Negativity and the Path

Seeing how I am often perceived as and arguably are in many cases rather negative myself, yet on the other hand having stayed out of particularly the rant thread until now, my opinion may be biased irrespective of where I lean. That being disclaimed, I do sympathize with both sides here. Yes, on the other hand, blowing off steam (:silly:) is important and helpful and natural, but when the discussion becomes about what is or isn't Jedi, there are understandings under which to oppose critical or indeed outright negative expressions gets rather intuitive.
The embrace of conflict as means for improvement, the embrace of our natural urges and emotions and outbursts thereof as a means of maintaining balance are, both in the fiction and to different extents in the real world also, closer to being hallmarks of Sith philosophy, if any. Now, there is nothing wrong with that, and I imagine that most who will cry about how negative someone is being for not pretending to be happy when they are in fact frustrated, are seldom deep understanders of matters Sith or Jedi, fictional or real, or are good at discerning what aspects of which are actually helpful things to be adopting for oneself... Nonetheless, the objection that some things shrugged off as negativity - whether they are that or not - are arguably somewhat out of place in a Jedi's path or Temple, is not illegitimate across the board and should, time permitting, be observed case by case.

The art of knowing when negative is positive, and positive is negative :pinch:
Perhaps that is the art of discernment!?

Negativity, there is no where more needed of positive than when we reach that point. I don't seek out negative but do not run from it. Rather ,
I take time to add the chance to add the positive . No fair saying I need to be more positive but never add anything positive when it's needed. Often times when given negativity , the opposite can be given with better result than adding ore negative. I think of times like that as a oppertunity to practice my positive. Stretch the old JEDI bones and teachings lol . When I do that or see that way negativity doesn't seem so bad but actually a moment to look forward and prepare for .

Steamboat starts a thread about the health benefits of letting off steam, and I'm unsure whether this is genuine medical advice or just an elaborate fart joke :laugh:

ren wrote: Steamboat starts a thread about the health benefits of letting off steam, and I'm unsure whether this is genuine medical advice or just an elaborate fart joke :laugh:

My deepest apologies for my provoking question :blush: Did not expect to change the whole topic with it..

As a frequent user of the rant thread I can tell you I'd much rather someone see the negativity and get myself a chance to express something that I'm struggling with, than keep it in and keep others happy.
Sometimes just writing down how I feel relieves a lot of the burden.
Negativity has a place.

maybe it's the fact it's called a "rant thread"? which is often associated with whining. Where as the intention was "expression". The thing is that there is no difference to really make but sometimes language can be a barrier, and from reading the thread, myself, that is the conclusion I drew from the disagreement. Whining, bitching, ranting etc can be unhealthy. Though the thread was an invitation to do that, I got the sense it was also an invitation to express feelings that maybe people didn't feel free to express. After coming out of a "young love" engagement which ended really badly, I never spoke about it, and I can see how much that really hurt and weighed me down.

Which is also why I agree with the idea of posting in the gratitude thread because the one thing that kept me sane was that though I my engagement was over and I felt really alone, remembering I had friends and family there and things to do with my life, motivated me and made it so much easier to get up every morning.

Balance is best, and that's impossible without negativity.

As someone who has occasionally used the rant thread, I have to say that I think I still believe it's a great idea. Venting can be very beneficial and I personally rely on it (not necessarily the thread, but venting in general). That said: I think Alexandre is making a great point: keeping a balance is a good thing - so having a rant / venting moment followed by taking the time to express one's gratitude is a great exercise. I'll try to express gratitude in the respective thread whenever I post in the rants thread from now on

Nothing wrong with a little rant now and then... as said below, it's all about balance.

Repetition is a cornerstone of training.

That includes our perspective.