Pushing Positivity

Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative  stress  into a positive one.  ~ Hans Seyle

Originally posted April, 2019

Well, a lot has been going on in terms of the job search.  I’ve had several interviews and I have several more scheduled.  I’m hopeful to have an offer soon, but things don’t seem to be moving forward so maybe I missed on the first  job, maybe it’s just moving slowly and likely I’m over thinking the whole process.  You see that’s the problem with job hunting, I have very little control.  I’m someone who is quite fond of control, I feel responsible for my own actions and can be that way because I usually have a great deal of control, as we all do, over what happens in my life.  This is one area however that I have almost none and it has me in limbo land.

As someone fond of control, limbo land is a really terrible and stressful place to be.  You see as this process slowly winds forward and I can’t travel or take off to do fun stuff.  So, I’m sort of stuck hanging out and waiting.  Don’t get me wrong I’m staying productive, I read every day, write almost every day, I study Spanish religiously every day and work out most days.  I’ve also been using my time to catch up with old friends, in fact, dropped a couple of notes on friends I haven’t talked to in over 30 years and was excited to hear back from both.

I’ve also been living in a decent size American city for the first time in a long time and frankly traffic is driving me nuts.  People drive like lunatics and turn into rage monkeys sometimes for purely mysterious reasons, sometimes it’s more obvious.  Usually, I handle all of this pretty well and don’t engage but I have to admit totally and honestly, justifiably losing my cool once last week.  Although I feel it was justified it bothered me that I engaged and so since then I’ve really been trying to push positivity.

What do I mean by pushing positivity?  Just what it sounds like, trying to be overly friendly, kind, grateful and forgiving.  It’s not always easy in a world where people seem to be increasingly self-absorbed.  So it means all of the little things, smiling, being grateful, it means holding doors even for that person who normally would be too far away.  It means being less concerned with getting places fast, letting that guy turn in front of you and sometimes two cars.  It also means doing your best not to engage people as they gripe, grouse, flip you off and turn into rage monkeys.  For a long time I’ve tried to de-escalate these folks by giving them the prayer hands to say I’m sorry.  And I try to blow kisses at the rage monkeys, especially when they are male, they don’t seem to know quite what to do with that, but it typically ends the encounter.

The world would be a better place if we all did this, consistently.  I’m even trying to garner support for the idea of making Mondays on Social Media a non-negativity day.  Try to get folks, just one day a week, to not post politics, disaster, dystopia or other negative topics.  One day a week to fill our feeds with positivity, humor and happiness, I’m going to call it Magnificent Mondays, I hope you will all consider doing the same, and push some more positivity, it will help you have happier days my friends. ~ Rev Kane