Stamping out Negativity

Something I've known for awhile is that it is easy to be negative, and it takes work to be and remain a positive person. For me, the hardest has always been staying positive. It is so easy to become infected with people's negative energy, and most negative people desperately want to poison you. As someone who has not had an easy life, and as someone who has taken the easy way out of the pain for too many years of my life I work hard every day to make the healthiest choices I can. I am far from perfect, I have days where I feel down and feel tempted to say why bother, happiness is only for other people, I don't have the means to be happy. However now, unlike in the past, I fight those feelings off as best as I can, and I don't allow myself to go back to toxic behavior. It  is hard work, and I don't always succeed, but my success rate is getting better by the day. I really mean that, the hard work pays off, and then it is so worth it. I have been able to make small changes in my life to improve the quality, so I have less to feel bad about, and it frees up a lot of my headspace to focus on more positive things. I think in the past I would have missed some of these chances because I was too busy drowning my sorrows in one negative way or another. And it is a very tough cycle to break out of, and for a lot of us change is very scary, even if it is a positive change. Sometimes when I feel outnumbered by negative people, and I start feeling like what is the point, I try to focus on how much better I feel, and how much stronger I feel. That's where the mind/body part comes in I think. For me, the fact that if I start smoking cigarettes and drinking again, I won't be able to keep improving my fitness level, and I'm pretty proud of how far I've come, and each time I do a super hard workout, I notice I'm grunting less so I'm pretty damn happy with myself and it feels great. So my body getting strong is helping to motivate my head and heart to stay strong. Far from scientific facts, but it's the best way I can describe what's happening with me, and it's pretty awesome.
I think people who are negative somehow think that people who are happy are dumb, or have it easy. I hear a lot of "I'd be happy too if I had...." . But the truth of the matter is trying to remain positive in this cold world takes work, plain and simple, because some of the most toxic people I know have more than I probably ever will in my life and they suck the life right out of you with their negativity.
In my humble opinion, and what I've learned is that change can only happen when you make it happen. So if I can make these changes I know it's possible and it feels so great. It feels so great to be typing out my feelings this morning, and setting myself up to have a positive day.
I feel like I sound like a broken record, but I can't help but think about how the world could be kinder if humans were kinder.
If you are working on getting yourself healthier and happier, stay strong and know that you are working hard, and it pays off, and if you let anyone pull you back down, there's nowhere to go but down. And I don't know about you, but I've spent enough time in the gutter, and I have things to say, and changes to make in this world, so if you have nothing nice to say, please have a seat and zip it right on up! The more we stand up to negativity, the better chance we have of making it go away.