I’m the negative one
“Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.”
Einstein
The thing is, sometimes it’s me. I’m my own negative person, who first sees problems. Who more often than she (I) should gets negative about things. So, should I stay away from myself? How do I do it? No, of course I can’t. But I can remind myself of how I can get, and prevent it when I can.
It turns out, it’s often possible to do. Knowing when you’re about to fall into negative thinking, and turning off the drama in time is one approach. Another way is to put negative thinking to good use. Like the stoics recommend doing: negative visualization, thinking of all the things that could have gone wrong, or be worse than they are (in any situation) makes you realize that you’re one lucky SOB after all.
We are always gentle and patient with our children. Why don’t we apply the same patience to ourselves? We are not children, that much is true. But we are with ourselves the whole time, and teaching ourselves to look at the bright side of things is worthwile. I know, I know that I’m talking now about the everyday, not extremes, not grief or hitting a particular low. I’m not a huge fan of simplistic positive thinking attitude, “whatever happens, keep smiling” and all that. I like a dose of negative thinking, applied properly. Don’t stay away from the negative you, give yourself a mental hug and tell yourself it’s going to be fine in the end. Be gentle, take good care of yourself.
