Positive and negative

Life is many things, a series of positive and negative thoughts, attitudes, emotions, events and actions, amongst them - It's a given for a human being and not a single one of us will get through our lives without those things happening in some form and they will have various effects upon us that will cause yet others. Life is a cycle of positivity and negativity that just keeps turning until we die.

I try to stay positive mostly, even when negative things are happening around and and to me.

I operate better from that position, my thoughts and attitudes are better which means I'm better-placed to push things towards resolutions...but it's not always the case. I feel negativity just like the rest of humanity and despite the fact I generally deal with it well, it holds me in place at times, slows or stops my forward momentum.

Something I work very hard on doing is limiting the hold negativity, (things, events, people and places, thoughts and attitudes), has on me. I don't embrace it or welcome it, wallow in it or make it the reason I can't, or won't, progress, I shun it. One of the ways I do that is to put things into perspective, the negative thing, understand its potential effect on me and determine if it's something I really need to address and work on or whether it's something I can simply let go, cast aside and forget. What I do depends on many factors and working on the negative thing or casting it aside and walking away isn't easy to do...but nothing worth doing is ever all that easy and dealing with negativity is important for a better life.

If it's negative, don't go as often and don't stay as long...and if you can avoid going altogether, do that.

My business coach told me that many years ago and I brought it on board somewhat as a mantra - It's served me well and I'm very good at avoiding negativity because of it and other elements of the principle, but occasionally it's unavoidable of course.

It takes a lot of energy to be positive and also to be negative I think, and any human who wants to design and create their ideal life, like me for instance, will have to expend that energy in the right places and proportions, or so I believe. Positivity generally and positive things don't just happen by themselves, they're created, and moving away from negative things definitely takes work also: Ownership, understanding, conviction, persistence, creativity and a compelling reason to want to progress amongst them. But the energy we expend is worth it in my humble opinion.

I'm of the opinion that I need to make things happen for myself because no one else will do it for me. That means I protect myself from negativity, hold it at bay, where possible and work hard to shift it towards a more favourable and acceptable state of play in respect of my life; I believe I owe myself that. There's no switch one can flick to turn off negativity and turn on positivity, I wish there was, but there's a way to do it nonetheless...it just takes work and the best place to start is by removing the negativity altogether if possible and, if not, then expending the required effort to work on the thing itself and move it forward.

I was thinking about these things today in respect of a person who is quite negative and how I feel I'm moving further apart from them without wilfully choosing to do so; it's like something within me repels their, seemingly constant, negativity in a bid to protect me and I suppose that's what I've trained myself to do.

It made me think about how others handle and deal with people and events they find negative and how they deal with negative thoughts and attitudes within themselves. I figured I'd open the topic in a post and see if anyone was keen, willing and able to share their own thoughts and opinions, even stories, in the comments section below. Please feel free to do so if you're interested, I'd love to hear your strategies and methods or just your thoughts generally and maybe someone reading it may get an idea or two which will help them positively effect their lives.