Are You Driving On The Negativity or Positivity Road?

I had an interesting conversation with someone on a bus at Disney World.

The woman next to me asked a question and I answered. She then proceeded to head down negativity road and remained there for the entire 15 minute ride. 

She went over the same 'key' points of her stories a number of times. She asked if I agreed or had experienced the same. When I simply said no, she dove right back into the same stories. Once or twice she used posts from a group on social media to back up her views.

As I sat there listening, I knew I wanted to share this experience with you. There were so many lessons we could learn from it!

Rather than feeling grateful and blessed for the opportunity that we shared to be there, it didn't appear that she could see that at all. (Of course, this is making an assumption, which The Four Agreements teaches us not to do!) She wasn't rude or mean, but simply stating 'facts' as she saw them.

It made me think - which road are you driving on? 

The negativity road, the positivity road, or somewhere in between? 

Personally, I much prefer the positivity road or somewhere in between. I say somewhere in between because life isn't always full of sunshine and roses. 

It actually made me a bit sad to think that every time this woman made this journey, the same stories from the past coloured her present day experience.

We need to become aware and honest with ourselves about which road we're taking. 

Do you consistently look at the darker side of your experiences? If there's the possibility of something good happening, are you waiting for the other shoe to drop? Do the same negative elements of a story - your story - get repeated over and over again like my friend on the bus?

Are you on the positivity road? Do you tend to look at or find the good in the majority of your life experiences? Can you do this while 'keeping it real?' 

Or do you find yourself somewhere in the middle? We all have challenges in our life. Are you able to stop them from completely dragging you down? 

As my teacher and mentor davidji often says, "...we all visit the land of hurts and wounds sometimes, but we don't have to stay there." When challenges happen, are you able to also remember the good things in your life - as minimal as they may feel at times? Are you able to at least be headed towards the positivity lane?

I will submit one caveat here before I finish. There can also be danger in spiritual bypassing or in never acknowledging the challenges in your life and burying your emotions.

When I was immersed in one of my toughest times, I became very good at burying my emotions and ignoring how I felt. I was pretty good at it before then, but now I became a master - even though it was breaking me.

My motto was "Failure is not an option!" Ummm.......yes.....unfortunately sometimes it is. And even when it comes to that, how you view that failure - and yourself - can be on one of those roads!

I often show these writings to my husband to ensure that what I'm saying may be helpful to whoever is reading. He believes that living on the negativity road slows you down; you become stuck. He compared it to driving 30 on the highway while everyone around you is zipping past.

So what do you think? Which road are you driving on?

I'll see you on the path.

Namaste, Glenda