How much light do you need?

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hatred cannot drive out hatred, only love can do that” Martin Luther King

It’s been a scary time. Things here in the UK have been turbulent with a greater sense divide than I have ever seen in my lifetime. At a very young age, Joni taught me that life is too short not to learn from other people’s mistakes “don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til its gone”. It made me think that if people know that, and lots of people say it, why not try to appreciate the things that we have in the here and now. I’ve always tried, but Joni’s right. Sometimes you just can’t.

With social media nowadays, you can see the inner musings of people’s minds more so than every before. Some people vent, some people display their frustrations for the world to see. I admit to being amazed at some of the things I’ve seen people write on Facebook; some of them have made me think ‘blimey my mum can see that’.

Now I’m a pretty positive person most of the time. But between the venomous scuffles on Facebook, casual racism on the rise, all the plastic in the sea and the news in general, there have been phases where I’ve noticed this start to get me down, or get other people I know down, and I wanted to make a change.

Between my 2014 album ‘Fearless’ and my 2017 album ‘Together’ I’ve wanted to write songs that will be a positive voice in the world, and my artistic aim at this time is to use my art form to spread that. Social media is just a tool, and you can use that for good or bad. It’s down to me to decide how I wanted to use it.

A year ago I made the decision to broadcast a live video from my music page every week for a year. I named it Beautiful Monday after my first acoustic album. I didn’t know what would happen, but I knew I wanted to try. Even the most positive person needs a lift from time to time, and the easier we can make that for each other the better I thought.

Have you noticed that it can be easier to be negative? To meet anger with anger, to meet criticism with criticism, ignorance with ignorance, and cynicism with cynicism. I wanted to try to drive out darkness by being a light. Tiny, small and quiet it may be, but how much light do you need in the pitch black to begin to see a little further.

I believe we need more positivity in the world because of the problems we are facing. We’re in this together and we can’t find solutions while we’re bickering. I also believe that there are lots of people doing what they can when they can to help people and make things better, and by being positive, we’re giving those people energy and support. Some days we all need a little lift.

If you’re thinking ‘I don’t’ then I envy you. If you’re thinking ‘I try but it’s exhausting’ then I completely relate. If you’re thinking ‘I’m a positive person and it’s a breeze’ then again, I envy you – haha! Some days you might be able to give positivity to other people, and other days you might need someone to help you. What I believe is that if we focus on giving positivy, we help more people, and need to take it less ourselves.

There’s a huge amount we can learn from each other, and I have enjoyed reaching out to people who are have a positive story and talking to them also. I’ve talked to some amazing people who are striving to help others, or have learned incredible lessons from adversity they have faced. You can listen to some of them on my podcast ‘Love Mondays’.

If you are someone who is trying to shine a light in the world, please get in touch. I’d love to hear your story.

Together we build bridges.

With love

Dx

Listen to Love Mondays on Apple Podcasts here or Spotify below.