This blog presents me with a daily opportunity to hone my thinking towards the positive. After all, when I write posts, I generally want to write something I will be proud of later, or at least not mind putting up here. Furthermore, I inherently believe in being a “positive person.” That is, if I’m going to be putting something out into the world, I want it to be (authentically) on the bright side.
That’s not to say I always feel positive! It’s to say that I try to be responsible about my own mood when sharing my thoughts. That generally means either saying something positive, or speaking in a self-aware, “look-at-how-human-I-am-being” way 🙂
Even if I don’t always feel like doing it at first, I always see the value of refining my own thoughts, leaning my mood in a positive direction. After all, since we create our reality, my mood is always a result of thoughts that I am thinking. If my thoughts are negative, it’s not that I deny them, it’s that I usually spend some time getting present to what is going on for me.
There’s a difference between just being a reaction or mood, on the one hand, and taking account of your own mood or reaction. The first one is wild, erratic, unpredictable. The second one is empowering. To make a comparison, sometimes my piano students come in nervous, anxious, or otherwise unfocused. After perhaps some discussion, and definitely some playing, they will generally calm down and experience the satisfaction of making progress. They may have come in with some negative assumptions about their playing, or ability to make progress. In the course of the lesson, their clarity of what to do to move forward returns. Suddenly, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
That’s the thing about a negative attitude. It implies that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. But there is! Every negative mood is based on a misunderstanding, a faulty conclusion.
So much the more reason to refine it, address it, shift it, and lean towards something that feels better!