Positivity. There’s a word for you. Actually it isn’t. A word, that is. I couldn’t find it in my little dictionary and my computer writing program underlined it as being incorrect with no suggestions. On the other hand we have negativity. That is a word. Negativity is a word and positivity isn’t. Why is that? Perhaps it’s because negativity is a well-known condition. People are very used to looking on the negative side of things. They recognize such a condition. Looking on the positive side of things is such an uncommon occurrence that it doesn’t even deserve a word to describe it. One has to be invented.

That’s an overstatement of the matter but it is, nevertheless, a rather sad situation. I think it’s a fact that being negative toward situations and people is a popular way to approach things. What is more unfortunate is being negative toward yourself. That’s a common condition and one that I’m prone to do. The reasons for doing that vary with people. Some common ones are:

It’s safe. If I expect too much it probably won’t happen and then I’ll be disappointed. Looking on the dark side is better.

It’s more fun. Sort of watching horror movies or skydiving.

It’s what I was taught. My whole family’s negative. My friends are, too. It’s what I’m supposed to do.

It’s being humble. To think I deserve good things is arrogant.

Fear. I really feel I can’t do well.

Poor self esteem. Self explanatory.

There are countless other reasons for negative thinking. To try to list them all would be a monumental and rather pointless exercise. I’m trying to work through my own list of reasons for negativity and deal with them as best I can. It’s liable to take me a long time to complete the task. I recently came up with a bit of reasoning that I believe will help me in the process. It’s to recognize self-depreciation as being self-deception. The full logic of this is that I believe every person is a unique individual with inherent and distinctive talents, abilities and worth. For a person to depreciate any of these for any reason is for him to deceive himself into believing that he is less than he really is. I’m still working on this. We’ll see if it pays off for me.