Our world is full of
negative imagery. We are shown images of war, horror, demeaning things/people,
sadness, hopelessness and helplessness every single day. These images are
presented to us by the media and news sources. My husband once worked in the
newspaper industry. He said they had a motto: "If it bleeds, it
leads". This means, the more gory a story, the more people are drawn to
it. Why is that? Are we so obsessed with negativity that if feeds our souls?
What do you want to consume? The good or the bad - the pure or grotesque?
We must awaken
ourselves and decide what we want our psyche to consume. What do you want
swimming around in your unconscious mind?
A healthy
subconscious leads to a healthy conscious. This statement by John Kehoe
from learnmindpower.com sums things up for me. He says, "Your subconscious
mind will act upon any request or instruction you give it. Any thought that is
repeated over and over again will take an imprint within the subconscious,
which cannot distinguish between what is real and what is imagined. This is why
visualizations, affirmations and repeated images can have such a powerful
effect in our life. We are creating images within ourselves which the
subconscious then acts upon." The subconscious mind is so powerful and
absorbs images and symbolism rapidly, especially if the image is repeated. I
want to keep my subconscious clean and healthy. I care about with I allow my
mind to see.
I was on a camp trip
once. A well traveled man one told me three months is all you need to balance
your psyche from the negativity spewing from the media. A three month
disconnect. Now… as someone who is rather addicted to their iPhone - this
seemed really tough. I thought about his suggestion and thought about what I
could do to cleanse my psyche. What small actions could I do to get to a better
mindset?
Instead of taking a
three month vacation to the middle of nowhere to deeply cleanse my mind - I now
take the following action:
I keep the TV off
and turn on music instead. I turn on music that brings me peace and clarity. I
have a hard time listening to much of the mainstream music because I sense
darkness in it. I sense the lyrics are contrived and can be interpreted in a
negative manner. When I don’t know what to put on, I just put on some Zen
music. As long as the volume isn't up to high, Zen makes such nice background
music. Zen is pure by nature and brings me soft happiness.
I found a source of
entertainment OTHER THAN watching TV. Walk, cook, clean, write, blog, go to
meetings (use the Meet Up app), hang out with friends, work on your yard, camp,
meditate, go out to eat, window shop - do anything other than sitting in front
of the TV. I tend to "relax" by completing tasks - obviously everyone
is not built that way but instead of sitting on the couch, I like to do low key
things to keep my mind focused on positivity. I like to hang out with my child.
We clean, we read, we do crafts together… all with music on in the background.
These activities have made for very peaceful and happy (and cheap!) Saturday
afternoons.
I choose what I
watch - Sounds like - DUH - but sometimes TV shows and the stories on the news
sneak in terrible images and terrible themes. Think about Law & Order
Special Victims Unit... I don't know how people stand to watch those horrible
sad stories about children! To me, that material is exactly what I avoid.
I avoid hearing horror stories and strive to hear goodness! How do you feel
after watching Law & Order Special Victims Unit- sick to your
stomach or happy as a clam? I encourage you to use YouTube and watch
individuals who feed your soul with goodness. I enjoy the channel Infinite
Waters (Diving Deep) with Ralph Smart. My husband is really into The Young
Turks as a neutral form of news material. I watch Hilah Cooking too. If I sense
that someone is breeding negativity, I just move onto the next channel. Simple
as that.
Now, will watching
what you allow into your psyche make you happy? I am not sure… Will avoiding
negativity cure depression? I don’t know about that either. What I do know, is
that I want to spread positivity in this world by allowing knowledge of mental consumption.
I simply want to spread awareness of the hidden messages in the media. Try to
allow in positivity and have faith in good over evil everyday.
