Positivity Isn’t for the Weak.
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People have this idea that those with a positive outlook on life are a bit dreamy. They think we walk around with our head in the clouds, never facing real life.
They believe we can’t deal with reality, and that we stick our fingers in our ears singing La La La when faced with any form of negativity.
This could not be further from the truth. To have optimism in the face of adversity takes bravery, to maintain that everything is working out for the best when there is no clear evidence for it, that takes courage.
It is the easiest thing in the world to think Why me? when something unwanted happens in life. It’s our default setting. We like to think it’s not our fault, that we are at the mercy of this cruel world we live in.
We turn on the news and see a journalist reporting from a war-torn country again, destruction all around them. We pull out our bank card to donate for another natural disaster, a child fighting cancer, for people to access clean water, to help mistreated animals… the list is endless.
It’s all there, all the cruelty and indiscriminate brutality of the world we live in, and that makes it hard to look around and know that everything is going to be okay.
To believe it, all the time, that takes strength.
There is no one who sails through life with no problems. We are all here to learn lessons for our souls’ growth, and most of the lessons are not easy ones. But we are also here to experience love and happiness. Learning to focus on that in the face of all the sadness and negativity that surrounds us is a lesson in itself.
It takes time and effort to cultivate a positive mindset. You have to put in the hard work. In short, you have to be dedicated. It seems like a no-brainer, if you want to be happy (and doesn’t everyone?) change your thoughts to ones that support you, but you’d be surprised at how many people simply don’t want to put in the work. It’s hard to change habits they have had all their lives.
They know it will take months, years even, to change their destructive thought patterns, and they hope they won’t need to bother, a quicker fix will come along soon, their soul mate will appear, they’ll get that promotion and pay raise they’ve been chasing, or maybe when that long awaited lottery win comes, that’s when they will be happy. People want happiness, but they want it the easy way.
I’m here to say there is no easy way. Even if they meet the person of their dreams, their own thoughts would eventually return to what they have always known: negativity. So instead of just starting the work on creating positive thought processes, they wait, year after year, for something outside of them to come along and bring happiness with it.
For those who are willing to do the work though, the rewards are life-changing. It’s not something that will ever be completed, it’s lifelong work. You don’t learn it, and that’s it. It’s constant and daily work, but it does start to become second nature after a while, so much so that you stop noticing you’re even doing it.
You start doing it naturally, and you notice how much happier your days are, how you’re looking at the world around you with new eyes, you notice all the daily blessings you receive, all the love you’re surrounded by and all the happiness that is yours to treasure.
At some point though, something will happen: it could be a personal financial crisis, a family member who becomes ill, or you face some major life changes that were definitely not wanted. It is in these moments, when it takes everything in you to try to find something good in these situations, when you would rather curl up in a ball and rage at the unfairness of life, it’s then that you get to see how far you have come.
If you are able to find the good in a situation where there seems to be none, that is when you realize your own strength and power.
Positivity isn’t for the weak, the fragile and the frail. Positivity is for the strong, the resilient and the formidable among us, and don’t let anyone ever tell you any different.
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Natalie Donohoe is an advocate for happiness and joy. She firmly believes that is what we came to this planet at this time to experience. She wants to inspire others to find out what happiness means to them, through her story. Natalie loves her life, and wants others to experience the same fulfillment. She believes we are all love! You can follow her on Twitter or her blog, or alternatively see more of her writing here.
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