I Read the News Today, Oh Boy!

A San Francisco newspaper once published two different versions of a day’s news, one with a sensational headline about a murder, and the other with a more modest banner about progress in peace talks. The sensational headline outsold the mellower edition by four to one. The Fifth Estate works hard at producing a product that caters to our seemingly insatiable thirst for sensational bad news. With all due respect, I believe that what is published and broadcast is only a small portion of the truth (if highly spun to the negative at that).

In current times, the doom and gloom reporting is having a seriously harmful effect on our economies and well being. What they fail to report is that people are still buying and selling houses, finding new jobs, being successful in their businesses, extending a helping hand to others, falling in love and finding joy in their lives. Instead, collectively, we focus on the gyrations of the stock market, the blunders of the election candidates and the misfortunes encountered by the rich and famous. How much of the downwards trend in the market are actually driven by the pall of fear and anxiety spawned by the media? What is being attracted to us by our collective fear?

One of my teachers once suggested to me years ago as I wrestled with depression, that the world is full of negativity; it is all around us wherever we look. It is also full of the positive. Where are you putting your attention? At his prompting, I canceled my newspaper and quit watching the news on television. I listened to CD’s instead of the radio so I wouldn’t be exposed to the regular newscasts. I developed a practice of making a point to read positive uplifting books every day. I spent 15 or 20 minutes in silence daily to quiet my mind, centre myself and connect to my Source. My mood lifted and for years my problems with depression have greatly reduced. Wise people have always known that whatever we focus upon grows.

As I wrote last week, the past is gone and the future is a figment of our imagination; it exists only in our thoughts. We can choose to be happy or fearful in the Now. Why not choose to be happy. Right now, all is well - it always is.

Create a wonderful day. Namaste.