Hello Everyone, Welcome to the podcast “Close to the Bone.” I’m Carl Vreeland. This is episode #48, it’s called, “Why We Need Reminders.”

Before I begin though, let me say that if you enjoy the podcast, please Share it with others and or give it a rating or review on Apple. Also, please subscribe to my free newsletter on my website, or just sign-up for a free membership. This will give you full access to my Blog post, the podcast transcriptions, and more. Just go to carltvreeland.com and go to the support page. Also, please don’t forget to follow me on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. My handle is @carltvreeland. Thanks, and now for the episode, “Why We Need Reminders. . . .“

It’s interesting how we need to be reminded to be positive, happy, and to let go of anger, and to forgive, for instance. We have no problem complaining, being angry, being distrustful, worrying about things, and expecting negative outcomes. We don’t need to be reminded of that, we don’t need assistance or coaching for any of that. Indeed, it certainly takes no effort to be pessimistic, but great strength to be hopeful. It’s easy to be angry, but hard to let go of it. We have no problem holding a grudge, but must exert ourselves to forgive someone. We can quickly turn cynical, yet need help and guidance on how to be trusting.

Why is this? Why does cursing, lashing out, telling people off, being cold to them, bad-mouthing and defaming people seem to come so naturally? Yet kindness, civility, thoughtfulness, politeness, on the other hand, take great effort. Harsh speech takes no effort. In fact, we can call harsh speech lazy speech. But on the other side of it; loving speech, takes thoughtfulness, skill, and effort. So, again, the question is. . . why is this? Well, like with most things, there isn’t one answer. For sure, it’s our upbringing and training, so to speak. And it’s what we are exposed to by way of models