"I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers." ~ Khalil Gibran
It's sometimes so easy to get drawn into negativity, isn't it? Sadness, anger, frustration...these emotions can often seem contagious, especially for highly sensitive people like myself. If you're like me, knowing how easily you can get overwhelmed and how terrible that feels, you might attempt to diffuse negative situations by trying to explain, rationalize, or calm people...which sometimes does not go well! I've gotten caught in a few "negativity sinkholes" myself recently, and it's been rather demoralizing and depressing.
So what are we to do? I wish I knew the "magic-wand answer" for that question, but I don't. The best I feel I can do is to try to encourage, promote, and inspire positivity around me and hope it spreads! As with most things, we can't expect perfection, and I try not to be too hard on myself when my efforts don't work as well as I'd planned. It's hard to not take it personally when someone insults or rejects your attempts to be a good person, but it doesn't mean your efforts were not worthwhile; it just means that negative person was too wrapped up in their own issues to appreciate your attempts to be kind. Try not to get discouraged, and don't give up! Keep showing kindness to others, until you find people who will honour your efforts by not only reciprocating, but also by "paying it forward" and spreading kindness themselves. And if you "slip up" and find yourself responding to negativity with even more negativity, be kind to yourself as well; realize you're not perfect, forgive yourself, and then get back to the business of trying to make the world a better place...one act of kindness at a time!
"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." ~ Aesop
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