Nothing Is More Enticing Than Negativity, Especially In These Trying Times

This probably won't lift your mood, and I'm aware of that going in. Still, it's something most of us need to hear. If you've ever spent time around small children, you may have caught an episode of Bubble Guppies that introduces a character named Mr. Grump Fish. My grandkids watch the show, which is how I know him. The question I keep coming back to: is he a cartoon, or is he what some of us turn into on certain days?

Mr. Grump Fish isn't especially handsome, and he isn't especially ugly either. What makes him hard to look at is the sour expression he wears. The grouchiness colors everything. Spend any real time near him and you start to feel weighed down, because gloom like that has a way of leaking onto whoever is standing closest.

I've had friends like that. I would call to check in, and before long they would be reciting the same sad stories I'd already heard a dozen times, each one offered as proof that life had treated them unfairly. Offering sympathy got harder every time. In their minds, everything they had attempted had already failed, and everything they might attempt later was doomed the same way.

Gossip works on the same current. Pay attention and you'll notice that most of it runs negative, and a good deal of it chips away at the reputation of whoever happens to be absent. I've wondered for a long time why running someone down, whether behind their back or straight to their face, leaves people feeling a little lighter afterward.

When Mr. Grump Fish walks into a room, he doesn't need to say a word to empty it. His presence alone does the job, and anything he adds to the conversation only speeds the exit.

So try the reverse and see how it feels. Say something kind about another person. Mention, out loud, that you're having a good day. Does part of you worry that would brand you a goody two-shoes? Hold onto this instead: what you feel tracks almost exactly with what you think. Feed yourself negative thoughts and negative feelings follow close behind.

Plenty is going wrong in the world, and I'm not pretending otherwise. But circling the same dark news without doing anything useful about it will only pull you under. Staying ignorant isn't the answer, and neither is letting fear keep you sitting in the dark. You can keep your spirits up while still facing what's real. Push back against the fog of discouragement rather than disappearing into it.

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