The Positive Side of Neutral

The echo from this week's circle rang with positivity.

The question that started the ripple was focused on what we want to radiate differently — what we want to recalibrate in our lives for the good of all people. When asked, one participant shared that an influential person in her life carried the maxim, "be overwhelmingly positive!" She has recently decided to try it on for size, writing it on a sticky note and taping it to her computer.

On one hand, "be overwhelmingly positive!" sounds like a wonderful intention in a world that is programmed for fear, greed, lack, and hate. On the other, "overwhelmingly" reeks a little of toxicity and a lack of balance.

So first, we needed to explore what "positive" meant, and what "overwhelmingly" meant — not only to this particular individual, but to get an idea of how each person in circle understood what positivity looked like.

Two Doorways Into the Same Word

The beauty of the circle is that we gain different depths and perspectives that can help soften or support our own exploration and relationship to the unfolding of life.

Some responses came from the outward radiance column. Being genuine. Smiling. Not having an attitude. Being purely happy to serve.

Others explored the inner world. Staying open to receiving positively. The open view of witnessing our emotions and our responses to what we're receiving and in relationship to. Maintaining a positive mindset that everything is here to help you grow, evolve, and expand.

And that inner orientation radiates outward.

Same phrase. Two completely different doorways. Both entirely valid.

The Positive Side of Neutral

Yes to all of it. And — we don't have to be "overwhelmingly" positive.

In most people's daily lives, just an ounce of positivity is overwhelming.

There's neutral, and there's either side of it. Being on the positive side of neutral puts you on the positive side of neutral. If you're not doing harm, you're contributing well-being.

And our actions ripple. Like attracts like. Positive attracts positive.

Aim for the stars, absolutely. And any notch above zero is a notch above zero.

It's the process of reiteration, of practicing, of developing and growing.

Think of a team on the first day of rehearsal. Now think of that same team three months in. Three years in. The skill gets built by showing up with whatever you have that day and taking the shot from wherever you're standing. Some days that's the three-point line. Some days it's half court. And some days all you've got is to stand next to the hoop on a ladder and drop it in — and that still counts, because it's a repetition, and repetitions are how the skill arrives.

We do the best we can with the energetic resources — mental, emotional, physical — available to us from hour to hour, moment to moment.

We build the future with what we practice today.

And neutral itself is its own kind of maximum. Neutral leaves the field undisturbed. There is real skill in equanimity, in the capacity to move through a hard hour without adding anything heavy to the shared air. Some days that is the whole practice, and it is plenty.

A Guiding Star, Not a Metric

Our intentions and ideals — the vision we're aiming toward, "be overwhelmingly positive" — are best served as a guiding star, and not as a metric we measure ourselves against.

The process of recalibrating is most often slow and steady, as there are so many forces pulling on us. Winds and waves that we are constantly adjusting for.

I liken it to trying to clean up after a feather pillow has exploded. If you use too much effort or too much speed, you'll continually re-aggravate the feathers, and yourself. It's the slow, easeful attention to what we're doing, as we're doing it, that allows us to find neutral and aim for the positive.

Missing the mark costs almost nothing. Beating yourself up for missing it is where the energy actually goes.

This is the part I most want to leave you with, because it's where I see people lose the most ground. Not in the drift — the drift is guaranteed. In the story they tell themselves about having drifted.

You will be short with someone this week. You will scroll past something you meant to respond to. You will have a whole day where neutral is the very best you can manage, and some days neutral is a genuine achievement.

Notice it. Return. That's the practice, and there is no version of this where the returning ever stops being necessary.

Balance, and the Benefit of All Beings

The other thread that rings true for me with "be overwhelmingly positive" is the call for balance. Balance in effort. Balance in aim. And balance with life.

From my Buddhist practices, I've garnered the phrase "...for the benefit of all beings." The concept also comes through in the Law of One.

We are living through a time that is exemplifying service-to-self. We see it in the money and power grabs across the globe.

And if you're like me, you may have been programmed with service-to-others. This sounds virtuous — as does "be overwhelmingly positive," at first. But with this maxim we lose ourselves, we burn out, we people-please, and we end up pissed off that nobody is doing the same for us.

What I've come to understand as wise, skillful, and balanced is service-to-all.

May my work… may my practice… may this conversation… be for the benefit of all people.

May I include myself and others, and the wholeness of life, the connectedness of life, in this action, in this thought, in this experience.

We do it in service to the whole. Service to the field — the field of consciousness. The quantum field of energy, of existence.

This is why any notch above zero is not a lowering of the aim. A single degree above neutral, sustained, contributed into a shared field by someone who is actually still standing — that is worth more than a blazing week followed by a collapse.

The Practice

Two small things this week.

The first: set the intention to be positive, in whatever degree is available to you.

Start with the easy win. The thing already close at hand. The thank-you. The question after the request — how are you doing, truly? The compliment you thought and can say out loud. The moment of appreciation offered to someone who wasn't expecting one.

Choose one, and let it be the easy one. 

The second: notice how you are with yourself in the moments you miss.

Not whether you missed — you will. Whether the return is offered with the same kindness you'd offer anyone else who was doing their best with what they had that hour.

May my practice be for the benefit of all beings.

Come Practice With Us

We gather Mondays at 7pm ET on Zoom for Recalibration Circle. Drop in with whatever you're carrying — the overwhelming days and the barely-above-neutral ones both belong here.

More at HumanityRecalibrated.org

With love,

Sherwood

This post is part of Echoes from the Circle — reflections, teachings, and practices drawn from the Humanity Recalibrated community. If something here resonated, there's more waiting for you at HumanityRecalibrated.org

I'd love to hear from you:

What's your easy win? The small positive thing you can offer, on the days when the stars are close and on the days when they're not. Drop it in the comments — someone else is going to borrow it.