Twitter Made Me More Positive

It’s so easy to complain to your family and close friends. Often its too easy to complain. We know that no matter what we say or how annoying we are, they will still be there for us. When we whine about work or our relationships our friends are usually there to be a sounding board, listen and agree with us about how much life sucks.

Too much of a good thing can be bad though. Our automatic thoughts become: complain, whine, negativity – hoping that our friends will make us feel better.

This is where Twitter comes into play. On Twitter I don’t want to whine. I don’t want my Twitter friends (or not even so much as an acquaintance) to perceive me as a depressed, negative, or self-loathing type of person.

It all started as a way to shape and preserve my personal brand, but over time my actions shaped my automatic thoughts. Over the past 5 months that I’ve been seriously active on Twitter I have learned how to talk about my “negative” life experiences (problems at work, arguments with friends, concerns about my lack of life direction, etc.) in a more positive, productive, and sometimes light-hearted way. Instead of thinking “tomorrow’s meeting is going to suck”, I automatically think “I’m really not looking forward to tomorrow’s meeting, but I know that I can find the positive in it somewhere”.

But instead of just sounding more positive, I actually think more positively. I don’t need my friends or family to “make me feel better” all the time anymore. Without even knowing it, I’ve found a way to do it on my own.

Have you had a similar experience? Or is this all in my head?