Fine Morning by Alexander Deineka
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Like food is to the body, self-talk is to the mind.
Don't let any junk thoughts repeat in your head.
~Maddy Malhotra
(How to Build Self-Esteem and Be Confident)
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"Thoreau wrote a century and a half ago that he didn't feel papers were worth reading, and that if we want to live full lives, we'll give up reading about strangers. In "Life without Principle" he wrote: "the news we hear, for the most part, is not news to our genius. It is the stalest repetition. . . . Such is the daily news. Its facts appear to float in the atmosphere, insignificant as the sporules of fungi. . . . We should wash ourselves clean of such news." His basic premise is that if the news doesn't help us to grow as human beings, if it doesn't enrich our lives, then it's useless.
You see, we're being fed information, not news. Reading about yesterday's car accident was just the same as reading about the one three months ago, and the one four months ago; only the names and locations have changed. This year's mass murderer isn't anything new, yet the media want you to think he is--that will sell more papers. Even monsters like Dahmer are not without their predecessors who did even worse things than they did.
But what does that mean to us in the context of this website? Why write a column like this in an encouraging setting? Mostly for awareness, I believe--what we pour into our brains stays there and helps to determine how we feel. Reading about murder and crime tends to keep us focused on those things, and tends to keep our perspective dark and grim. I strongly believe that we can help make this world a better place to live only by encouraging and helping each other out to find out who we are and what we want out of life, and to help each other accomplish what we wish to accomplish. If we fill our minds with the violence and anger and deception, we get a false view of humanity, and we lose a bit of our ability to focus on those positive things--the neighbors who helped you out, the family members who have been there for you, the woman in the store who went out of her way to help you with something. Our lives are full of positive, loving experiences, and we can't let our media mislead us about human nature by focusing on the abnormal. Think your thoughts, and develop your perspective--don't see what you read as the norm, because it certainly isn't that.
Of course, don't ignore the bad and the evil--we have to deal with that--but let's deal with it to the degree at which it occurs, which is far less often than a newscast would lead you to believe. The next time you watch the news and see all the bad things they focus on, ask yourself this--how many people aren't on the news who did something great today?"
~tom walsh
(Excerpt from his article 'Watching the News')
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"A lot of things are inherent in life -change, birth, death, aging, illness, accidents, calamities, and losses of all kinds- but these events don't have to be the cause of ongoing suffering. Yes, these events cause grief and sadness, but grief and sadness pass, like everything else, and are replaced with other experiences. The ego, however, clings to negative thoughts and feelings and, as a result, magnifies, intensifies, and sustains those emotions while the ego overlooks the subtle feelings of joy, gratitude, excitement, adventure, love, and peace that come from Essence. If we dwelt on these positive states as much as we generally dwell on our negative thoughts and painful emotions, our lives would be transformed."
~Gina Lake
(What About Now?)