What Happened to . . . Energy?

A perfectly consistent behavior these days is . . . nothing. Doing nothing. Or at least not doing what you told someone you would do. We here at Positively Writing have seen this with alarming regularity, and we're compelled to address it now.

Yes, you can certainly make the case that the sky has indeed fallen at some point during the last two years. We've since been bombarded with an unstoppable, overwhelming flood of negative information, rumor, forecast and "analysis." Often we are provided this input by people whose sole purpose seems to be that of doomsayer—at precisely the time when we need the opposite.

I'll reprise the line, from an earlier blog posting below, which remains the single best description of where we are right now as a society. It's from an article about irrational, dishonest negativity by The Wall Street Journal's David Wiedner: "It's one thing to call the glass half empty, but these days we deny the existence of tableware."

We see two main reason for this intensely negative climate. One, some truly serious, negative things have happened to millions of people. Two, these people—and virtually everyone else—have been further beaten down by the banal talking heads and others in the media who focus incessantly on the negative.

One consequence of this, in our view, is that seemingly automatic behaviors have disappeared. Why is this? Why does a colleague or business contact tell you they'll get back to you and then . . . nothing? Why do you find out information after the fact, when prior knowledge could have made a major (positive) difference to you? Why do ostensibly standard initiatives now take 10 times longer than they should?

We've had friends and colleagues describe myriad instances like these. And we've formed an opinion about why they happen. First, your memory does get affected by "too much information." Research demonstrates a heightened difficulty at navigating basic tasks when the brain is overwhelmed by information, stress, and other items that demand attention. And when your short-term memory is hindered, so is your ability to operate efficiently. You slow down.

Second, social media and electronic communication have enabled a decidedly informal way to communicate. So informal, in fact, that communication itself has become sporadic. Somehow it's now "okay" to not follow-up, keep someone in the loop, or tell someone you don't yet have a piece of information they need. This, friends, is not good. It's not respectful and it can negatively affect someone else's job performance . . . or even worse, their life.

Third, because (in general) we're not particularly happy, we're not laughing very often. What does laughter do? Among other things, it stimulates enzyme production in the body, increases circulation, delivers oxygen to blood cells, and can even act as an anesthetic—it can actually relieve pain. 

So, energy . . . you've been trumped by . . . a lot of stuff. But now that we understand the negative impact all this stuff can have on our brains and bodies, maybe we can re-frame a bit and start helping ourselves. 

Turn off the computer, And the TV. And the iPhone. For a few solid chunks of time, every day. Give yourself a break from all the information you've been trying to process. And maybe take with a grain of salt the gloom and doom of the irrational boors that have your ear. And, yes, laugh a little. (Okay, you can start by just smiling if the whole laughter thing feels like too big of a leap.)

Then maybe you'll feel a bit more energy creeping back into your bones. Your psyche. Your heart. And that will be a very, very positive thing. For all of us.


Don't you think?