“People usually don’t have bad days. It’s not the entire day that’s bad. If they think back on it, it’s just pieces of the day, and all the extra time they spend focusing on that piece – that’s the bad part.”
I heard that yesterday. I’m paraphrasing here, but I hope you get the point. Actually, I hope that you are as blown away by that statement as I was. I mean, sure – some rational/logical part of my brain was already aware of this. But when I’ve already convinced myself that I’m having a “bad day,” that rational/logical part of my brain is conveniently ignored entirely. So it was nice to get a reminder, y’know?
I’ve got an acquaintance who has a tendency to be super-negative. Like, all the freaking time. Now I know that I’m not necessarily shooting rays of sunshine out of my own ass 24-7, but hearing this person just dwell dwell dwell on the negative day in and day out is downright exhausting. One day, after hearing her make yet another negative comment, I snapped.
“From now on, for every negative thing that comes out of your mouth, I want to hear you say two positive things.” I desperately wanted to continue: To tell her that she was bringing me down and making me angry and I wanted absolutely nothing more than to smack her in her pouty, pessimistic face. But I held back.
She was upset by what I said, and I guess I can’t blame her. No one likes being called out on their own shenanigans. And my outburst didn’t really end up changing her outlook on life. But that doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned the idea altogether. In fact, this is a challenge I’ve since issued to several others: For every negative thought you have, think two positive ones.
It’s hard, man! I’ve tried it myself. But it works, if you let it, to remove little Fun-sized pieces of Bad from the Snack-sized pieces of Bad from your Full-sized day, which really wasn’t all bad to begin with.
That metaphor was terrible, and hurt my brain a little.
…but speaking of candy:
the sloppy copy 