aka December Good Deeds against overwhelming grimness
When inspired, interested, when feeling better connected, tell it to people! Tell people you value and love their work how much having them on your wall and feed makes your day better. Show there is a connection! Randomly make somebody's day better by showing that you see them and their work!
How?
Tell it to people behind fan pages you follow (just send a message), to friends sharing content you find interesting, tell it to admins of groups you're a member of. When feeling particularly grateful, thank people for interesting comments!
Go to specific fan pages, and support a cause or organization - leave a good word to show that you care and their fight is being seen and appreciated! (climate and environment, human rights, animal rights - whatever is closest to your heart) - of course, supporting with money is highly recommended too.
Why?
Besides the obvious inter-human relationship building, this action is solving two issues:
Reason #1: Make Social Media Great Again
We are bombarded by bad news, by news about bad news even. And yes, the World is not in good condition, but seeing no hope for it, does not make anyone to fight more for our survival.
By noticing and recognizing what is good, I want to keep reminding myself about all the good things I experience and about all the good people doing important things. Not taking anything for granted.
I also want to show them - my friends and all the anonymous activists I follow - that they are seen and their work too. I want to fight the notion that social media are all that is bad in humanity. Because it is not true. Social media are what we make them too. And I prefer to contribute in positive pro-active way, than to stay passively silent or spread fake-news.
Reason #2: More Creative Brain
Gratitude is reversing the Negativity Bias* we tend to have and basically challenges our brain to overcome its natural tendencies to rather be pessimistic.
Gratitude is like gym for the brain.
And, as in normal exercising, with gratitude, the befit I get is a more creative, stronger brain. Who wouldn't like to have it?!
And no, it doesn't come easily to me. I'm terribly sarcastic, sometimes even cynical person. My "go to mode" is to be at least indifferent if not rude even. Making this effort feels sometimes shamefully cheesy, makes me feel so very vulnerable. Even so, I intend to keep on doing it anyway, especially thinking about unexpected joy it can bring to other people. (so if not for me, then for others, that I care about!).
*I learned about it during amazing self-care session during the Megaphone event with Susan Comfort from Non Profit Comfort Consulting
Post originally posted on my Fan Page - The Radical Act of Self Care
ps. once a month I sent a Newsletter with interesting content, all from the Humans, not Robots perspective - just like in this post. Sing up here!
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