And holding it way down inside you like an old sponge? Be careful. Just like an old sponge thats held its liquid a little too long, we may start to get stinky in a day or two. Im referring to soaking up all that wonderful information that comes to us mainly through our televisions, radios and computers. Information that is then refortified and nourished through conversations with our friends or relatives. Its unfortunately a fact of life. Every minute of every day, the media presents news that is frequently disturbing. Coverage of terrorist acts, wars, airline crashes, natural disasters all kinds of information that show, sometimes in graphic detail, the tragic events of our world and the how they are impacting the lives of our fellow man. As I write this, the TV is blanketed with video footage, stories, commentary, interviews and speculation related to the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. The devastation is truly mind-boggling. Heres the problem. Many of us humans have a tendency to become over-focused on these events. For some strange reason, beyond a reasonable desire to be informed, we find ourselves sitting in front of our televisions or our computers viewing, listening to and reading everything we can about the current terrible event. We are soakin it up! The unfortunate result is that we soon start to feel the negative emotions associated with our current focus. Dont get me wrong. Its normal and good to empathize to feel compassion toward those people who are experiencing tough times. Thats just a nice expression of our love toward our fellow man. Its not good for us personally however, to dwell on the negatives to continually shove this stuff into our little brains to ferment into mind sludge. Whether we consciously realize it or not, it wont take long for our bodies to respond to this mental goo. We may find that were not feeling quite as well as we did a few days ago. We may find it harder to deal with the pressures of our personal lives. We may notice that our patience level has dropped somewhat that were now kind of cranky and out of sorts. Whatever the effect, its our bodys normal reaction to a bombardment of negatives. So heres a suggestion. If you find that youve been spending a lot of time in front of your TV or computer soaking up negatives - and you are having a tendency to feel the emotions associated with this mental input, take a break from it. Switch to the cartoon channel, watch a comedy video, take a walk, bathe the dog, read a book, work on your stamp collection, play with your kids, mow the lawn, go to the mall anything that will divert your attention away from the yucky stuff and more toward those things you enjoy doing. Give your mind a healing dose of positives. Trust me youll feel better |
