The History of Promoting Positivity

10 min read

Deviation Actions

DevNews's avatar
By
Published:
78 Views

Group Guidelines | Group History | Admin Team | Group Projects

* * * *


Hello, and welcome!


This is the PromotingPositivity founder, RTNightmare. You can call me Rachel. 


So you might be asking why I started this group. Well, the first answer is simply, "Why not?" Spreading positivity is something incredible and I want everyone to be able to feel lifted, regardless of how they feel.


Now, let me tell you a bit about the history of Promoting Positivity, and then I'll answer some questions.


Important

This journal was submitted in Eclipse. For that reason, there are currently no emoticons, icons, or gifs in the hopes that the data does not become corrupted by the bugs the coding would create. This journal will be updated when the bugs are fixed. Your patience is appreciated.

Despite taking precautions, there are bound to be errors in this blog post. I apologize if it is inconvenient and hope for your understanding. If you want, you may look at the old version instead. However, do know that some of the content has changed, and therefore it is unreliable. We apologize for the inconvenience.


The History of Promoting Positivity

This group was founded by me, who created the article series Promoting Positivity. At first, the goal of Promoting Positivity was to spread an agenda or love, support, helpfulness, kindness, and similar feelings throughout the entire DeviantArt community through the creation of weekly journals containing positive content. However, I quickly realized this wasn't enough.


Then it all became clear when I saw the founding on another group called GuidingLightProject, which was created by the wonderful duo LadyLincoln and Yuukonin honor of the sweet late Endorell-Taelos who unfortunately passed away in March 2019. With this, the missing piece to the puzzle was found and this group was formed.


One of the main desires of Promoting Positivity is in the title. I hope to "promote" good feelings and more within my fellow deviants. However, this became a problem because there were few who contributed to the articles each week. This only changed a little after I decided that I would offer a prize each week to one of the eligible deviants who contributed, selected randomly.


Even though this worked a little, it wasn't enough and thus, I was stumped. Now, with the creation of this group, my hope is to keep building upon the idea of spreading positive thinking. My goal in creating a bigger platform to host Promoting Positivity is that the message will reach a greater audience. 


PromotingPositivity is a group with one aim that can be deciphered in a multitude of different ways: spreading positivity (whatever that means to you) within the community. So, this group will mostly house artwork and posts of all kinds that contain the theme "positivity". To me, this means spreading happiness, awareness, supporting peers, reaching out a helping hand, creating a good environment, and much more. Anything that puts a smile on your face and makes you feel content! 



Questions & Answers

What do I hope this group will accomplish?

The answer is easy and difficult. I want to encourage my peers by spreading positive support and more. I want to encourage you to encourage others and have it be a cycle of helping each other. We are a community and I feel it's everyone's right to have support.


Why did I start this series?

Well, that's easy. I felt overwhelmed by the negativity brought on by issues like politics, DA Eclipse (and what many deviants thought of it), and my own personal issues. I took the time to look at myself as an individual and felt the desire to help. But at that point, I wasn't sure how.

Unfortunately, I was born with several mental health issues. I have been a naturally negative person by nature most of my life. So this was my chance to turn it around. I have a strange outlook on life that makes me selfless and selfish in weird ways.

My Promoting Positivity Series was meant to be something that overwhelmed me and others with positivity and hope that made all the negativity seem meaningless.

This goal is nowhere near being achieved yet, but I'm confident that if I keep pushing, I can reach more people, and hopefully, someday positivity will have spread far more. However, I have made leaps and bounds in what I'm able to accomplish. I have learned from past mistakes and have a system that works for me.

I also took advantage of DeviantArt's Mention System to draw in new people. I have never reused artists in art features unless someone else suggests it. I want to give everyone a chance and since I only use about 3-9 deviations per art feature, I look for new deviants to feature. This has worked because I've had new deviants participate. It's incredible and effective.


What do I hope the group will accomplish?

The group is an extension of the article series. The Mention System pulled people over to have a look and occasionally participate, which is one of the biggest goals for the series as the encouragement of spreading positivity is what the aim is. My hope is that the group will gain new members who feel compelled to submit work that inspires positivity. I will be attempting to add new members whenever I submit my articles in the hopes that the group environment will make contributing more encouraging than just my replies telling viewers that they can win a request if they participate.

