thing about negativity is the fact that it is so contagious and so difficult to stop. It’s hard for us to not jump on the bandwagon of complaining and speak our peace on the matter. I am the worlds worst about this. I am trying to practice the discipline of not complaining and being solution focused but I fail daily.
I believe when we participate in negativity and complaining we immediately adopt a victim mindset. This is not only harmful, but causes us to feel helpless from the get go. If we don’t see a way out, we complain and criticize even more. Today, may I encourage you to be aware of your complaining and criticism? To stop yourself mid sentence if you have to. Ask the question to others complaining – what can we do about this? Take action to squash the source and come up with a solution. Much love and solution based thinking sweet friends.
