QUESTION:

Is negativity also contagious?

We are in the midst of packing. This is an opportunity for me, every couple of years or so, to rummage through my books. And wonder why the hell I bought this one or that, and when I read this one last and... yesterday I came across one called 'Thought Vibration'.

It must have been during my delving into the whole Power of Intention period, I figured. "The Secret" and all that. I remember the fuss when the notion was first put forward: We are vibrational beings, attracting to us that which we most send out.

Laughter is contagious- you've all surely experienced that feeling of uncontrollable all-infecting laughter sometimes invading a conversation or a scene and... you are powerless to stop. In fact the more you try, the more laughter escapes you, in giggles and snorts and guffaws.

Negativity... I find it also infects?

Some people are simply geared to respond thusly. I can't explain it any other way. Everything is presented at its worst- despite what promise it might hold. The promise is irrelevant- whatever the thing is, it is always perceived as "potentially bad". Or potentially sympathy (pity) inducing.

My mother.

I've mentioned it before: The cringing as I hear her steps coming up the stairs... as I hear my door being opened knowing. Certain that whatever is coming, it will be bad.  Yesterday... I told her to back out, shut my door and open it again, this time telling me something nice... something positive- hell, even something funny.

She retraced her slow steps to her world, downstairs. She didn't have anything positive to give, apparently.

I've spent a large portion of my life trying to remain uninfected. This has resulted in me lashing out more and more as I age. I have less patience. Less tolerance. I don't want negativity to open my door and spread its doom and gloom into my room... into me!

I don't want to hear "I fell twice overseas, why didn't I die and be done with it?" This in response to my not giving a shit about something or other that seemed imminently important to her at 7.00am. Truth? It had to do with "We're going to be tossed out on the street, homeless. Call them again!" On a Sunday morning when everything is shut and no phones can be answered. On a Sunday morning when the sun peeped through the horizon for the first time in forever, without the cover of clouds. On a Sunday morning when I'd felt - as I gazed out at the not-grey light - a measure of new hope. I lashed out: "Leave me alone!"

I choose to see the positive- right to the very end. Even as my mouth protests, having ingested the negativity of others- I choose to trust my arse will be saved. And it mostly is. When it isn't,  I dust myself off and move on.

But I find, with age, I protest more. There seems to be far more negativity around. And not just from those having lived before me.

Here's the thing though: Protesting also (by the same law of attraction) breeds more... protesting.

I wonder if this is how 'loops' and stagnant running in circles form. Also, the same patterns of behaviour- despite knowing the outcome ahead of time. Maybe we get stuck in 'ruts' because we send out what we most don't want... yet this sending out emits a vibration which attracts those very same things to us!

So, in effect, following this rule- if we start sending out vibrations of all the things we are thankful for or want to attract... positivity infects others, and breeds and... creates an abundance of goodness- enough for all to share around.

I do know this about people: Invite them into laughter and joy and they will partake. Invite them into pain or misfortune and they will mostly be 'in absentia'. Despite its political and moral incorrectness... this is self-preservation, however. It is the mind saying "I don't want your burdens, I have my own."

I read somewhere (Or I may have put it together from a mishmash of others' thoughts) that if we spend an entire day genuinely smiling at everyone crossing our path... our lives will be changed for the better in every way. 

I took the book upstairs to the 'rediscovered and maybe will read again' pile. Now in yet another box waiting to soon become relocated. Not homeless!

How do you feel? Is negativity contagious and to be avoided? Or is it all hogwash?