I’m Scottish.

From Glasgow.

We’re a famously dour lot, generally speaking. Our glass is always ‘half-empty’ as opposed to ‘half-full.’ My English wife argues we take a very ‘negative’ approach to life – I say we’re just being pragmatic.

We’re proud of our small nation, but wear that pride not so much as a badge of honour, but as a chip on the shoulder.

Everyone’s out to get us!

‘Nobody likes us and we don’t care.‘ (This old football chant isn’t true of course. Everyone loves us. We are so miserable, we make outsiders realise their life isn’t so bad after all.)

The climate here reflects our mood – it’s often grey, cold and dreich, like this morning as I write this nonsense. (It can also be very windy, but we’ll not get into that right now 😉 )

But you know how we cope with all that? What strategies we use to cope with negative feelings?

We embrace them.

… then expurge them from our being, by moaning and complaining about them to our friends, family, neighbours, shopkeepers, strangers at the bus-stop; anyone.

We moan. We complain. We gripe. A lot.

You know the expression, ‘a problem shared is a problem halved?’ Well, if you were to half it enough times, the negativity will be reduced to negligible size. Sure, everyone else will have a little piece of those negative thoughts, but they’ll be happy and honoured to have eased your burden.

You see, s**t happens, right? No matter how ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ our thinking is.

We have the choice: ignore it; wallow in it; read a self-help book … or offload it onto someone else with a good old moan.

I’m Scottish.

That’s how we roll, round these parts.

(You’re welcome … glad I could help.)

😀

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