There are so many ways to get your message out there with the advance of social media.

My question is: What are you advancing?

You may answer, “A point of view.”

The real question is: What ingredients are contained in that point of view?

Too often, I see that one of those ingredients is hate. If you are espousing hate in your point of view, it not only reflects on you, it poisons you.

What you may be unaware of is that putting hate out there doesn’t rid you of it; it just amplifies it in you. Advancing hate is not cathartic. It’s like rabbits and coat hangers; it just multiplies.

Not only do you announce your viewpoint to every one of your followers, you also give them a look into your soul that’s tortured with hate.

You can have a position or preference for or against something without being hateful. It just takes some noticing.

Notice, first, that your anger doesn’t dissipate when you post or repost a hateful message. It just becomes more entrenched. Second, become aware of the anger in you. Don’t judge it; just notice it. Just noticing feelings without justifying or castigating them has a way of getting them to metabolize. Finally, retire your poison pen. It will be much easier after noticing because you’ll have much less hate to spread around.

I don’t have statistics to back this up but it’s my experience that people who advance hate are more ill and die sooner than those who don’t. I’m sure there are exceptions, but too few to count.

Don’t stop advancing hate because it’s the “right” thing to do. Do it because it’s good for you.

All the best,

John