Saturday, May 14, 2011

Buried in Negativity. Refocus on Bright Spots with Solutions. Try Positive Deviance.

62 percent of our thoughts are negative. Stuck in the muck? Negativity is a stimulating distraction. What can we do? We can find happiness in everything. The dragonfly is a model. It hovers and holds its position like as if time was stopped. Yes, we can stop reacting negatively and focus on the bright spots where communities have found solutions. Change occurs locally. Be a dragonfly with a stopwatch.

Examples of local solutions: 
  • We can give to the Post Office's canned food drive to stamp out hunger. 
  • We can sign a petition to reopen the Peace Road to the kindergarten in the village of Al Aqaba in Gaza.   Link to petition.   Link to Al Aqaba
  • We can write our pension fund holder, TIAA-CREF to divest from Israel occupation products to encourage focus on the bright spots in the Middle East. Link  
  • We can make a mock wall at our university to raise awareness about the walls in Palestine and on the U.S. border. Link
  • We can learn what Nakba Day means to Palestinians and Israelis. Link
Solutions exist in the bright spots. We can see them if we are not buried in negativity. Try Positive Deviance. Link to Positive Deviance  The 62 percent negative focus needs a dragonfly stopwatch.
Edouard Manet sketch 1873


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Explain more re positive deviance. Sounds like an oxymoron.