As we travel life’s highway and navigate the roads and obstacles along the way one thing remains clear. That one thing is to maintain a degree of positivity. There are so many things in this world that we cannot control. I cannot control how someone treats me, how the world or universe views me or how a situation may turn out without my permission. Because these things are true and could create a degree of negativity the only recourse, I have is to remain positive despite the negativity. I need to take charge of my life. One of the things that I was taught many years ago was “it’s not what they say and it’s not what they do, it’s how I react.” I need to oversee my day.
One of the best things about overseeing daily decision-making in formulating my response is choosing how to view life based on the choices we can make. As in my previous statement, I cannot control others or situation. How I conduct myself before, during, and after can often mitigate or eliminate any negativity. If I do fall short in that area, I am to remain positive despite any negative outcome. Oftentimes, I find it more convenient to blame someone or something for my negativity. When I do that, I am giving them power over me which they are not entitled to. It is scientifically documented that being positive sets in motion mental pathways in motion.
Research tells us that looking at the frontal cortex when happy thoughts occur there is brain growth through the reinforcement and generation of new synapses. That might seem rather technical. Essentially what it is saying is happiness creates happiness. For those of us who lost so much of our mental functioning because of our addiction, this is an encouraging fact. To be able to generate new synapses is exciting, but one might say, “if I knew what a synapse was, I might be excited about it.” I am glad you asked. Synapses are the gaps in between neutrons. T
hese gaps allow neurotransmitters to travel from one neuron to another. Neurons are essentially brain cells. They can exist in other parts of the body than the brain. The synapses allow for chemicals to traverse or travel and communicate with other neutrons. So merely being regularly positive helps me grow or in many of our cases regrow brain cells that have been damaged, destroyed or the regeneration process shut down during our addictive life. As a person with over 35 years of personal recovery, I can personally attest to this.
With the amount of alcohol and drugs that I consumed in my using career, the fact that I had the mental capacity that I do have astounds me. Medically speaking this can happen to you. The great thing about science like this is it has no prejudices. One of the most important things to adopt along the way is positive word choices. We train ourselves how to think and how we think ultimately determines how we act. So, some of the words starting with the letter A help me along the way. If you only adopted these words into your life as part of your positive affirmation you would see amazing results. If you do not believe me, try it for yourself.
Some of the words that I use are absolute, accepted, accomplish, achievement, action, amazing, approve, attraction, and awesome. Just these words alone can help revolutionize you being negative, regardless of how much positivity is going on around you or being positive in a negative world. It is kind of like a fair-weather friend. It is easy to be friends with someone who treats you exactly how you want to be treated when you want to be treated that way. The real test of a person’s character is when you apply some pressure to them in their life and then you see how they truly are. The late great Zig Ziglar said “you can tell some of a man’s character when he wins, and you can tell it all when he loses.” The same rings true in today’s blog. I must find a way to be happy, joyous, and free despite any negativity that comes and tries to interrupt my freedom and happiness.
Otherwise, I am hostage to things that may not appreciate me the way I desire to be appreciated. Becoming positive in a negative world mandates that I become accountable for my happiness. Once I am willing to make that commitment to myself and begin to practice positive self-talk amid negative bombardment, I find myself happier in happy situations and grateful for the situations that allow me to exercise my power in pursuit of being happy. This is true despite a negative external experience. I hope this helps and I hope you find that you too can be positive in a negative world.
Robert Pardon
Robert is the Recovery Guy. Getting clean and sober on April 25, 1986 has given me the insight and practical skill set to not only stay sober, but to also re-invent myself to the person I always wanted to become. Showing others how to do this is my life goal.
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