I’m not exactly sure how to get this out so it makes sense, not fully, so bear with me. I just know that I see so much negativity online. Too much. I have been told it is easier to post, and to find things to talk about, when they’re upsetting. There’s more of a drive to share those things with the world and vent. You can hope for positive messages to come back to you that way and get things off your chest and deal with them. I understand that.

But I look around and I see people saying this year sucks as bad as the last. And I have heard that every month of every year I’ve been reading things on the internet. If I went by the internet our entire lives have been nothing but shit.

That simply isn’t true.

It tires me out, reading so much constant negativity. Yes, it is easier to record the bad times, but when you look back at what you’ve written over the years – assuming you ever do – do you want to only have those bad times staring back at you?

Wouldn’t it make sense to record the good times, to go the extra mile, if it is harder to do so (I say I get that but honestly I don’t. I have far more fun writing up the good moments, even the tiny ones) and to offer up that positivity to people who are just posting negative things. If, I mean to say, when you post negative things, you feel better when you see the positive, couldn’t you help by preemptively also talking about the positive?

Imagine how much different the world would look if for every negative thing that was posted online we each also wrote up a positive thing. Kept a balance going. Because good things do happen and they happen a lot. They aren’t as big, often, but that’s because we’re all, and I mean all, me too, shaken by the bad. It hurts more. It makes a bigger dent and so it feels bigger. But the good stuff, even the tiny moments, have so much more impact if you simply shine a light on them.

I know I’ve had bad days turned around by my cat purring. Or by a stranger picking up a hat I drop. Or by any number of tiny things. Let’s record those moments. Destruction and negativity are easy. Creation and positivity are harder. Which makes them all the more crucial.

I’m not saying to gloss over the bad or not talk about it, not at all. I’m saying, maybe, put it in perspective and also talk about the brighter things as often as the darker. Even just looking for them and forcing yourself to, unironically and unpretentiously, talk about them can amplify them.

Where’s the downside? I don’t see it. You want life to be awesome, talk about the awesome moments more, see them, cherish them and discuss them. Don’t hide them and ignore them and then go on about how everything is shit. We’re all worth more than that.

Shine on, shine bright and let the blinding glare of it stun the bad times into submission.