I’m a person who has a strong habit of seeing the good in everyone and believing that there is no bad in the world. No, not like everyone is filled with rainbows and butterflies, but more like this beautiful world we live in isn’t filled with hate, anger and tension.

But believe place we all call home isn’t filled with terrible things like war, crime, racism and complete hatred. On a much smaller scale, I’m not naïve enough to think that every single one of us doesn't face our own terrible issues every single day. These issues tend to change who we are as people, and the outlook we have on life. And I think that this is half the reason the world is overpowered by negativity.

We’ve all experienced anger. And we take that anger and let it turn into frustration, resentment, inflated egos and even closed mindedness. We let it build inside of us. We let it act as a cancer by taking the anger we feel, allowing it to grow; we use words to intentionally hurt, actions to provoke reactions and sometimes to even harm others. Just simply creating more anger in this world.

Take a step back and think about your life; how many times have you immediately reacted to something out of anger instead of thinking it through? And how many times has it been beneficial to the situation, or helped you become a better person? I imagine very few times. I’ve learned that reactions are very expensive and rarely effective, especially when they come from a place of anger. They can cost us relationships and someone's trust all for a quick, unplanned response.

We’ve had this awful tendency to believe that we are superior to everyone surrounding us. That whatever we believe is right and there is no other option. I think that this is the other half the reason the world is overpowered by hatred and tension. We are all terrified to open our minds to other points of view because it means we may have to change what we have always known.

We close our minds to everything that doesn’t make sense around us, just chalking it up to being wrong when, in reality, it could also be right just a different point of view. We don’t have general respect for those around us and the fact that we all come from different backgrounds, we were all raised differently, and we all have different beliefs, morals and values. We simply see our lives and firmly believe that we are superior to anything else.

So my question for all of you is why? Why do we as humans seem to thrive the most on anger and hatred? Why do we live our lives close minded and disrespecting those different than us? Why do we tell anyone who is different that they are wrong? Why do we carry grudges around with us instead of forgiving and moving forward? Why do we react when we are angry, but not when we feel any other emotion? Why can’t we spread love instead of hate? We see all over social media people are being praised for doing a good deed, but why are we praising them for simply being a good person? Why can’t we teach the generations behind us that this isn’t the way the world should be? Because that’s exactly what we are doing; showing the younger generations that it’s okay to be filled with hate and anger. That it’s okay to disrespect anyone who looks different than us, or acts different.

So let’s start today with the spreading of love, and ridding of hate. Forgiving of those who have done us wrong and opening our minds to other ways of life. Every single one of us holds the potential to do great things in this world, we just don’t always realize it because we are flooded with all the negativity surrounding us. So open your fists, your hearts and your minds because this world is so much greater than we give it credit for.