Spreading Dread

Negative thoughts eventually get coughed up as negative speech—words that express our frustration and skepticism, but won’t really make any difference in the long run. I think it can be therapeutic to share our thoughts with a few close people, as long as it helps us improve our thinking process. However, spitting up negativity without changing our mindset merely spreads the dread. 

Not all coughs are contagious. Some people have a chronic cough due to inherent respiratory issues. These conditions can be annoying and irritating, but mostly just to the patient. Others have bacterial infections that are highly contagious. These diseases can spread to anyone who comes in contact with the germs and are thus much more dangerous.

Negative speech is a lot like whooping cough. It’s contagious, and merely covering your mouth while you spew it out won’t prevent it from spreading. Sometimes we try to mitigate our negative words by couching them in terms of concern or advice. When we are speaking about ourselves—our past, present, or future—we pass it off as being realistic.

Positive speech is not a very effective antidote to negative speech either. I have tried to counter someone’s negativity by pointing out the positives in their lives. This just seems to make them dig in deeper into cynicism. 

The only method I have found that works against negative speech is to avoid it. When I start speaking negatively, spreading my dread around like the plague—I remind myself to shut up. When others around me start spewing unproductive hostility and discontent, I try to walk away. This is very difficult for me to do, since my immunity to negativity is low—I easily get caught up—I have a difficult time disengaging from any conversation. I’m genetically predisposed to pessimism. I find myself defending, explaining, justifying, arguing…adding to the vomit—spreading the disease of dread.