What Would Happen If Society Adopted A National Day Against Negativity?

It sounds like a dream doesn't it? Imagine a day where social media censored negative posts and where news media censored negative stories.

Imagine just one day out of 365 where we all, as a society, choose to focus on the positives and not consume ourselves with all the negativity in our world.

You're now probably thinking, “This guy's insane.” There's no way that would ever happen, right? Well, what if it did?

Imagine a day where all our minds aren't fed an overdose of everything that's wrong with the world. Imagine a day where we all decided to stand up against being consumed with angst, heartache, horror, hate and unhappiness.

What if we choose, as a people united, to say for just one day out of the year we all wanted to shield ourselves from negativity and to allow ourselves a 24-hour mental vacation from it? Do we not deserve that?

From the time we all wake up in the morning and look at our phones and turn on our computers or TVs, we are filled to the brim with negativity. We are handed the awful truth that is the real world on a silver platter, and force-fed it until the moment we close our eyes and drift off to sleep.

You don't think over time that begins to affect the psyches of even the strongest and most positive people? It does.

It's true the world is a harsh place, and tragedies happen on a daily basis. There is death, destruction, hate, anger and sadness in every corner of our world from the suburban homes in northern California to the far reaches of West Africa.

Horrible things happen every minute of every hour of every day, and with social media's global reach, we all hear every gory detail of every story.

This is not to say positive stories do not exist and are not shared. They are there, peppered lightly among the others, and often buried at the bottom of news feeds or in sub categories because they aren't what really catches the eye.

What if we all came together one day a year to bring all of those stories to the tops of all the lists? Why not make one single day, a day where we all share in happiness and joy and uplifting messages, instead of being so saturated with the often hard-to-see negative truths that make our stomachs hurt?

We all know that series of movies about the society that has one night a year dedicated to marshal law where the wicked come out of the shadows, the angels become demons, where murder is welcomed and destruction is imminent. (It's "The Purge.")

Some of us think that holiday is a little closer to becoming a reality every day. Why not trade that for this?

Call it a social experiment. Label it an effort to see if maybe focusing on the positive for just a single day could open all our eyes to a different world.

Do we all really need to be barraged with bad news every day? At this point, are most of us not exhausted and feeling somewhat hopeless about our world? Why not allow ourselves a day off?

Here's the idea.

I'm proposing a 24-hour period, from midnight to midnight, of standing as one society and saying HELL NO to negative shit, saying NOT TODAY to negative news and negative posts, going out of our way to be kind and allowing ourselves to smile consistently for an entire day: a National Day Against Negativity.

It wouldn't be easy for everyone, but hey, they say smiles are contagious.

The world will not stop on this proposed day, and unfortunately not everyone in our society will be able to abstain from negativity. Bad things will happen; bad people will still do as they have always done.

Tears will still fall for some, and hearts may still break, but the power is not in the success of completely shielding ourselves from any negativity for an entire day, but in the EFFORT put forth by the majority of us to do so.

We all, as individuals, will feel better, and we'll all be happier.

Those of us who try will take pride in the fact we did, even if we don't completely succeed throughout the entire day. The most beautiful flower starts out a seed and, through trials and tribulations, grows into what it will be. Many impossible dreams have been realized, and many great norms have been challenged and changed by simply trying a different approach.

In the grand scheme of things, what is one day when there are 364 more days to be any other way? What are 24 hours when there are 8,736 more hours?

I'll tell you what a single day is: It is a start. It's a step toward making our society great again and a reach toward fighting against the toxic nature of a negatively charged world.

It's a chance for all of us to remind ourselves there is good in the world, our world is not going to shit and that in most of us, there is a desire to feel good about the future. It's a moment to say to those who seek to stir negativity, “YOU WILL NOT BRING ME DOWN TODAY.”

We have so little to lose and so much to gain. We are a society begging for a positive light. Well, that light is in all of us, just waiting to shine.

For one day, just 24 hours, let's allow it to.

For one day, we all should allow that positive light in all of us to shine brighter than any other. We all, as a society, are capable of turning this tide of negativity, if we all unite to stand against it.

Let's start with a day and see what happens. It wouldn't be the end of the world.