For those who know me, or who have been following any of my social media posts, you know that I’m generally one to favour positivity. Even in these troubled times, I choose to put my attention and energy on optimism, positivity, gratitude and humour.

While some people may look at me and see a naive, fool-hearty fellow who thinks that meditating, thinking happy thoughts and writing gratitude lists will cure the world, know that I am not a blathering idiot. I do realize the severity and challenge that our entire planet is facing with COVID-19. The difference is that I choose not to feed the fear and panic; I choose to feed love and positivity.

How approprite, then, to receive an email from a blog that I follow that perfectly summarizes how I’ve been approaching and dealing with this pandemic from the start.

But we need to stay positive, optimistic and hopeful to keep fighting this. We need to help each other. We need to protect our health, but to do that we have to protect our mental health, our spirit and soul to stay resilient.

Eric Barker (This Is The Most Fun Way To Make Your Life Awesome (Pandemic Edition))

In his beautifully written blog post, Eric Barker identifies four keys to starting a pandemic of positivity in order to combat the global pandemic. In his view, Eric says we must spread connection, help, gratitude and optimism.

This is precisely what I’ve been attempting to do for the past few weeks. I try to remain positive and upbeat in my social media posts, not succumbing to the fear-mongering and nastiness that I’ve been seeing and hearing all over the place. There is enough negativity and bleakness in the world without my adding to it. Plus, the way I look at it, what does it serve to add to the fire? Fear just breeds more fear. Anger just breeds more anger. The alternative is much more appealing to me.

I don’t see much negativity on my Facebook or Instagram feeds anymore. When I start noticing that one of my friends, or people that I follow are constantly spreading negativity, fear or often outright falsehoods, I simply unfollow them. When I sign into Facebook or Instagram, I see things that inspire me, things that uplift me, things that make me laugh and feel good. This is the true power of social media.

What message or intentions are you sending out into the universe? If you go back and look at the last 10 things you posted, knowing that this energy is what you would get in return, would you still share and post them? I like to use Socrates’ three filters when I’m sharing information:

So let’s all try to be mindful of spreading fear, and instead look to spread love, kindness, helpfulness and gratitude into the world. It does not take much effort.

• Take a few minutes to call a friend or family member
• Write an email to someone you haven’t spoken to in a while
• Share things that brighten your heart and your spirit on your social media feeds
• Help out an elderly neighbour or family member by checking on them and offering to pick up food or supplies for them
• Spend a few minutes every morning or evening to list 3 things that you’re grateful for today
• Honestly thank the people who’ve done something nice, no matter how big or small. Don’t just say “thanks”; actually mean it!

Let’s all be a little more patient, a little more understanding, a little more loving. To quote one of my favourite musicians, Frank Turner:

In a world that has decided
That it's going to lose its mind
Be more kind, my friends, try to be more kind

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You can read Eric Barker’s original blog post here, and I highly recommend that you do! Better yet, read it and share it yourself and get infected by our new pandemic of positivity.