Choosing positive
I don't have a TV, but I sometimes used to cat-sit when my uncle went on holiday. Occasionally we parked ourselves on the sofa and watched a bit of TV out of curiosity.
It was a TV with 5 channels, and during my admittedly brief research I found that a lot of the programming was extremely negative. Once, in fact, I noted that 4 out of the 5 simultaneously running programmes, factual or fiction, were about people killing other people, all in unnecessarily unpleasant ways. Apparently this is what the customers are asking for!
Now one thing we coaches talk about a lot is Focus. Do you know anyone who focuses on the negative in life? For such people it's a jungle out there – and in there too. Of course they aren't all bitter and twisted world-hating cynics, as everything's a spectrum after all, but they aren’t doing themselves any favours.
And just where do you stand? Are the difficulties of the world your interest, or do you focus on its joys?
Have you read a newspaper recently? It’s depressing stuff, if you have.
“But the people in Haiti are suffering, and I need to hear about it!” you might be saying. Well you could send them money, or go volunteer, but having their misery fermenting in your head isn't helping you, and it certainly isn't helping them.
Now we may not be polluting our minds with horror stories from the outside world. But this image gives us an opportunity to ask: “Well, since it's clearly mad to make this sort of thing our focus, where would be the absolute #1 best place to put our attention and interest?”
Here's a good place to start: is there anything in your life that you like?
That brings you a sense of delight, or of peace, or of love? Can you make a choice to devote your inner life to those things? What will happen if you do?
It was a TV with 5 channels, and during my admittedly brief research I found that a lot of the programming was extremely negative. Once, in fact, I noted that 4 out of the 5 simultaneously running programmes, factual or fiction, were about people killing other people, all in unnecessarily unpleasant ways. Apparently this is what the customers are asking for!
Now one thing we coaches talk about a lot is Focus. Do you know anyone who focuses on the negative in life? For such people it's a jungle out there – and in there too. Of course they aren't all bitter and twisted world-hating cynics, as everything's a spectrum after all, but they aren’t doing themselves any favours.
And just where do you stand? Are the difficulties of the world your interest, or do you focus on its joys?
Have you read a newspaper recently? It’s depressing stuff, if you have.
“But the people in Haiti are suffering, and I need to hear about it!” you might be saying. Well you could send them money, or go volunteer, but having their misery fermenting in your head isn't helping you, and it certainly isn't helping them.
Now we may not be polluting our minds with horror stories from the outside world. But this image gives us an opportunity to ask: “Well, since it's clearly mad to make this sort of thing our focus, where would be the absolute #1 best place to put our attention and interest?”
Here's a good place to start: is there anything in your life that you like?
That brings you a sense of delight, or of peace, or of love? Can you make a choice to devote your inner life to those things? What will happen if you do?