Top 20 quotes on positivity

“He was tired, he realized,
emotionally and physically.
He wanted to lie down
and turn off the world
and sleep for a week.”
~ Allan Folsom, Day of Confession

If you’ve been on social media at all recently, you’ve probably heard the term ‘Black Fatigue’ being used more and more frequently. The phrase was originally coined by author Mary-Frances Winters in her book of the same name, and refers to the psychological and emotional exhaustion which many Black people experience as a result of having to deal with either blatant racism or the microaggressions they face on a daily basis. As she states in her book’s Amazon blurb, ‘Black people are quite literally sick and tired of being sick and tired’.

Can you blame them, though???

Imagine you walked into the supermarket and every person pulled their spouse closer and eyeballed you funny because they heard your cousin had slept with a married person. That cousin’s indescretion had nothing to do with you. Your naughty bits weren’t even involved in the equation. Yet, somehow you got the blame for it too, and everybody now thinks you’re on the prowl, trying to sleep with their partner. What the ferrrrrk??? Kinda sucks to be labelled as something you’re not, right?

Now imagine how every Black man must feel every single day of his life, every time a woman clutches her purse a little tighter or someone walks away a little faster as they pass each other on the street. He’s just going about his day, minding his own business, probably hustling trying to get to work like the rest of us, yet he’s automatically categorized as a potential thief simply because of the color of his skin.

If this was the daily story of your life, wouldn’t you feel a sense of ‘fatigue’ as well?

Recently, though, I’ve been seeing more and more social media videos from Black content creators who are using the term to reference their frustration over other Black content creators’ wildly incorrect and unfounded claims. One in particular jumps to mind, in which a gentleman loudly delivered a very sarcastic yet humorous response to a young lady who had made a rather far-fetched connection between the phrase ‘Good morning’ and Black people mourning over the loss of their loved ones during slavery.

Claiming that an English greeting which evolved from the phrase ‘Good morrow’ – which can be formally traced back as far as the 14th century in the works of Chaucer – is a ‘perversion’ of a phrase about ‘Black mourning’ is not only incorrect but, as this gentleman rightly noted, a disservice to the actual fight for recognition and equality.

Likewise, we’re seeing more and more Black content creators speaking out against those who say that non-Black people should not be allowed to braid their hair under any circumstances. As they correctly note, braided hair is not a hairstyle that was exclusive to African tribes, and there is evidence that braids were also used by ancient Germanic and Viking peoples to symbolize status. One young lady even went so far as to call out another by saying “A braid is just a plait. Are we really gatekeeping the number of plaits white people can have in their hair now?”

And, while these creators have labelled their videos as ‘Black Fatigue’, I think it runs even deeper than that. I believe it is ‘Societal Fatigue’.

“Sometimes you reach to a point
when enough is enough.
Sometimes, you have to be done,
just done and nothing else.”
~ Jyoti Patel

One of the biggest issues I have with social media today is that, in our quest for viral videos, we have stooped to rage-baiting in order to create post interaction – uploading content with the deliberate intent of provoking a fevered response from the general public. The thing is, this practice is not only unscrupulous because it minimizes (and ultimately demonizes) the good which genuine causes like the MeToo and BLM movements were originally intended for, but it’s also harmful because it perpetuates anger toward and mistrust of each other in a social climate already on the verge of overheating.

What began as genuine and necessary calls for action and accountability eventually snowballed into a constant barrage of someone ‘calling out’ somebody for something. We collectively became the proverbial bull in a china shop, metaphorically wrecking everything in our path as we nitpicked over non-existent issues in our quest for that fifteen minutes of social media fame.

Take for instance the whole issue with pronouns. I can’t tell you how many videos I’ve stumbled across in which people are genuinely infuriated that a random stranger didn’t telepathically know that they woke up one morning and decided they wanted to use the neo-pronoun ‘bun’. Then there are the young ladies who film themselves in the gym, yet they zoom in on the male patrons in the background (most of whom hardly even look in their direction), labelling these unsuspecting men as ‘creeps’ and ‘perverts’ because they had the audacity to glance at someone setting up an entire goddamned film studio in the middle of a public space.

STOP IT!!! 🤬🤬🤬

It seems like everybody has their knickers in a twist over something today! But the saddest part is that half of the ‘issues’ which have them up in arms are nothing more than delusions manufactued by their own desperate quest to attain internet fame.

Yet, because we’re all terrified of being ‘cancelled’, even big corporations are now bowing to pressure from social media mobsters. Hollywood is a prime example of this >>>

In the quest for gender equality, the Bechdel–Wallace test was used as a ‘measurement’, checking to see whether two or more women in a movie (named or not) had a conversation about something other than a man. Later, the call for Black representation in films and TV shows demanded that actors be given more substantial roles, that they no longer be relegated to the ‘token Black friend’. More recently, the LGBTQ community voiced their desire for representation as well, so that a same-sex kiss or couple would no longer be used merely for shock value.

So far, so good? Nice.

Fast forward to today, and we now need to have at least one person of every race, gender, sexuality, and religious belief making up the primary cast of practically every movie / TV series.

