Negative gossip empowers bullying behavior in most schools and workplaces. It can start innocently enough, sharing with a friend or co-worker about something someone did that we don’t approve of them doing. The danger is that we can’t always trust who we are talking to about our concerns. The fact is, if someone is a gossip, chances are they are also gossiping about you when your back is turned. I wish I had known this as a child making my way through junior high and high school!

Changing our gossip-focused behavior is impacted by compassion and a commitment positive gossip:

1. First, I remember that when I want to gossip and harshly judge another person’s mistake, I need to stop and have compassion for the person. I also remember that I need kindness as well when I make an error.
2. Secondly, stop the negative gossip by shifting the conversation to positive gossip about someone. The poem I Know Something Good About You presents this beautifully. Keep in mind that we don’t have to say nice things about someone we hate, especially if this would come off as insincere. Instead, start talking about people you admire and positive things you want to do with your day to end the negative gossip.

Enjoy the poem and spread some positive gossip today!

Know Something Good About You

Wouldn’t this old world be better
If the folks we meet would say –
“I know something good about you!”
And treat us just that way?

Wouldn’t it be fine and dandy
If each handclasp, fond and true,
Carried with it this assurance –
“I know something good about you!”

Wouldn’t life be lots more happy
If the good that’s in us all
Were the only thing about us
That folks bothered to recall?

Wouldn’t life be lots more happy
If we praised the good we see?
For there’s such a lot of goodness
In the worst of you and me!

Wouldn’t it be nice to practice
That fine way of thinking, too?

You know something good about me;
I know something good about you.

By: Louis C. Shimon