Negativity = Emotional Second Hand Smoke (Transcription)

[audio:https://www.thementalhealthgym.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Negativity-Emotional-_Second-Hand-Smoke_.mp3|titles=Negativity = Emotional Second Hand Smoke|artists=Dr. Ron Kaiser]

 Hi everybody this is Dr Ron Kaiser with your March 2013 podcast from The Mental Health Gym. This month’s podcast is entitled “Negativity = Emotional Second Hand Smoke”. Recent research has identified the fact that smoking tends to be a worst habit than initially thought, at least in terms of an individual’s health is concerned. What we’ve also begun to pre-shape more in the recent times is the fact that smoking has a tremendously negative impact upon the health of individuals around the smoker, in other words, second hand smoke can be a very dangerous and in some cases fatal condition.

Certainly it can impact upon the general health of people and that’s one of the reasons that measures have been taken to kind of keep in environments cleaner, there’re relatively few work places where smoking is allowed, if you’re going to a ball game or a concert or visiting an art museum. Even if you’re going to a ball game that’s out of doors, smoking is prohibited throughout the facility. And that’s not just to protect the health of the smoker but also to protect the environment and the health and the general enjoyment of life for the vast majority of people who nowadays don not smoke.

So bottom-line is that secondhand smoke is not a good thing and when we turn to the concept the of emotional second hand smoke, guess what, that not a good thing either. That’s what’s called negativity emotional second hand smoke. If a person is negative, person brings a negative attitude toward a situation then in essence what they’re doing is saying that whenever they’re faced by a challenge, it’s not going to happen, we’re not going to be successful, we don’t expect to be successful. If success occurs even if we make an effort that leads to the success very often the negative individual is likely to interpret it as being something related to the environment or luck or things of that nature. Usually the negative individual has no problem blaming himself or herself or those around them for things that go wrong. That’s often not based on luck or the environment or things of that nature. Negative people expect negative things to happen. They don’t provide encouragement to themselves or those around them and that’s one of the basic reasons why negativity is so closely related to second hand smoke. Its effect is not only on the negative individual who very often is displaying negativity as a reflection of a low self concept, but it also effect those around you. You know we’re role models for those who are around us, our children, spouses, friends, coworkers and others, many of the people we come in contact with look to us for some expression of how to behave, how to react and so on. And if we’re friendly with somebody who is constantly negative, it doesn’t take long for some of that negativity to rub off on us. Just a second hand smoke affects the non-smoker as well as the person who is utilizing the smoking behavior. So that’s one of the reasons why in fact we’ve seen the popularity of positive psychology because so many people can relate to the fact that they’re exposed to a lot of negative points of view and even when going into therapy some of those individuals spend a lot of time focusing on what’s gone wrong, what the problem is, what’s wrong with them and so on. Positive psychology has been like a breath of fresh air in terms of letting people know that there’s another way of thinking about that. So that we can through positive behaviors overcome and offset the effects of negativity. That’s something really worth working on. In other words just as the environment can be made much healthier, much more pleasant smelling and more comfortable for broad range of people by telling smokers to take their behavior elsewhere, we can do the same thing with respect to negativity. We don’t have to absorb it. We can tell the negative person to take their behavior outside. If you’re around negative people it doesn’t take long to become negative yourself. By the same token the negative person doesn’t have to be the role model. The positive person can, and that’s one of the basis for the mental health gym is to promote positive behavior, goal achieving and an attitude that enables you to overcome negative thinking even if it doesn’t come from yourself because it comes from those around you it’s likely to affect you before too long. So I encourage you to stay up with some of the things that we’re providing through our blogs and podcasts and newsletters and so on, so you have an answer if you’re faced with negative behavior, let’s not be sucked in by the second hand smoke let’s bring light and positivity and improved functioning to those around us. Remember that the focus of positive psychology is on thriving and flourishing. It’s very difficult to flourish when you’re constantly undermining yourself or hearing lots of negative things in your environment. So let’s counteract that. The antidote to negativity is positivity, thriving, flourishing, looking forward, setting goals, being active and moving in a forward direction. See how much more fun that can be than absorbing the second hand smoke of negative thinking of those who may be around you, change their behavior, don’t let them change yours. Change their thinking rather than being absorbed by theirs. And let’s eliminate second hand smoke from our emotional environments. I hope this gives you something to think about as always I hope that some of you will be in touch with me and let me know your thoughts about this podcast as well as making suggestions for our future podcasts or future blogs. I’ll look forward to speaking with you again next month and I hope that this change of seasons is offering all of you time to start on even more positive thinking and setting goals that can get you to the next level of your behavior, the next level of your goals and the next level of your interactions with others. This has been Dr Ron Kaiser with the March 2013 podcast from The Mental Health Gym and we’ll be speaking with you again next month.