Every day I turn on my social media to be greeted by many things: drama, seemingly perfect lives, and more recently, an over-whelming amount of empty positivity.  I am a huge believer of the power of the mind, manifestation, and positive thinking.  What I’m NOT a believer in, are thoughtless quotes, accompanied by meaningless selfies, telling everyone to keep their complaints to themselves.  Telling people that negativity doesn’t solve anything, that complaining is useless, and that staying positive will solve all…this is bullshit.

I’m normally pretty positive on a day-to-day.  I try to live my life as honestly and kindly as I can, and usually I do well with it, but sometimes I struggle.  What I’ve learned over the last year or so, is that it’s the negative that changes things.  Maybe if the friends that I’ve lost to suicide in the past year had had the courage to speak their truth publicly, someone could’ve helped.  Instead, we all saw the best of them: the best of their lives, the perfect picture of family, vacations, love…everything that we have all been conditioned to put out there on social media.  If only they had the strength to show us their vulnerability, someone could’ve said the one thing they needed to hear to get them through the rough spot.  But humans aren’t built that way anymore.  We are built to give up on people who complain too much, who have too much going on, who ARE too much.  So we flood our social media with ideals, rather than reality.  We are all guilty.

Isn’t negativity what inspires CHANGE?  If you see something wrong, should you not speak out?  We are living through a NIGHTMARE right now, and if all you can offer up to the doctors and nurses who are watching people die every day while working overtime, or to the entrepreneurs who are losing their businesses and mental health in lop-sided lockdowns, or those suffering through non-stop domestic abuse, is some shitty, empty, “stay positive” quote, you are not a life coach…and you may just be fueling division and adding to the frustration. 

If Rosa Parks had simply gotten up from her seat, where would we be? If everyone had stayed silent about George Floyd’s death, would we have the awareness that we are finally beginning to have? The answer is no.

Yes, positive thinking is powerful.  It inspires confidence, personal growth, and healing.  But I’m tired of negativity getting all the terrible reviews.  You need both.  Like anything in life, it’s a balancing act.  Getting those thoughts out of your system is necessary, especially in a time where we are being told we are on the same team, while being manipulatively driven apart.

Change won’t happen if you just accept your surroundings and make the best of it.  Change will only happen if you allow yourself to feel the discomfort, find the confidence to take a stand, and MAKE it happen.

Expressing frustrations doesn’t make you ungrateful for the positive things in your life.  It means you want better.  It means you can spot something wrong, and you’re trying to fix it.

I am unapologetically passionate.  About everything.  My family, my business, my relationships, my LIFE…and my country.  Something is wrong, and we should ALL be trying to fix it.