Attitude Adjustments

Lately I read friends status updates on Facebook and often shake my head at what people post. Often times, individuals post dramatic statements, looking for others to feel their pain or just to vent how they are feeling at that specific point in time. Other times people post things that are meant to educate in one manner or another, as simple as sharing a recipe, more complex such as sharing political opinions and information to enlighten the public.Yet other times people just need to  kvetch and let their irritation of the moment be in the spotlight for us all to share and perhaps even make a note of a similar experience and bond with them in the electronic forum that social networking has become. The disturbing trend to me is that more often than not, it is negative things that find their way to these status updates, much like the newspapers and other information media, people seem to gravitate towards human suffering, sensationalism and the like. Perhaps much of this is due to a generally negative trend in general in how humans are feeling in the world, joblessness is at an all time high, weather patterns are wreaking havoc throughout the world , politicians continue to do idiotic and offending things, the crime rate continues to proliferate, and on and on, ad infinitum.

Accuse me of being one of "those people" who see the world through rose-colored glasses, or one of those "glass half -full " people. I prefer to call myself an agent of "positivity", working silently and diligently to create more of a positive energy force in the world, one small act at a time.I know that despite a flurry of negative events occurring in my own life, I continue to think in an upbeat and forward moving manner. Sure, life is no picnic, but one can work towards improvement at any given time and in any manner, the key is continuing to believe one can effect change not only on their own small corner of the world, but gradually the positive "infection" will spread more into mainstream and buoy many souls in the process.

Attitude adjustments begin with ourselves, first and foremost. When we work towards maintaining as positive a lifestyle and demeanor in ourselves, it cannot help but spread it along to those in connection with us, even in small ways such as through the written word on blog spaces, status updates, comments on friends statuses or blogs, and support and helping others in even the smallest of ways. Simplistic as it seems, adaptation of this method for me personally has helped me get through some of the most difficult, sad and angry points I have experienced in life. I wish we all could learn to count our blessings, instead of wallowing in our sadness, hanging on to the last piece of anger doggedly, wallowing in self-pity and despair and perpetuating worse feelings within others as well as ourselves.