Staying Positive During Tough Times

The economic downturn is real. Unemployment is high, business is down, people are grapping with horrible realities of home loss–these are scary times. There’s an overall tone of gloom. Here in NYC people are extra-crabby on the subway (I hearby ban the irritated cluck-and-sigh as a way to express annoyance). I imagine it’s the same all over. But I, for one, am fighting for mood-independence. I do not want to pitch myself off the gloom bridge.

Perhaps it’s easy for employed me to say, but I notice it’s a struggle to extract myself from the overall vibe–because I’m well aware that today’s employed could be tomorrow’s worried thumb-twiddling. Melancholy and worry are some of my main default settings. But I’m trying to remember that I am not socially obligated to feel lousy all the time. This moment is fine. And all the moments of today have been fine. It’s a mental practice to keep myself there–especially as someone who tends to take on the feelings of others like a particularly absorbant sponge.

Here are some ways I’m fighting the urge to be bummed about the economy (or Michael Jackson, or whatever else is consuming mass consciousness at the moment).