Stay Afloat, Don’t Drown, Be Positive and Be Happy

Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone – from Ella Wheeler’s poem from 1883 titled, “Solitude”. A lesson in how to be happy.

Stay Afloat

2018 continues to drown us with technological advancements which we must learn, new methods that we must adapt to, new trends that we must follow and new people that we must meet. It’s a busy world we live in; filled with creatures great and small. Some smile, but unfortunately, many more sneer and jeer and seethe with a barely concealed grimace.

How do you stay afloat with a smile and positivity when so many others try and take a piece of us through every single day? Every interaction is fraught with danger; every action we take is almost taken as an insult, every word we say can very easily be misconstrued as a sarcastic comment or a thinly veiled mock, when the reailty is, we’re just swimming our way through the day and trying desperately not to get eaten by sharks.

The problem is that the majority create the rule and we are living in an era in which Troll-dom is alive and well and the first instinct is to be negative because its funny; it might seem appropriate and it might make others laugh and also because we seem to have disconnected from a responsibility to make others feel good about themselves.

Why the fuck should we make others feel good about themselves unless we get something out of it?

Don’t Drown

Its so easy to get caught up with the mainstream of laughing at the stupidity of others, when how many times could that have been us? We see someone fall in the supermarket and after they’ve got up and they seem ok, we laugh at them. Even though we know that they might be trying to hide a phyiscal injury, or worse, their ego is in tatters, we still laugh, yet when that is us, the last thing we want is to be laughed at.

When did we stop caring about one another?

The best thing we can do is to maintain our own equilibrium and not get caught up in the mainstream attitude without thinking first. If a politician makes a comment and a journalist takes the piss, we automatically go along with the journalist, who seems to be be conveying the thoughts of the masses. What might really have happened is that crafty journalist, who let’s be honest, has spent years carefully manipulating words and has turned it into an art form, has done so at someone else’s expense. Sure, it’s probably fairly accurate and probably justified. But shouldn’t we determine that for ourselves?

We live in a world that quickly televises an action, which is jumped on with glee by trolls. I’m sometimes afraid to speak my mind because of my fear of being ridiculed. I spend countless hours talking myself into some form of confidence so that I can function.

I like to think that I’m swimming, my head above water, seeing the birds, laughing people and ignoring the sharks below me. Because let’s face it, if we thought about the sharks every time we went for a swim we’d never go for one.

Be Positive

Such a tricky thing to do. When did everyone get so pissed off about everything all the time? It seems that the average person can go from 0 to ticked off in the blink of an eye. I’ve noticed it happen to me, yet by my very nature, I’m quite a positive-minded individual who tries to see the light in everything.

How do you stay positive when it seems like everyone around you isn’t? You ignore them. Somtimes negative comments come from insight, which you need to hear. But that doesn’t mean you need to take this negatively. If there’s any positive to be derived from it, extract it and move on. Remain positive. You’ve got good feedback and that feedback will help you. Maybe not today, but at some point down the track, it most definitely will.

Every action has an effect and we aren’t always privy to that effect, but i do know this. Human beings are a lot like magnets. Attracting the negative and repelling the positive. The negative comes to us so much easier, just like the dark side did for Darth Vader and his pals.

Use the force instead and you’ll find that the negative will steer away from you.The more you do it, the more you’ll find others respond to it positively. And…you’ll also quickly discover that positive seems to attract positive and like-minded allies will appear like angels when you need them most.

Be Happy

It’s quite ironic that the guy who sung “Don’t worry, be happy” in the mid-80’s commited suicide from depression. I guess we don’t always practice what we preach. And maybe the guy was trying desperately to maintain his positivity and equilibrium but somewhere along the line he gave up.

I hope that I never do.

I see so many people looking unhappy and truding through their day all the time that it is quite simply, depressing. I’d much rather focus on those with the beaming smile who almost shout, “Good morning!” With a big smile and sparkling eyes, then ask, “how are you?” and their eyes look like they genuinely want to know.

That makes me happy and I think the key to happiness isn’t what I’ve accomplished, or how much I’ve amassed, it is in what I’ve learned.

Smile and the world smiles with you, cry and you cry alone.

Fox

Thanks to Magpixel for the blog post image 🙂