Being a fan of new perspectives, I was happy to feel enlightened by this video: http://bit.ly/19ObJbA
I am of the school of thought that venting and ‘getting it out’ was a purge of the negativity. Alison Ledgerwood, a PhD in psychology, disagrees. She said voicing negativity only perpetuates the negativity. She suggested to refocus on the positive. Instead of talking about the loss in life, talk about the gain.
It’s worth a try. I am a highly critical person and I don’t like that about myself. So in the interest of making a change, here’s what went right today thus far:
- I woke up next to my favorite person in the world on the first day of the third year of our marriage.
- Our family grew by one two days ago when we brought Olive home. She’s a two-year-old black cat that I feel confident we saved from peril at the shelter. She’s also helping me realize that maybe I can have a kid.
- I had GREAT pizza for lunch.
- It is a beautiful sunny day.
Ledgerwood also talked about forgiving. This is a little trickier because letting things go is not an area in which I excel. I need to work on making the message more positive, but when someone is rude to me, I’ve been repeating to myself, you are not important to me in an effort to let it go. It does calm me down and keep me from fixating on the hurt feelings. Perhaps, I won’t let your actions affect me instead.
I’ll work on it – all of it.
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