Your Emotional Footprint

Some people are so hard to be around. It isn't that they're bad people, but they seem to suck the emotional energy out of a room. I have friends like this: well-meaning, otherwise moral women who must carry a spare box of extra-strength drama in their handbag. As much as I would love to be around them (in theory), I am drained after a short visit.

Many of us spend a decent amount of time calculating our carbon footprint and finding ways to make it a little smaller, but how often do we really evaluate how we exist on the planet as emotional beings? What kind of energy do I bring to the table? I'm all about simplifying, but ecology will not make the world liveable if the inhabitants are giant jerks.

I think I am somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, but is that really good enough? I want to bring peace and joy with me wherever I go, to make people's lives a better place. Just like I am always trying to pare down my carbon footprint, I want to work on improving my emotional one. Here are a few ways I think I can make the world a better place:

1. Say two positive things for every negative thought.
2. Refuse to overschedule myself, and if I do so anyway, refuse to talk about it as though it somehow makes me more worthy and in demand.
3. Talk less about what other people and organizations should be doing to improve various social problems, and instead find ways I can personally impact the people around me.
4. Remember that every person is a child of God, and if they are special to God, they should be special to me.
5. Find beauty in things I dislike. Was it the Chinese who said that in order to conquer an enemy, you must find the beauty in them? Something like that.