Mainstream Media Making You Sick? Explore Your Power to Believe What You Choose to See.
Turning on the news these days is not something I find myself doing.
I try so hard to keep myself in a good and happy headspace, and hearing or watching the news can bring me out of my bubble very quickly. It’s not denial, it’s just that if I’m choosing my thoughts carefully, then surely I should be choosing my media just as wisely.
I know there are bad things happening, all over the world, all of the time. But there are also good things, happy things, even miraculous things. Do they get reported in mainstream media? Not all that often. You have to search them out, you have to know where to look for them. Does that not strike you as bloody crazy?
If you were in charge of the world’s media, what would you put the focus of reporting on? I would have content that makes your heart happy to be human, stories of love and blessings, stories that connect us as humans, not ones that try to show us how we’re different from another, ones that show us death and destruction as a cross on a map symbolizing where a bomb has been dropped.
How about a reporter standing in the middle of a war zone, telling us how fucking crazy all this is? That we can’t go on killing and maiming our own people? Because we all belong to the same community, we are one human race when all is said and done?
Yes, we have separated ourselves down into many different races, and told ourselves that we are different because we dress differently or we believe in a different God, or no God at all. All of these differences we think we have are man-made, someone literally thought them up in their head and the idea spread.
When whatever you believe created us did so, do you believe they expected us to look at ourselves and see differences in skin color, or weight, or looks, and use them to feel inferior or superior to the other? Or do you think they meant for us to look at one another and celebrate that we are different, that every single soul on earth is so unique, never replicated? How amazing is that?
I know what I believe we were meant to see.
I know that when I say I don’t watch the news or I don’t want to hear about bad things, people will think I’m sticking my head in the sand, but actually it’s not that I actively avoid the news, it’s that instead I choose not to sit and tune into the news at 10 or any particular news channel. You can’t live in a digital world as we do and not be aware of what is going on in our world. I am more than aware of things.
If I really wanted to avoid the news, I would have to go and live in a remote place or on top of a mountain, which I’m not planning on doing anytime soon. I choose not to actively seek out the mainstream news because it breaks my heart a little bit more every time I do, watching people whose lives have been torn apart by war, or disasters, or terror attacks.
I pray for the people whose lives are touched daily with a devastation that I can’t even begin to imagine. I pray for better things for them, for their lives to be repaired and for their hearts to begin to heal so they can feel happiness again.
But praying and wishing for better things in our world doesn’t mean I should wallow in what’s wrong. There is nothing wrong right now in my life, and so to keep my focus on all the wrong in the rest of the world would be a waste of all the good I get to experience everyday. No amount of me ruminating on what’s wrong will change it.
So we do what we can, we donate, we march, and we lobby the people who can make big changes to things that matter, and all the while we get on with our lives. We give thanks for these easy and beautiful lives we’ve been gifted. That’s what changes things.
When we can be the example of joy, then we can help lift others up and light the way for them to find their joy. That’s why you’ll always find me looking for the good, the happy, and the love, no matter the situation.
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Natalie Donohoe is an advocate for happiness and joy. She firmly believes that is what we came to this planet at this time to experience. She wants to inspire others to find out what happiness means to them, through her story. Natalie loves her life, and wants others to experience the same fulfillment. She believes we are all love! You can follow her on Twitter or her blog, or alternatively see more of her writing here.
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