People tend to be generous when sharing their nonsense, fear, and ignorance. And while they seem quite eager to feed you their negativity, please remember that sometimes the diet we need to be on is a spiritual and emotional one. Be cautious with what you feed your mind and soul. Fuel yourself with positivity and let that fuel propel you into positive action.

Steve Maraboli is a contemporary motivational writer whose work frequently circulates as shareable aphorisms about emotional boundaries, self-mastery, and personal responsibility. This quotation reflects the early-2010s self-help milieu in which “mental diet” and “protect your energy” themes became common in social media discourse. Maraboli often frames everyday interactions—especially exposure to others’ anxiety, cynicism, or misinformation—as something one must actively manage, much like nutrition. The passage reads like advice aimed at readers navigating constant commentary and negativity, urging deliberate curation of influences and a turn from passive consumption toward constructive, values-driven action.

The quote treats negativity as a kind of psychological junk food: plentiful, tempting, and socially offered, yet ultimately harmful if consumed uncritically. Maraboli suggests that people readily “share” fear and ignorance because it relieves their own discomfort and recruits agreement, but the listener retains agency over what to internalize. The “spiritual and emotional diet” metaphor emphasizes that attention is nourishment—what you repeatedly take in becomes the raw material of mood, belief, and behavior. The closing turn—“fuel…positive action”—pushes beyond optimism as a feeling, arguing that healthier inputs should translate into ethical, practical choices rather than mere positive thinking.