IT’S simple! Positivity begets positivity. One of the quickest ways to rid yourself of negative energy is to surround yourself with happy people.

Let their optimism and good cheer infect you. Seek their help when you need to look at a situation in a different way. Negative people can bring you down. While venting out angst is acceptable, you will better manage your emotions if you don’t get sucked into a vortex of negativity. Surrounding yourself with happy people willl make you happy yourself — you will find yourself perking up just a little bit more and smiling along with them later on.

Birds of the same feather flock together? It is the same in this case. If your companions are in a constant state of griping, backbiting and complaining, wouldn’t you find yourself doing the same thing later? When you talk to someone who’s depressed, don’t you feel down yourself? You might find yourself adapting to their behavior over time. While you are still conscious of it, make an effort to go with the happy-feathered flock.

So who have you been hanging out with lately? Whoever they are, I hope they’re nurturing your soul just right, and vice versa. Feeling down and negative is unavoidable, what is important is that we are able to bounce back and keep our views on life positive. We can do this easily with the help of good friends, of happy people in our circle.

IF only it were that easy. The Justice League gets an alert, the superheroes fly into the city, put a stop to the explosion and spare the lives of innocents. That’s how the cartoons would do it. That’s how it’s supposed to be in an ideal albeit imaginary world. But it is hardly that easy. It is also hardly true.

What we have is reality. The grief and disbelief that followed last Friday’s explosion was followed by many questions of how’s, why’s, what’s and who’s. Some stood rooted to the ground unable to grasp the gruesome truth of what had just happened, not more than a ten-minute walk away from where they worked. Most started making calls to loved ones, checking to make sure they were safe. All wanted answers, but closure does not come easily.

Could’ve beens and should’ve beens accented sentences here and there, but verbal assurances didn’t fully make one feel safe. While we yearn to enjoy life as much as we want, we yearn more so to feel safe. Isn’t that how it is on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs — satisfy my need for security before my need for the good life?

Life goes on, yes it does. While we wait for answers, let’s hang in there and keep each other safe. There are no superheroes. There is no Clark Kent, no Peter Petrelli, no Hiro Nakamura to unravel time and hinder that disaster. There is only us — ordinary human beings without superhero capabilities but with an enormous capacity to nurture and love. Let’s take care of each other. This is reality. This is ideal.

SUBSCRIBING to newsletters with inspirational themes and quotes are great ways to remind myself to stay positive. Sometimes the deluge of reminders can be overwhelming though, and they end up looking like reflections of one another. And then there are times when a quote stands out, grabs your attention and puts you in reflective mode. That’s exactly what happened to me when I opened one of my daily e-mail from Oprah’s Mission Calendar Inspirations. The inspiration for the day was this beautiful quotation.

“People talk about the meaning of life; there is no meaning of life–there are lots of meanings of different lives, and you must decide what you want your own to be.”
– Joseph Campbell

It struck me. It was an epiphany. It was “Bahala ka sa buhay mo!” spun differently. Kidding aside, it really did stop me from working for about five minutes. The quote did its work: Reflective Mode ON.

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THERE are three things I don’t like waking up to: the honking of jeepneys, the sound of a mocking alarm clock and a sink full of dishes. Since jeepneys are given noisemakers, and an alarm clock has to mock me incessantly to get out of bed, let me talk about clutter. That’s something I can avoid waking up to.

Clutter is a really fast way to stress yourself out. Try searching for that proposal stuck in between those piles of documents while your boss stands behind you, tapping her foot impatiently. Uh-oh! Organizing your things can go a long way in helping you avoid unnecessary stress. So one way to de-stress is simply to organize that clutter.

The more clutter there is, the more we are reminded of the things we still have to do. So streamline those things, and you’ll feel and think more clearly too.

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