Summary

The article outlines a metaphorical "vaccine" against toxicity through proactive engagement with positive actions and personal development.

Abstract

The article, titled "Toxicity is a Virus: How to Vaccinate Yourself to Stay Healthy," draws a parallel between toxicity in our environment and a virus like COVID-19. It argues that exposure to toxicity can be as detrimental to one's well-being as a virus is to the body. Since complete avoidance of toxicity is impossible, the author suggests a method of "vaccination" through deliberate and consistent positive actions. These actions are intended to build a robust defense against negativity, leveraging the concept that positive energy must outweigh negative influences significantly due to humanity's inherent negativity bias. The article references research on negativity bias and provides a 6-step game plan for individuals to cultivate a more positive life, which includes creating a vision board, establishing foundational healthy habits, focusing on specific areas of personal growth, setting monthly goals, publicizing one's progress, and maintaining a journal of achievements.

Opinions

The author posits that toxicity is pervasive and inevitable, affecting various aspects of life such as work, relationships, and social interactions.
It is emphasized that one cannot simply overcome or avoid toxicity; instead, one must actively counteract it.
The author suggests that positive actions must be taken in a significantly larger measure than the negative influences they are meant to counteract, proposing a tenfold increase to be effective.
The article advocates for the importance of sleep, nutrition, and mental and physical health as foundational elements in combating toxicity.
Personal development is highlighted as crucial, with the author recommending individuals to focus on areas that align with their vision for a non-toxic life.
The concept of using public accountability and documentation of progress as tools to reinforce one's commitment to positive change is a key strategy in the proposed vaccination process.
The author believes that by consistently engaging in positive actions, individuals can build resilience against toxicity, much like a vaccine provides immunity against a virus.
The article concludes with the notion that following the outlined strategies not only protects against the effects of toxicity but also leads to a stronger sense of self, confidence, and the ability to empathize with those who exhibit toxic behavior without being adversely affected by it.

Toxicity is a Virus: How to Vaccinate Yourself to Stay Healthy

Toxicity is a Covid-19. It is a virus that once you’re exposed to it and it reaches critical mass, it will spread throughout all the organs of your body. End result? The gut-wrenching death of your soul and spirit. Soul-0, Virus-1.

Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, we live in a world filled with toxicity. This particular virus is everywhere. Toxic work environments and corporations. Toxic institutions. Toxic relationships. Toxic social media.

If you think you can beat toxicity, you can’t. If you think you can avoid toxicity, you can’t. The poison is everywhere you turn.

Fight Back with Weighted Positive Actions

So what do you do? How do you not let toxicity destroy you? How do you still engage with the world and be a productive member of society if the world is so toxic?

You need to vaccinate yourself against toxicity.

The vaccine to toxicity is to actively build and work on the positive aspects of your life tenfold. That’s right, tenfold.

Why tenfold? Because toxicity is a virus that spreads and can take over your whole being so quickly, the only way to win is to build up so much positive energy and evidence of positive action that you can withstand the toxicity.

As humans, we are hard-wired evolutionarily towards a negativity bias, so the positive needs to outweigh the negative by a multiplicative factor in order to have any impact.

This finding is backed by extensive research. A study conducted by researcher Tiffany Ito and colleagues found that humans react more intensely to negative stimuli, be it pictures, videos, or words vs. positive or neutral stimuli. These negative stimuli generated more brain activity, called Event-Related Brain Potentials (ERPs), which allowed the team to draw conclusions that negative stimuli has a stronger influence on individuals.

How can I implement so many positive actions?

Obviously for many, implementing positive actions is hard and can be a huge lifestyle shift to retrain ourselves to focus on positive vs. negative. Moreover, time in the day is limited, and for a lot of us the day is often spent in toxic situations we can’t avoid if we want to maintain our livelihoods. Trying to take positive action might feel like ‘work’.

The virus doesn’t want you to be vaccinated. You will experience resistance in trying to be vaccinated.

The trick to implementing this special vaccine is to figure out what the vision of your life is, and take small steps every day to build that vision.

As author James Clear has stated in his celebrated book Atomic Habits:

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”

You want to build an identity where positivity trumps negativity. Where negativity doesn’t win. To get there, you will need to do at least some of these positive actions during your ‘toxic’ hours of the day, do not leave these actions till just the night. I repeat, do not leave these positive actions to do just in the night, schedule breaks in the day to work on these areas.

The guide below will give you the tools to help you reach that end goal.

6-Step Game Plan to Vaccination

1. Make a vision board of what your non-toxic life would be like. Really close your eyes and think about what this life would be like. What it would feel like. What it wouldn’t be. Write it down.

2. As a no-brainer, first establish areas that are simply foundational to a healthy life — this includes areas like sleep, nutrition, mental and physical health. Figure out basic practices to keep this in check (i.e. a minimum of 7 hours of sleep, meal prep a few healthful meals each week, work out 30–40 minutes 3 times a week, do 10 minutes of yoga a day, etc.)

3. Next, pick 3–4 specific areas to work on to achieve the vision of the life you want. For me, that might mean my art, environmental work, writing, and gaining new knowledge. If you have too many areas, prioritize what’s most important to you.

4. For each of the 4 areas, write down a key monthly goal. For example, I will create 2 paintings, I will dedicate XYZ # hours to community environmental work, I will write one article each week, and I will read at least one new book a month on a topic I am interested in. I block off time on my Outlook calendar weekly to dedicate time to work on these goals. If I miss a session, I reschedule it, as I would a work meeting.

5. For each of the goals, find ways to publicize what you’re doing. The reason for this is to hold yourself more accountable, and to really help sink into yourself your new identity. For example, for a new painting, I will create and publish a video of the process to social media to document the process. Or, for a new book, I will read, I will write and publish an article that takes on my unique perspective, connecting it to existing knowledge I have. Then, if on another day I am having self-doubts, I can re-watch that video or reread that article and feel positive again.

6. Write down your progress in each of the areas. I use Microsoft OneNote to keep a journal to mark progress in each of the areas I am working on (both vision areas and foundation areas). Try to keep this updated weekly. This helps me to feel in hindsight that I’ve grown and overcome hurdles. Then, I can take a look back in the journal and realize I am getting closer to the vision I set out for myself.

Following the guide boosts immunity against toxicity

If you follow the steps in the guide, the next time you are exposed to the toxicity virus, you don’t get sick. Your mind and body remember you are building a more positive and beautiful vision of yourself. It produces antibodies that run through your body protecting you from the virus taking over. Your confidence and self-esteem don’t crumple. Your mind is clear enough to understand that toxicity comes from people who are frustrated and miserable and want to bring people down with them. You pity them. The virus doesn’t stand a chance.

You won.

You’re immune and you power on.