focusing on the negative

Bad habits are so difficult to break.

 As you probably know it is easy to write a review of a book on amazon. Often the reviews are written by friends of the author and are glowing -mine included, if I must be honest! However sometimes they are written by a reader who simply has read the book and has an opinion. I have received lots of feedback about both of my books and almost all of it has been very positive. Some of the feedback has been in person and some of it on the amazon reviews. However recently there was a new review on amazon by someone I do not know of "Filling the God-Shaped Void" that was not glowing----and,of course, that is the one that keeps playing in my head. The criticism was that the book is written "by and for addicts...and she (me) sees everything from that one perspective...Don't bother if you're not an addict."

In one way I guess I shouldn't see it as terribly negative since there certainly is a strong thread of recovery in the meditations... just as there is a strong thread of recovery in these blogs. But it stings to have someone say I see things only from this one perspective.  The meditations were written with the hope that readers could adapt the thoughts to any challenge they are working on.

And the even larger issue for me is why does this "criticism" keep running through my head? Why can't I let it go and focus on the positive feedback I have received? Focusing on the negative seems to be a very human and very annoying habit. I let those thoughts have free rental space in my head....and they make me irritable.

That habit of focusing on the negative can certainly occur in recovery if there is a relapse. We tend to focus on all the negative issues associated with the relapse and ignore the positive steps we have made---we ignore the progress---we want the perfection.

So I will work on being aware of the negative thoughts and evict them as non paying tenants. Are there some negative thoughts you need to evict? Can we ask God for the peace that comes with acknowledging our mistakes (and the negative opinion of others) and moving into the progress?

Blessings-Penny