It’s too easy to force positivity and we have become so used to doing it.
I’m most probably the most positive person I know, sometimes to my own detriment. I choose every day to see the best in everything and look for the best in a person because I feel the world is bad already, why look for more things to hate? All things said; I’m also realistic.
The world has this way of creeping up on us when we least expect it and bringing us down one notch. No water in the pipes or power in the lines? We decide to scream and curse the municipality. Waiting too long in traffic and a taxi pushes in front of you? You curse the taxi and wish hurt upon the driver. Not enough chips with your order at Mc Donald’s? Damn Zuma and his corrupt cronies for robbing us! See how I sound like a cynic all of a sudden? That’s called realism. I believe there is a balance between the good and bad that comes across our paths every day and we sometimes struggle to balance ourselves in the process.
Buddy is always happy and running around enjoying his carefree life and every now and then will get shouted at for eating too much, but he’s happy. He doesn’t try to be; he just is. What I believe we pull off very well is a thing called ‘forced positivity’. We can go days on end always smiling, saving face and never allowing anybody to see what we are actually feeling like the lady who has been working for 20 years in the same job striving for more but never showing her dismay at someone else being promoted, or the man who has to look for a job because the factory closed down but he never cracks his smile because he feels nobody needs to know he doesn’t have it under control. The stress we place on ourselves is enough to make us sick, but we do it. Not for our own sake, but for the sake of others. We are driven by a certain sense of vanity at the cost of our own sanity.
Nobody is perfect and the sooner we realise that, the better our lives will be and the more ‘genuine’ our good feelings feel and then, then we can truly balance ourselves. If you feel like crying, go for it. If you feel like being alone and just shutting out the world for one day, feel free. Don’t force yourself to be someone that you don’t feel you want to be.
So what is my plan to not force positivity anymore? Be more like my dog.
