Down is Default

Why can it be so hard to stay positive? Why is it so easy to get sucked into the negativity trap? Unless there is some force to the contrary, Mother Nature’s default is downhill. Mountains erode, buildings crumble, roads deteriorate, bridges eventually collapse. Rain falls, hits the ground, and flows downhill.

This is good. If water didn’t flow downhill, we’d never get rain and it would be pretty much impossible to irrigate the veggies growing out back. Water follows a course of least resistance down through a hoed row in a garden then down to a lower row, and so on. On its way down the row, water sinks down through the soil to the roots of the plants.

But what if your garden is uphill from the water source? How do you get the water to flow up? Change the default. Apply constant positive pressure to reverse the default and elevate the water. Water will flow uphill when we use metal or concrete pipes or otherwise contain it, and with positive pressure move it in a new direction.

Elevation requires lift. Lift requires positive pressure. Sustained positive pressure will get water to flow uphill. It’s the same with our marvelously malleable minds. Sustained positive effort will create the changes we seek.

Consider the following mental metaphor.

As water which flows downhill without direction and pressure to do otherwise, our default reaction to life’s difficulties generally takes us downhill. Without intentional choice and mental practice our emotional reactions to adversity are typically, or at least initially, negative.

Like learning to use a whole new keyboard, changing our default requires lots of practice. Repeated practice provides the structure and energy required to make permanent this positive change in our approach to life and its challenges. Intentional positivity, repeatedly practiced with constructive focus and intent, provides the pipes and pressure to change our default from downhill to uphill.

Elevation Requires Effort