Why You Must Get Over Negativity

Doesn't matter why you think it's justified to be negative, it is a show stopper and retards our progress and spoils our happiness like nothing else. Negativity makes us believe a popular lie that life might never change for the better and we are destined to keep falling from one misery into another. I will go so far as to say that negativity is a disease and it's highly contagious. Ever had someone tell you all that is negative in their life, and how that immediately triggered all kinds of negative thoughts about your own life that you had probably forgotten about? And just as well that you hadn't remembered the not so good parts of your life. It doesn't help to keep brooding on what's not right and what hurts. We already know that, so spending more time agonizing over it day and night is probably more wasteful than leaving a tap on for a day. So watch out.


The other day, I met up with a person who had told me many months ago that nothing was right in their life and they felt pessimistic, anxious, negative and angry. Upon my inquiring, they flatly told me that nothing much had changed since then. I was tempted to ask them - has your life not changed or have you not allowed it to change? Is your life unhappy or have you decided to be unhappy, because being unhappy is a lot easier and gets you sympathy? Is life really miserable or is your mindset still sick? Though I didn't ask these tempting questions, I did feel almost a physical ache of seeing someone who had allowed their mind to take over their good judgment and initiative. I also felt put off to be very frank. Negative is not inspiring. So here are my thoughts on negativity and getting over it.

I am not at all saying I am one of those unrealistic and annoying, I-am-always-happy types. On the contrary, the feelings is well known and even intimate to me. Just a few short years ago, I failed to recognize that I needed to reinvent my career, my relationship with myself and those close to me and my overall beliefs that drove me to take mediocre decisions when I could have done great instead.

I needed to master my mind than get blown about with the wind like a fallen twig that doesn't have any control over where it lands with every gust. I also realized, with considerable trepidation, that the changes I needed to make would be tough, and require a lot of guts, self-respect, strength, sustained action, not to mention, time and solid communication. Yet, I was able to move on with my own life nevertheless and the painful parts began to dissolve almost effortlessly once I knew I was in-charge of my thinking and my mind. Funnily, issues of my life just fell by the way and decided to leave me alone, once I resolutely left them alone. I then chose to make my life positive and one that inspired myself to keep doing better.

Negative emotions are strong emotions, and I needed to deal with them by creating space for the strongest emotions - those of love, affection, genuineness, peace, loyalty, happiness, excitement, passion and knowing deep down that I was doing the right things.

Let's not waste our time and energy on negativity and pessimism that erode the very basis of our existence and disrespect the fact that we were created, and given a chance to live this one life.

And because I have been there, I have also come to realize that the sooner we walk away from negativity the better off we are. Continuing to be angry is not a matter of principle, it is a sheer waste of time. There is no nobility or smartness in allowing our unhealthy thinking to take over our lives because we hit a bad patch. Everyone does. You aren't the only one. So move on. Make your life count.