A while back I posted about my struggle with negativity and judgment towards people in my life. Thanks to everyone for their positive thoughts and encouragement. It is always nice to know I am not alone, but it also makes me sad that a so many of us have these sorts of struggles.
When I wrote that post I mentioned my feelings of hypocrisy towards a person in my life, what I didn’t mention is the slow change that has taken place in me in the last few years that I think has helped my behavior for the worse in this situation.
If you were to ask me a few years ago if the glass is half full or half empty I would have said half full without a thought. That has changed. Lately I am pretty sure I would be more likely to say half empty. It seems it is a lot easier to make judgments about others when you are seeing the world through pessimistic and cynical eyes.
What happened to me?
What happened to my positive attitude?
Honestly, I blame the media. Just kidding. I don’t really know where the change came from. Maybe it was just living life a little. I do know that I don’t like it. Cynicism doesn’t look good on anyone, even me.
After sharing my struggles with you all I started looking within myself for a solution to my judgmental thoughts instead of just focusing on the thoughts themselves. No more wallowing in the knowledge of my struggles, it was time for action.
I thought outnumbering the negative thoughts with positive thoughts might start me down the right track. For every negative thought that creeps into my head about someone, and sometimes places and things, I quickly try to outnumber with three positive thoughts about the same person, place or thing. Yes my solution to negative thoughts is bullying them. A funny thought I know. Three to one, the odds are definitely in favor for the positive thoughts so the negative thoughts generally don’t stand a chance.
Unfortunately my negative thoughts are probably not my only struggle worth fighting. One fight at a time though.
We all have our own weak spots worth working on. I can already feel my efforts making a difference but something tells me it will take more than a month to get my brain back on the right track. The positive one.
Lesson learned: Sometimes you have to make yourself see the good.
