How To Go Positive When Everyone Else Is Going Negative blog post by Christina Katz
Staying positive when surrounded by negativity is a real challenge. Luckily genuine positivity comes from within and is a choice not a reflection of outside circumstances.
Yet these days, we have negative messages bombarding us from the media, people reacting to negative things they read and hear and see in the media, and folks who seem to have their dials set on negative with no interest in shifting their attitude.
I think it’s helpful to acknowledge negativity coming at us. Just as it is helpful to acknowledge our own negative feelings. Just as it’s helpful to say, I feel angry, I feel sad, I feel depressed, etc., it’s also helpful to say, Wow, the news is really dark today, I think I’ll focus on happier things, or I refuse to participate in hate, no matter how much a person seems to deserve it, or That person is toxic to me, so I need to stay away from her.
This kind of truth-telling flies in the face of if-you-don’t-have-anything-nice-to-say-then-don’t-say-anything-at-all politeness pressure. I’m not saying you have to spout your most intimate truths from the rooftops, but if you don’t have someone to confide in, pressure is likely to build up.
When we are less than honest about how we are impacted by our environment and others, we can’t help ourselves get to the higher ground we so desperately crave. And more genuine, heart-felt positivity is exactly what the world needs right now. It’s the only way we can offset so much negativity, and it’s also the only way to feel better ourselves.
Making ourselves feel better as soon as possible is the answer to creating a better world in the long run. I know it seems counter-intuitive, but it’s the only path to happiness and joy, which we have a right to regardless of how others choose to behave.
So how can we stay positive in negative times? Here are a few tips:
1. Keep in touch with how you feel. Notice if your energy is going up or down. Let your emotions be your barometer that determines how you act. Happier and more joyful means you have a lot to offer. Discouraged and overwhelmed means self-care is needed.
2. Don’t follow the crowd. Others may believe that watching news all day and reacting to every little thing that happens or may happen is the only appropriate way to behave. But you know yourself best. If tracking the current news and participating in public debates make you feel wretched, you don’t have to do it. If you can’t stay informed and take excellent care of yourself, then you need to be less or at least less frequently informed. Try backing off and see what happens to your energy.
3. Move in the direction of appreciation. What do you appreciate? Appreciation and gratitude are different. You don’t have to actively thank anyone with appreciation. You can just sit quietly and gaze at a single flower. The appreciation is the action and you benefit from it without anyone else being involved. If your appreciation moves you to gratitude, go for it, but remember, you are always entitled to a few moments of appreciation for its own sake. And if you don’t feel like taking grateful actions right now, appreciation is still valuable in its own right.
4. From appreciation move in a more positive direction for you. Sometimes it’s hard to switch gears from negativity to positivity without a pause in between. Let your genuine appreciation help you shift away from what feels bad and towards what feels good. The movement does not have to make logical sense, just go with what feels best. For example, don’t call back the demanding person who left a message on your cell phone. Let them wait. Instead do ten minutes of watering the garden, and then from there, pick a task that sounds good to you. Maybe preparing a healthy lunch is what you need. Do what you need and let everyone else take care of themselves.
5. Stay in the positive zone. The world is full of happy, heart-centered people. If you want to be happy, too, you’re going to have to stop hanging out with negative types and go find the positively focused folks. They are your tribe. Besides, you can’t change the negatively focused folks and there is no point in trying. If you have been taught that your role in life is to please others, you have to recover from that in order to find inner peace. You can start your recovery by eliminating toxic people from your life and keeping only relationships that feed your soul. When you expect positive people to come to you, you will start attracting them into your life.
6. The goal of life is sharing your gifts with the world. But if you can’t cut through the noise to find your gifts, then you can’t share them. Be willing to become an apprentice of a larger vision of yourself without hype or pressure. I see a lot of motivational coaches getting carried away with this message these days. But there is no rush. Your life already has good timing and when you pay attention to it, you will know what to do and when.
7. Get the help you need when you need it. I wish all of what I am suggesting was easy all the time. But the age we are living in can certainly be trying sometimes. Do you need an influx of more positivity? I offer courses for creative types who want to develop their self-confidence so they can express more of who they really are in the world. My goal is to create a safe space for personal growth that is satisfying and fulfilling in its own right and leads to natural increases in personal power from start to finish. If you are feeling tossed on the waves of the current cultural climate, I hope you will check out my school and take a course if you feel moved to enrich your life.
8. The next time you have the option—and you always have the option—express the positive thought, not the negative one. Every time you choose to share something positive, you make the world better. Every time you choose to share something negative, you make life harder for everyone. Nobody wants to feel like part of the problem. We all want to be part of the solution. But the bottom line in every moment is: you are either choosing to be positive or choosing to be negative. So what’s it going to be?
So much inspiration, so much time! Visit my online creative confidence school and start expressing yourself afresh right now. Join the creative confidence club: subscribe to the Christina Katz blog and sign up for The Prosperous Creative ezine for a free gift, the latest news and exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Need more encouraging words in your life? Check out my Etsy shop. And have you seen all of the helpful offerings in my online shop? Be sure to check it out before you click away. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing my work with all of your creative friends!
How To Go Positive When Everyone Else Is Going Negative blog post by Christina Katz