![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Positivity Challenge, Day 4
Sep. 12th, 2014 10:17 amListing three positives for a fourth day of five. Day 3.
Friday: Kind of self-explanatory, but I'll talk about it anyway. On the one hand I'm one of those people who works at what he loves and is fortunate that society has deemed what I love to be worthy of high pay. I'm honestly not sure why a manager gets paid more than a gradeschool teacher - from everything I can see the teacher works a lot harder. But more than my work I love not working. I love goofing off and doing things with my family and friends. I love my home and not being at work.
Properly managing anxieties: part of fixing a problem is acknowledging you have it. I spent a good part of my life thinking I had low-level persistent depression. It was immensely helpful some years ago to get to work with a therapist who convinced me that, no, the reason I felt bad was because shitty things were happening to me and people I cared about. That's normal, not depression. On the other hand, anxiety is a real thing and it requires me to do a bunch of things differently. I do them as best I can and have lots of love and support from my family, partners, and friends. I don't think I'll ever NOT have anxiety but it's a world of difference when it's properly managed versus when it's raging hard.
Smart people saying smart things: I am optimistic that the world is full of smart, insightful people who are able to think in useful ways about stuff that makes me cry (Ferguson, for example) or throw up my hands in exasperation (climate change). I don't expect that I can sit on my hands and have these smart people solve all the world's problems but I like listening to people (though things like TED talks or recorded podcasts) who are engaging usefully with these subjects that might overwhelm me. I feel smarter and more hopeful when I read or hear these good voices.
Friday: Kind of self-explanatory, but I'll talk about it anyway. On the one hand I'm one of those people who works at what he loves and is fortunate that society has deemed what I love to be worthy of high pay. I'm honestly not sure why a manager gets paid more than a gradeschool teacher - from everything I can see the teacher works a lot harder. But more than my work I love not working. I love goofing off and doing things with my family and friends. I love my home and not being at work.
Properly managing anxieties: part of fixing a problem is acknowledging you have it. I spent a good part of my life thinking I had low-level persistent depression. It was immensely helpful some years ago to get to work with a therapist who convinced me that, no, the reason I felt bad was because shitty things were happening to me and people I cared about. That's normal, not depression. On the other hand, anxiety is a real thing and it requires me to do a bunch of things differently. I do them as best I can and have lots of love and support from my family, partners, and friends. I don't think I'll ever NOT have anxiety but it's a world of difference when it's properly managed versus when it's raging hard.
Smart people saying smart things: I am optimistic that the world is full of smart, insightful people who are able to think in useful ways about stuff that makes me cry (Ferguson, for example) or throw up my hands in exasperation (climate change). I don't expect that I can sit on my hands and have these smart people solve all the world's problems but I like listening to people (though things like TED talks or recorded podcasts) who are engaging usefully with these subjects that might overwhelm me. I feel smarter and more hopeful when I read or hear these good voices.
