Saturday, February 11, 2012

Sounds Like a Flock of Wah Wahs

It amazes me how negative our world has become. Social media has given people plenty of outlets for expressing themselves - unfortunately, it offers an endless array of options for all of us to complain about every detail in our lives. Now, don't get me wrong. I was once one of those people. I felt I had to update my Facebook status every time something happened, good or bad. Since then, I have realized how incredibly obnoxious that can be. I hardly ever update my status, and when I do, I try to make it something exciting or positive. Twitter is something I am still working on improving, since it's much easier to throw a cryptic message of crabby-ness out there without anyone noticing.

Bad things happen in life. That's just life. We deal with it, we move on, we get over it. Why would you want to focus on everything negative and make yourself miserable? Every day, you have the option of making a conscious decision: either you wake up and have a good day because you keep a positive attitude and don't let yourself get brought down, or you wake up and let every little thing bother you, spend your day complaining, and most likely have a crappy day.

I'm not saying you can never complain about anything. I am the type of person who likes to share every detail about my day with those I am close to. Maybe it's because I want to be a writer, but this is just how I have always been. I would come home from school when I was younger and tell my mom everything. Often times, my dad would eavesdrop and comment, "Sounds like a flock of wah wahs!" to make fun of me for complaining. I never saw it as complaining - I was just being thorough.

This year, one of my goals is to try and be a more positive person. I tend to get hung up on the little things, overreact, and get upset when I shouldn't. That adds excess stress to my life that just isn't necessary. Please see this article for further information on stress: https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/stress/. Life is better when you are thankful for what you have, instead of frustrated over the bad things that may occur. You can have a bad day every now and again, but really, is every day of your life that bad? Do you have a job? Do you have a caring family? Do you have a place to call home? Do you have friends you can count on? Do you have enough food to eat every day? More than likely, you have at least one of those things going for you. Things probably aren't as bad as you are making them out to be, and there are certainly others in the world who have it a lot worse.

Before you jump to Facebook or Twitter to update it with negative thoughts or complaints, take a moment to ask yourself if you are going to look back on that status or update and regret it. Are you going to want to remember it? Or, was it just something else minor that happened that would be better kept to yourself? Are you going to feel embarrassed or uncomfortable when other close family or friends read what you have to say? In the moment, your post may seem like the best way for you to vent, but that complaint could be better suited to be kept private, in a journal or notebook, where you can release your feelings without telling the world about your moment of weakness or frustration.

I don't write this to offend anyone or make them mad. I write this with the hope that even just one person might read it and feel more motivated to have a better, positive attitude. My life hasn't been perfect. I have been through a lot. But, if I woke up every day and focused on everything bad that has ever happened to me, you can bet I would be a pretty depressed person. Instead, I am choosing to wake up each day and hope for the best and to feel thankful for what I have. Your life probably won't ever be perfect and what you imagined it would be, but I find it is most important to be grateful for what you have and remain as positive as possible. Negative people are going to continue to attract other negative people and things around them. Positive people don't want to spend time with negative ones who spend their days complaining.

The next time you go to say or post something negative, take a moment to think about it: is it worth it? Or, in a day, will you look back and laugh at yourself for overreacting and getting so upset? Try eliminating negative posts and replacing them with only positive ones. You will certainly begin to see a a gradual change it your life, even if it isn't noticeable at first.

What do you think? Are you trying to be more positive in your own life? What do you do to limit your negative posts or excessive complaints? Leave a comment below to give your opinions on overcoming negativity and the negative people in your life!