I don’t usually watch the news, maybe one or two newscasts a week, but no more. The local news is full of murder and mayhem, robberies, kidnappings, and other reports of negative events and personal disasters. National news is filled with the same thing only on a global scale. But I made an exception during the presidential campaign: I listened to radio shows in the car and watched the news on local and national television for a couple of months. I even started turning on the news in the morning and keeping it on all day to listen to the latest polls and find out what the latest attacks, statements and misstatements, and “interesting” reporting were. That was a mistake.
A couple of days after the election ended, it all hit me (or I could tell). I am generally a very optimistic and upbeat person, but I was feeling angry, depressed, and unable to do anything to help someone. Oh! What’s going on? It didn’t take much examination to realize that I had been receiving an overdose of negativity all day, every day for two months and it had taken its toll on me. During that time I couldn’t write – nothing would come. It was as if all the creativity in me had been sucked or dried, leaving me speechless to fit an article. My productivity had dropped and I had no motivation to get things done. I felt like I had been crushed by a steamroller that turned around and hit me again.
There was only one thing to do. I turned off the television and put an Andrea Bocelli CD in my car’s CD player to listen to while driving. It took me about three days to begin to recover from, as former Vice President Spiro Agnew called it, “neighborhood chatter of negativity.” (I love that phrase).
I don’t have to be uninformed just because I don’t watch the news on TV or listen to the radio. I can scan the headlines on the internet and decide what I want to read and what I want to leave alone. I have a son who keeps up with everything and brings up things I need to know. But I just don’t allow that constant negative intrusion into my mind and spirit to spiral me downward and make me useless.
The results of turning off the TV? I feel at peace again. I am sleeping at night. My meditation is not a rehash of all the negative things I’ve heard and seen throughout the day. My mind is clear once more and I have a positive mental attitude again. I’m even back in writing mode and my productivity is on the rise.
Phew! That was close!
And you? If it’s true that we become what we think about all day long, as motivational speakers iterate and reiterate, what are you becoming? Motivated, inspired, joyful and peaceful? Or sad, depressed, scared and overwhelmed? You may want to turn a few dials or flip a few switches to program your own mental computer with those things that are uplifting, motivating, enlightening, and joyful.
Hmm. What a concept!