Whether you’re on the path to enlightenment or not, avoiding negativity is great practice. It may seem obvious that we don’t surround ourselves with people that rag on us, but even the subtle negativity we receive from the news can affect us. Avoiding negativity is a key element to bettering yourself and recognizing flaws in your worldview.
It is well understood that people succumb to a herd mentality. If you’re surrounded by negative people, you will most likely become more negative yourself. When we are part of a crowd, we tend to adopt their level of enthusiasm or anger (aka mob mentality). Take Nazi Germany or North Korea, when you’re born into a highly manipulated world, even the most intelligent will follow along. It is very difficult to go against the grain.
In America it’s no different. Our news reports on fear. We are surrounded by economic hardship. Our cities have crime. We fear terror plots and mass murders. Our children can’t go outside unsupervised. You’d almost expect the sky our sky to be dark red with swirling black clouds. Fear and uncertainty ripple through our society because we’re so interconnected. Because we rely so heavily on the same media platforms for information. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
By avoiding negativity and focusing on the positives, we can change the tides. You don’t have to read or watch gruesome news reports. You don’t have to sit in a depressing office with people who hate their jobs. You don’t have buy meaningless merchandise which eats away your precious money. And most importantly, you can realize that money is only a distraction. That it’s fiat and it’s value is merely perceived. I once heard an interesting analysis of old alien invasion movies. In them a mysterious, powerful alien would show up to Earth and kidnap a beautiful lady. The hero would rise and valiantly rescue her, scaring away the alien foe. Now in terms of entertainment value, I’m sure it was a fun watch. But if you break that story down there is a key flaw: that the woman’s beauty derives from a physical property. That even the alien will recognize her beauty because it’s an inherent trait, recognizable throughout the galaxy. In reality though, beauty is not a physical property, but a perceive one. Each human on this planet observes beauty in a different way. And thus an alien invader would probably not be able to tell which humans were beautiful or not. The same could be said about money. American dollars are NOT backed by gold or some form of inherently valuable currency. Additionally, it does NOT have a property about it that is valuable. It is simply paper that we’ve all agreed is worth something. That’s it. Nothing more. And upon realization you can then agree that exchanging your happiness, health, and livelihood for mere paper seems foolish.
But you may begin to argue that these things matter! That turning off the news will result in your ignorance, that quitting your job will put your family at risk, that devaluing money is unrealistic. And maybe you’re right. Maybe you can’t do those things because they are too entrenched in your life. That’s fine, I agree not everyone can so readily let go. My point here is to show you that negativity surrounds your life. That news, jobs, money, girlfriends, diet, hobbies, etc. may be drowning you in sorrow. That it’s not one of them will fill the pond of your demise, it’s all of them together.
So what’s the strategy? To reduce negativity, not eliminate it. By recognizing the flaws, you can begin to remove the easy ones. Find the little things in your life that cause you stress and unhappiness. And as they begin to fall away you’ll realize how much better off you are without them. You’ll begin to see that even the bigger ones like a shit job, bitchy girlfriend, or abusive boyfriend can be eliminated, you were just too weak before. Start small and work your way up, and I promise you, the world will begin to see brighter, warmer, and more welcoming.