Wednesday, August 22, 2007It takes far more courage to focus on the positive than on the negative. We have been conditioned by our culture and the mainstream media to focus on what could go wrong instead of what is working well. What we focus on expands. So have the courage to remain positive whenever possible.---Dr. Christiane Northrup
Isn't this true? Our culture is so negative that in order to be positive-as-a-lifestyle, we must be counter-cultural. What do people think of and say about people who don't worry---at all? It always takes courage to be different, doesn't it?
I have come to the conclusion that, with the second less-than-half-of-my-life before me, I no longer want to waste time in close relationships with people who have a committed lifestyle of complaining, whining, always seeing the negative side of things, catastrophizing, creating drama, etc. That will require ending some of my relationships, and require not giving other relationships a chance to renew for nostalgic and familial reasons. And that will take some courage on my part.
I've decided this before, but oftentimes reneged on my decision out of what I saw (at the time) as compassion and kindness and even love; it has never---never---worked out for me. Why, oh why, do I invite these folks in over and over again? Once again I'm having to learn this lesson, for what I hope is the last time.
~Picture by LoveHubbie Mark
2 comments:
i've been pondering just this sort of thing in the last few days. i do find it more challenging to focus on the positive and it's so much harder when i'm around negative people. i've been trying, slowly but surely to focus on the positive more in my own life and to steer clear, as much as possible, from people who can only complain, whine and be generally negative all the time.
I found the same thing that negative people were draining to me. So I made the choice to turn every negative thought into a positive one. This was so hard at the beginning, but it's kind of like putting braces on teeth, you just need to persevere and flip that thought every time. To become aware of your thought patterns. Then you find yourself growing in the positive direction naturally.
When I began my blog I promised myself I was only going to talk about positive things and if there were negative things, I would offer a positive solution. There always is one.
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