Minimalist Monday? Wait! Isn't today Tuesday?!? Oh, no! Last week I lost an hour and this week I've already lost a day! Why does this always happen to me?
I've written before about how complaining is not a conversation. Now, let me start out by saying I'm not perfect. I gripe and complain, too, but I'm really working on it... and as of late, I've become more aware of what I'm putting out into the virtual universe.
I noticed a friend of mine, nearly every tweet, facebook status, etc was a complaint. I unfollowed her (and felt really bad about it!) but negativity is hungry and infectious. It leaches on to anyone it can.
Afterward, I started browsing my feed and noticed that the bulk of tweets and updates were complaints or negative in nature. I wondered why there weren't more positive tweets... Where were the compliments? Where were the praise feeds?
I know we can't be happy every moment of every day, but aren't we happy most of the day or at least once a day? Shouldn't we celebrate that? Why is it so much easier and more common to speak up when it's bad?
I know that most of my friends and those I follow are happy people, and live happy lives, but their twitter stream made it sound like their life was gloomy.
I immediately became conscious of my own output and made a point to tweet more positively --- and not complain unless it was absolutely necessary or served some other purpose. It’s a work in progress but I’ve caught myself from tweeting complaints 5x this week already.
Do me a favor: Take a look at your twitter stream, or facebook stream -- or even the things you've said in passing to friends and coworkers -- has it been mostly positive? mostly negative? an even 50/50?
Should we initiate an operation positive? Bring back "Don't worry, be happy"?
Part of my journey with minimalism is to find more happiness -- and with negative thoughts and negativity in general, less is definitely more.
Smile.
