Thinking

​I was thinking about …well…thinking.  It seems I have more time these days for random thinking.  When I was in paid employment it was thinking about the issues at hand and home was the same.   The home element has not changed, but the other has.
What really grabbed me today was how my thinking effects my behaviour.
Thinking negatively can bring me and others down.  I will never pretend there are not a multitude of problems out there.  What I will not do is let them rule me.  Problems could easily overwhelm me.  But that does no one any good.  I will always try to deal with negatives from a positive side.  Things need changing.  That negative.  Solutions are positive.
Merril and I did an experiment.  We thought about people that had a multitude of positive things said about them.  Our theory was we were sure we could find a web site that spoke negatively about the same people.  Our theory was right 100% of the time.
Everyone falls short.  No-one is perfect.  Some negative things are legitimate.  But I think of me (how selfish is that).  Some negatives are true for sure.  But that is not the sum of me.  I like to think there is much that is positive about me.  Someone could rightfully highlight the negatives, but that is overlooking the positives.
I find the more time I give to something and think about something the bigger it grows.  If someone wanted to, they could write a thesis based on my negative attributes.  At first the research would only reveal a little, but the deeper a person dug the more they could find.  Wasting their time though.  Such a study would be pretty boring.
The same study, if a person cared to investigate, would reveal a lot of positives.  That is because that is what I choose to think about.  In this day of fake news, I really like to think about things that I know are true.  Often a negative is true, but it is not the whole truth.  Balance is a must to me.  I know I am way more likely to respond positively to someone who highlights a negative coming from a positive perspective.
What matters to me is honesty.  I would not be being honest with myself if I did not acknowledge there are negatives in my life.  But I would also not be being honest with myself if I did not acknowledge there are positives.
The same goes for people or their deeds.  Sometimes they have characteristics I have no desire to emulate, yet much in their lives were exemplary or their deeds were extraordinary.  That inspires me to better things.  Highlighting the negative I treat as a cautionary tale, but it does not inspire me to greater acts except I know what to avoid.  Avoiding quicksand is always healthy, but it is better if I am on a path to something.
I can submerge myself in what needs changing along with the best of them.  I could get angry.  I could decry the injustice of it all.  I could find people of like mind and stamp my feet and demand change.
Yet my experience has shown me if I want to change anything it is way better to highlight the positive.  Only when I am embraced can I change negatives to positives.  When I highlight negatives, I am pushed away and unable to effect change.  When I highlight positives, I am embraced.