What's Up?

Periodically, I become aware that I'm stewing in negativity. I have long known that there are several cures for negativity: doing things, reading a good book that engages my brain, and of course trying to focus on positive thoughts instead of negative ones. But unless I can maintain at least a moderate habit of the last one, mustering the will to engage in the others can be difficult. After all, without the positive expectation that reading will improve my mood, why would I bother to read? Without the positive belief that action will distract me from gloom, why would I bother to act?

So the first step in getting out of the doldrums is always the same: mustering enough positivity to believe that what I do will make a difference in how I feel.

It's basically a decision -- the decision not to maunder and mope. Curiously, it can be a hard decision, even though maundering and moping are completely unpleasant activities. Why on earth they are so absorbing, I really can't say. But I constantly have to make the decision to avoid them, or there they will be, malingering about my shoulders, moaning grim and bitter thoughts into my ears.

What's up? Quite simply, it is the decision not to be down.