Are you a positive or a negative person? Do you prefer to be around positive or negative people? I don't know too many people that would say they want to be around negative people. But, I do know people that are so negative that they don't want to be around positive people.
I am a positive person. I know a lot of negative people. It's hard to be around them. Negativity breeds negativity.
I have been around those people my whole life. The people that seem to need complain and be negative in order to be happy. It's like they need to or they will stop breathing. It's very hard to be around someone like that. It's infectious. I will be in a good mood and then after 5 minutes with this person I am complaining too. I don't like that at all.
I've had to tell some people that literally "if you don't have something nice to say, we can't be friends anymore." It wasn't magic or anything, but it has made some people take a step back and re-evaluate themselves. In other cases, I've literally excused myself and either left the room or left the building. It's just not something I want to be around. If I can't successfully change the subject to something more positive then that's what I have to do.
I try to be positive all of the time. Sometimes it is contagious and before I know it I have helped someone turn their day around. Sometimes it has no affect on someone else.
Now this isn't to say that I am a peppy happy go lucky girl all of the time. I just simply chose not to say negative things about others or to others. I'm not perfect. I do occasionally, and I always feel bad about it.
Social Media can be very good for this and it can be very bad. I have a hard time when people post Rants every day. Part of me feels bad that maybe they need a place to vent. Everyone needs to vent, but a public airing of dirty laundry might not be the best outlet for it.
I am very active on Social Media and I've gotten my fair share of negative comments. My rule: don't respond. It'll upset me, but it's not worth an argument that clearly won't resolve anything.
Very happily I was invited to join an event on Facebook: 30 Days Happy. The goal is to post something every day that makes you happy. I like doing it and I like seeing what everyone else writes about.
So how am I able to stay so positive all of the time? It's easy. I talk to God all of the time. When something bad happens I talk to Him before I go and poison someone else's day with negativity. God talks back and calms me down. He always gets me through it. And that's what I focus on. It's easy to be Positive when you've got God in your corner.
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And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
-Philippians 4:8
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