Still not a problem? Cool. It shouldn’t be.

BUT …

As with practically every issue, we take things to the extreme, and that overkill eventually begins to work against us, turning the public off. For instance: the fact that we now feel the need to utilize every movie / TV series as a vehicle for social commentary, citing everything from social to socio-economic issues in what comes across as forced dialogue, oftentimes to the point that it’s not only superfluous but so much so that it actually distracts from the plot.

The vast majority of us just want to watch a movie / TV series as a form of escapism – a momentary reprieve from the hassle of our daily life. We want to see Tom Cruise or Chris Hemsworth jump out of a helicopter and land in the passenger seat of the bad guy’s convertible; we don’t need a ten-minute monologue on the high carbon footprint of said convertible, or a long and drawn out exposition on how much better it would be for the environment if the psycho who plans to blow up the world were driving at the very least a Hybrid.

STOP IT!!! 🤬🤬🤬

Nobody I’ve asked gave half a damn about what kind of shoes the green M&M wore. But I bet you if the women of the world banded together and demanded that we be represented with a chocolate blob in high heels, they’d change ’em right back. Because, sadly, that is the society in which we now live – out of fear of being ‘cancelled’, we cave to whoever has the loudest voice, regardless of how ridiculous the demand may be.

So, it’s heartening to see people finally standing up against these social media mobsters, finally saying ‘enough is enough’ and we’re ‘sick and tired’ of your constant contrived negativity. In fact, I think we could all take a page from their books – We all need to start turning the tables on these rage-baiters. We need to start calling Them out for doing a disservice to legitimate movements like MeToo and Time’s Up by labelling some random man on the sidewalk a ‘creep’ because he dared to walk in a public space while you were filming yourself dancing, or for making a mockery of the whole topic of Appropriation by ragging on someone for having braids while wearing a silk-press lace-front with two-foot-long virgin Vietnamese hair.

STOP IT!!! 🤬🤬🤬

Stop the hypocrisy!

Stop the rage-baiting!!

Stop adding fuel to a fire that is already burning out of control!!!

Instead of continuously trying to tear each other down, we should be lifting each other up.

Social media has connected the world in a way that was previously unimaginable, yet we use it to ‘Karen’ people’s posts, telling them how ugly or stupid we think they are? Why? It may also cost nothing to be mean, but that constant negativity doesn’t only affect the person at whom it’s directed. Internalizing that much hatred also takes a toll on our mental and emotional wellbeing, preventing us from seeing the good things in life because our brains are programmed to always find the negative in every situation.

Fortunately, it’s never too late to undo that damage, and we can retrain ourselves to become positive-minded people by actively being positive. So, smile at a stranger on the bus, or on the sidewalk. Compliment someone on their outfit, or their shoes, or their watch. Hold the door open for the person behind you. In the same way that those little bits of built-up negativity eventually morph into a dour personality which only focuses on the bad, we can become affirmative influences by simply practicing positivity.

So, to end today’s post, I’m going to take my own advice and do a bit of an about-turn: Instead of using quotes about how mentally exhausted we all are, or how harmful negativity can be, I’m going to share a few quotes about having a positive outlook on Life:

“Everywhere you go,
make positive deposits
rather than negative withdrawals.
You can be a people builder.“

~ Joel Osteen

“Life is 10% what happens to us
and 90% how we react to it.”

~ Dennis P. Kimbro

“Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones,
you’ll start having positive results.”

~ Willie Nelson

“A positive attitude causes a chain reaction
of positive thoughts, events and outcomes.
It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results.”

~ Germany Kent

“All you can change is yourself,
but sometimes that changes everything!”

~ Gary W. Goldstein

“You cannot change reality, but you can control
the manner in which you look at things.
Your attitude is under your own control.
Weed out the negative and focus on the positive!”

~ Helen Steiner Rice

“A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances,
instead of your circumstances having power over you.”

~ Joyce Meyer

“If you want light to come into your life,
you need to stand where it is shining.”

~ Guy Finley

“There are two ways of spreading light:
to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.“

~ Edith Wharton

“Positive thinking is more than just a tagline.
It changes the way we behave.
And I firmly believe that when I am positive,
it not only makes me better,
but it also makes those around me better.”

~ Harvey Mackay

“If you are positive,
you’ll see opportunities
instead of obstacles.”

~ Confucius

“It takes but one positive thought
when given a chance to survive and thrive
to overpower an entire army of negative thoughts.”

~ Robert H. Schuller

“Wherever you go, no matter what the weather,
always bring your own sunshine.”

~ Anthony J. D’Angelo

“Life becomes easier and more beautiful
when we can see the good in other people.”

~ Roy T. Bennett

“You are the sum total of everything
you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled,
been told, forgot – it’s all there.
Everything influences each of us,
and because of that
I try to make sure that
my experiences are positive.”

~ Maya Angelou

“Surround yourself with good people;
surround yourself with positivity
and people who are going to
challenge you to make you better.”

~ Ali Krieger

“Staying positive does not mean that
things will turn out okay.
Rather it is knowing that YOU will be okay
no matter how things turn out.”

~ Garth Ennis