So many of us are stuck in our ways.  We get stuck with habits that don’t serve us.  We get stuck in the rut of routines. We get stuck in emotions that high-jack our lives.

Negativity and fear tend to hold us back – keep us stuck.

But it doesn’t have to work that way…really!

I found it helpful to know that it’s a tendency in human nature to focus on the negative. It turns out that we are wired to pay more attention to negative events or experiences as a way to stay alert to potential threat. So, even if there were 20 wonderful things going on, most of us would hone in on the one negative.  It’s primal…do you feel better yet?

Likewise, our reptilian brain alerts us for fear.  There is a hardwired stimulus – response thing going on in our brains.  We hear a loud noise and we jump. We see a snake and we freeze. It’s primal.

The problem is that many of us get stuck in these primal responses.  We become paralyzed by the fear and locked in on the negative.  We perpetuate these natural responses by living them over and over.  We give the negative center stage and fear a longer life span than it was intended.

 So how do we get unstuck?

You’ve got to accentuate the positive – eliminate the negative – latch on to the affirmative! 

Long before this 1940’s tune hit the airwaves, this was true!  Oh…you don’t know this song?  Here ya go…

They make it sounds so easy, don’t they?

Of course, many us us experience difficulties in life and some of us endure horrific experiences.  But, we are not chained to these events.  We don’t have to live them on and on.  Even if the negative is our default primal focus, it isn’t necessary for us to keep our attention there. We can choose to move on to the things in life that are good, enjoyable, and worthy of our attention.

Awareness of the good things in our life really does balance our natural negative focus.  With deliberate effort, we can switch our focus to the good things. It can make a difference in our day and make long term effects on our health and well being. Awareness and deliberate effort are essential in fostering happiness and well being.

But what about fear? 

We know all too well that there are plenty of things to be afraid of in this world.  There’s terrorists, poverty, cancer…all sorts of doom and gloom. But it’s important to know that fear, once triggered, runs it’s course. Once the stimulus has passed, we are supposed to let the fear pass too.

The way I see it is that fear becomes a steady state of being because we sustain it beyond what happened in the past or we spin off to what might happen in our future.

If the actual stimulus of the fear is not happening in the moment, but the fear still consumes us, we have been emotionally hijacked.  It’s up to us to bring awareness to our residual fear.  It’s up to us to use deliberate effort to bring gloom down to the minimum.

Easier said than done for certain, but quite possible. It takes practice.

So today’s question is, how do YOU get unstuck?  No, really!  

What are ways that you get beyond the negative?  How do you deal with fear?

Share with us here…Tell us how YOU spread joy up to the maximum!  You just might give someone new hope.