Since then, it's grown and while it is slow going due to Eclipse, I expect activity to pick up and for PromotingPositivity to become a hub for hope, happiness, positivity, and encouragement. But I'll need many others to make it work. So I hope that as time passes, I can attract more people who will make my dream a reality and prove with immense determination, we can succeed. Goodness knows we need more positivity in the world and if someone like me - who has suffered immensely from depression and much more - can find a way to be positive, then I wholeheartedly believe others in the same boat or worse than I was can too. Let's make it happen together.


Will there be new prizes to be won by participating?

Yes. As the group grows, I plan to add new prizes like DA Points, donations to others, features, detailed requests, and more. I will need people to donate, which I know makes a lot of people uncomfortable. However, I'm hoping that enough will see the good this does and contribute even a little to this cause.

I also hope to have more than just the Promoting Positivity Series. I have since created the Positive Comment Series and the Positive Feature Series. I want to do a lot more and I want other deviants to contribute various projects too. When I said I want this to be a hub, I meant it. Let's be positive together!

If you are interested, go to Positivity-Promoter to donate to group activities.


This is a lot to do alone. How will you manage it all?

I don't plan on doing this alone, I assure you. By the time you read this, I will have sent out notes to individuals I think would be perfect to assist me in making this group a success. The deviants I am looking for to become admins are individuals who are constantly pushing agendas that bring support, kindness, awareness, hope, and happiness to the community. I know many deviants who do this regularly and I like to think some of them would be able and willing to help me out here. If any of you who read this are interested in assisting, contact the group and I will ask you some questions to see if you are qualified.


What if you can't reach your goal?

I think the most important part is that I'm determined to try. There are so many things in life that you just don't know if you'll succeed. I've succeeded this far so I'm going to keep going. Even if this doesn't work, I'll keep going. I'll do so because I enjoy it. This was originally something to get attention so that positivity would spread, but it has become a fun experience where all I want to do is make everyone smile and feel they aren't alone. I want everyone to have hope. So even if I only help one person each time I post an article, one is infinitely better than none. I have been inspired and I want to pass that inspiration on to you. It's already working. I want it to continue to work. I want to touch as many hearts and brighten as many people's days as possible.

As someone who has suffered from immense depression, it feels infinitely better to have support. People that care and reach out their hand because they can, they want to, it's right...the reasons vary. But the point is that I want people to know they matter and I want them to feel good about themselves and the world. Besides, one thing about making goals is that if you achieve it, you have to find a new one to push for. With this goal, I'll be doing this for a long time. It might even take a lifetime, and if so, I want to pass the torch to someone who will continue it and even improve it. That would be incredible!


What can others do to help?

Oh, that's easy. There are many things you can do.

  1. You can make your own articles promoting positivity. It doesn't need to be the same as mine.

  2. You can also just write about your positive experiences, or start a project to help others.

  3. Share good things you see with your friends and family is wonderful.

  4. Just spread hope, happiness, and more. Put a smile on someone's face every day.


But I feel [insert negative feeling]. What can I do?

There is a lot you can do to start. First, find out why you feel the way you do.  Maybe make a post about it and ask "what can I do to change this?" You can even submit the post to Let's Discuss to get feedback. The point is you need to be proactive. Sitting in it and waiting for it to go away will not help you. You need to decipher it, find a solution, and then get started with different ways to defeat the problem. That may seem like too much to handle. I get it. You might need to take baby steps. That's okay. Just look within yourself and understand yourself, including your strengths and weaknesses. You can do this.  



This is only a little bit about what I want to do and how I think this will go. Some of it has even changed since I started. But I feel it is important to keep it for the sake what where I started and where I am now.

Do you have any questions?  Leave a comment and I will do my best to add them in with my answer. I don't know everything, but I want to help as many people as I can, including myself. I'm still learning about who I am, so don't be afraid to give me feedback, too.


Have a beautiful day!

© 2020 - 2024 RTNightmare
Comments0
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In