“Whenever you are unhappy, there’s an unconscious belief that the unhappiness will buy you what you want … Negativity does not work. Instead of attracting a desirable condition, it stops it from arising. Instead of dissolving an undesirable one, it keeps it in place. Its only useful function is that it strengthens the ego, and that is why the ego loves it.
Once you have identified with some form of negativity, you do not want to let go, and on a deeply unconscious level, you do not want positive change; it would threaten your identity as a depressed, angry, or hard-done-by person. You will then ignore, deny, or sabotage the positive in your life. This is a common phenomenon. It is also insane.
Negativity is totally unnatural. It is a psychic pollutant, and there is a deep link between the poisoning and destruction of nature, and the vast negativity that has accumulated in the collective human psyche. No other life form on the planet knows negativity. Only humans. Just as no other life form violates and poisons the earth that sustains it.
Have you ever seen an unhappy flower or stressed oak tree? Have you come across a depressed dolphin? A frog who has a problem with self-esteem? A cat who cannot relax? Or a bird who carries hatred and resentment?” -Eckhart Tolle
Negativity, depression and anxiety are common in animals. Animals in captivity often exhibit signs of depression, house pets can experience a variety of emotions that can be interpreted as signs of unique personalities. To say that negativity is a uniquely human trait only further removes us form the natural world by insinuating that there is something different about us. To me, this is the true cause of millennia of natural exploitation: the idea that we are separate (or above) the world in which we live. That we exist on a different plane. It makes it easier to disassociate ourselves from the impacts of our actions.
Those who wallow in negativity and associate it with part of their personality will inevitably succumb to it and live in a completely ego driven experience; but to attempt to remove negativity from life is ignoring a crucial aspect of existence. Negativity can become a personal challenge and a struggle to overcome it; a recognition of a need for change.
This is assuming there even is an “us” to be separate 😉