Reminder: Turn off the TV and focus on the good things you can do
My weekly dose of self-help bullshit (except that it isn't bullshit):
Fact: You always have the power to influence your immediate surroundings. No matter how small, what you do reverberates far beyond what you can see. Your thoughts, actions, emotions, and beliefs all pave the way for what you experience.
Whether the impact is positive or negative depends on whether your actions were a result of the love or fear that was inspired them.
It's so easy to forget because the world seems complicated and out of our control. Turn of the TV or the news or whatever else is spouting negative crap and quiet your mind for a second. Without getting too deep into the hows and why's of what we perceive as problems (I will be happy to do this if there is an audience for it), there are simple ways to work towards fixing them.
By constantly worrying about all the bad things that happen in the world, you are subconsciously doing your part to make the problems worse. That's not to say the bad things will disappear if you ignore them or that there is nothing you can do about it...but you will find yourself making better decisions and generally more positive when your energy goes on thoughts such as "what can I learn from this?" "What can I do about it?" and "How do I go about doing it?".
Separate everything into two categories, "things you can change" and "things you can't" and put all your attention into the things you can change.
One thing that often goes overlooked: You always have full control over your own thoughts which, in turn, influence your emotions and your beliefs (I will go into this much deeper in other posts). "Bad" things happen sometimes, but you can choose how you react to them. Something that makes you feel sad or angry can turn into motivation, a chance to learn something about yourself and an opportunity to practice having faith in yourself and in humanity despite some BS. It's always up to you. This can be hard at first, but make an effort to practice and it gets easier and easier.
Feel free to share you stories. Have you ever turned a negative into a positive?
I am still very low in steem power so any upvote, comment or resteem is greatly appreciated.
I turned off the TV decades ago, but every time I try to watch a show with a friend, there are so many WHAT's ? involved, neither 1 of us enjoys it LOL
I'm a keen observer and very critical of content.
I'm at the point where I kind of enjoy the "what!" moments. Whenever I am exposed to news on television or late night tv I just watch in astonishment like I'm from an alien race, taking an anthropology class, watching the human race. It can be really fascinating just to watch their body language and try to identify all of their self-limiting beliefs, intentions and in what ways they've been socialized (brainwashed). Sometimes you can get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes from the way they interact which can be really interesting. I remember watching some Peter Dinklige interview and I just kept thinking "They are so stoned and I bet no one realizes, they ARE pretty good at acting normal". Or David Duchovany who, after watching an interview, I think is sincerely trying to find meaning in his life but keeps making the same mistakes. These might just be projections, but I have fun playing this game.
With so much quality, honest choices available, I lean that way.
But yes it can be amusing John Stewart was incredible at least getting people aware of serious topics by laughter, maybe a little stuck for a few ?
Being blatantly Bullshitted to annoys me, its my essence LOL
We are so on the same wave length ! (god, it sounds like an awful pick up line, not at all how I mean it!) I was going through a project I started last summer on this - specifically a chapter on transforming negative to positive by acknowledging and actually feeling the negative emotions and worry ( of course, letting them go afterwards -with an emphasis on gratitude, and clearing up that true positivity is intent and belief - and has nothing to do with the trite 'think positive' so many 'gurus' preach -its so much deeper) - unfortunately, my dad died unexpectedly in the middle of my project and I never finished it.
But prior to that - my life had been going so well since I began meditating and visualizing and being grateful - actively replacing my tendency towards negativity with a positive counter (again, not positive delusional , like i close my eyes and imagine 100 million and tomorrow it will be in my bank account without taking action lol)
I made the most I'd ever made in my life in a few months, an aunt and uncle I hadn't seen in 5 years randomly showed up - and gave me their old car! (I had just moved to the country from NYC and didn't have a car...or a license - so it was a real blessing), I got a certificate in the mail for a free pizza - and when I went to pick it up, the cashier asked if I wanted another one because they were closing and whoever ordered never picked theirs up - there was so much more than that - just total abundance ...
The death of my father devastated me (I called him my MAD - my mom and dad - as my mom died when I was a kid ) and I basically reverted back to the cycle of negativity - which only made a horrible situation worse....
I'm finally getting back into meditation and negativity awareness again - because I got tired of choosing depression - expecting the worst , worrying all the time- your last paragraph just sums it up so well....being negative never changes anything and it makes us feel worse - at the very least, why not try a different outlook ? I forgot that lesson - and this post reminded me :-)
You can use any pick up line you want on me. ;-)
The real fun starts when you start to play with the idea that "good" and "bad" are entirely human constructs. This needs to be balanced with the realization that everything is love, otherwise you become a sociopath hahaha. But when you start exploring this, you can dig up all the self-limiting beliefs that are lying around your subconscious and soften them which really gets rid of a lot of the conflicting vibes that we have amassed through socialization and experiences which were manifested by a version of yourself who didn't know better.
Your father would be proud of you for making the most of your strong connection. :-D
I'm glad I reminded you. It'll be nice to make an insane amount of money here so I can quit everything that feels like work but I also really want to do good for others, that's why I write. I'm glad we found each other.
:-) (big smile - I don't know how to do emojis on here, so that has to suffice) YES! Everything is love. Wow again - I'm actually going to do a post on that soon! Specifically on a meditation I experienced that showed me the universe is made of love - as an energy - and that religions formed because people felt that 'love' and needed to give it a physical form...it was intense.
Totally agree on 'good' & 'bad', and the often negative effects of socialization. It's easier to rule a world if their are norms and rules - flying spaghetti monster forbid if everyone just started 'being' ! The well oiled machine we call society would decay on the spot.
:-) on my dad. He was a deacon of all things - there were more pictures of the holy family in our house than the actual family LOL In that meditation I spoke of above, I also learned that we all have sort of 'key holes' inside of us that can be unlocked by religions/beliefs/experiences. Though my dad was a devout Christian, I think it was just his interpretation of the love energy of the universe - and deep down he was more spiritual, but flocked to the community the church gave him. He didn't fit into this world, and needed the church for the sense of belonging it gave him - even though, he often expressed disappointment of the petty goings on within....ya can't pray away that socialization apparently - even if most of it goes against the 10 commandments!
You and me both...that's all I want in life - to have enough money to just BE. To write freely, to create, to both teach and learn from others, to help, etc. Unfortunately, we live in a world where denominational scraps of paper determine our worth...I hope we can both amass enough of them to go on and do what we really want to -
*extends hand * soooo glad to have met you :-)
great post :) and since you offer it. I will share this :D
You can't share cause it's an old post! haha Payout is after 7 days. After payout, can't resteem a post X-D Thanks though!