Staying Positive In Challenging Times
I have to work hard at staying positive. It has taken a lot of effort on my part to learn to become positive in my life and it is an ongoing task for me. As strange as it may sound, it took me several years to discover that I could manage to have a life of my own and a future that I could look forward to.
Even after many years of reassuring myself and becoming more confident, I sometimes get lazy with my efforts and too easily I fall back into negative thinking. My default is to be negative and to feel that not much good will come from anything I do or in general the world around me. Being pessimistic is easy for me. I spent most of my early years learning how to be dark and brooding about the world around me. This default negativism I feel is like an automatic emotion that can easily get away from me if I allow it.
In my case, there is a long list of reasons that I can point to that allow me to fall into a negative frame of mind. Native people of my generation didn’t have an easy childhood and our backgrounds are filled with stories of tragedy, despair and poverty. In my parents’ and grandparents’ time, life was turned upside down when our people were dragged into a new world and we were forced to integrate in one way or another. Reserve life hasn’t been easy on any of us and it is taking us generations to try to repair the damage.
These days, it is easy to get caught up in a world of negative emotions and feelings. There is a global recession happening and everywhere I turn someone has lost money or in the process of losing a job or something of value due to hard times. Whenever I turn on the television or read a newspaper report or a story online, there is talk about war, terrorism, pirates, conflict and people being put out of work.
To top it off, the latest headlines describe the fact that there is the possibility of an impending global pandemic with a new influenza virus. It makes one wonder what will be the next crisis to come down the line. We are certainly being tested these days with all the bad news surfacing far and near. Staying positive is more of a challenge than ever.
The way I see it, staying positive is a matter of constantly reminding myself to keep a healthy frame of mind. It took a lot of work on my part and the help of others so that I could arrive to a point where I figured out I am an alcoholic and that I have an addictive personality. That first realization opened up a series of new ideas and a fresh set of skills to help me develop a healthier outlook on life. I then learned how to break out of a world of denial and to deal with reality. One of my greatest breakthroughs happened when I learned to be grateful for the life that I have.
All this doesn’t mean that I stop thinking about tomorrow or the world around me. I deal with where I am at the moment and what I am doing now. I really take it one day at a time. It is not that I forget about tomorrow or the troubles that surround me but realize that if I can take care of today and keep my balance then things will work out in the future. After all, if I am not willing to take care of myself, how can I hope to help others around me?
Staying positive is not a piece of cake and it requires work and vigilance on my part, however, it is better than the alternative. A little bit of positive thinking is better than being out of control, confused and full of chaos. So that I am living a healthy life, I try to stay quiet and I choose to be around those who are positive. I also have learned to identify risky situations where alcohol and drugs are prevalent and I stay away from them. People tend to generally respect my quest for a sober and positive life, however, I can’t expect everyone to understand or accept my choices. Still it has to do with my survival.
Negativism in my case is part of a bigger disease that revolves around addictions. My brain is hard-wired to find an excuse to be negative. There are times when life just seems very difficult but the thing I remember is that it doesn’t have to be that way. When I actually take the time to think about how fortunate I am to have a good family, good friends and a sober life then my negativity disappears and I feel positive and full of energy again.
In moments when life seems to swirl around me in a cloud of dark thoughts, one of the greatest healing hands comes to me from Mother Earth. The soft, shimmering light through pine trees on a spring day, fresh air stirring up from melting snow, an orchestra of dozens of different birds and the calming trickle of flowing water from a thawing creek helps me to stay positive.