A new month, a new year and a new decade it sounds exciting but we seem to be surrounded by distressing and worrying news. Society seems designed to make us worry and be anxious – adverts get us to worry about how we look so we buy their products, newspaper headlines are there to shock us and thus buy, social media thrives on the sometimes anonymity to put others down. How easy it is to get on a roll about complaining and what is wrong. In amongst all this doom, gloom, depression there are people, places, situations that should be celebrated and honoured.
Our mind is a filter and like putting sunglasses on to filter our harmful rays, we place filters in our mind that only allow in what we focus on. Have you had the experience of thinking about buying a car and suddenly you see that type of car everywhere! You have placed a “car filter” in your mind and you will notice everything pertaining to that filter. Media and political campaigns give us dire warnings and so we notice these things that back up this belief (and thus only a particular party can help us). This happens mainly subconsciously and often we are not aware of our thought patterns and subsequent actions. Only 5% of thought is conscious, most of our decisions, actions, emotions behaviours depend upon our subconscious. The filters we put into our minds go into the subconscious, the subliminal messages from advertisement slip into there, the constant drip drip of distressing news feeds our emotions. The more that we notice aspects/situations that support our subconscious beliefs or emotions the stronger they become.
The good news though is that we have control over our thoughts and are actions. We can determine our filters; we can seek out what is good in the world and bring our attention to it. If you find yourself getting caught up in a ritual of complaining with others – walk away, change the subject, put an alternative view across.
We need to be aware of what is going on in the world but we don’t need to be totally submerged and overwhelmed with it. Earth Day (22 April 2020) which celebrates and promotes action is but one day of the year. In our own lives we will feel better in ourselves if we recognise what is good/enjoyable/pleasant. Let go of the low level moaning and bring in compliments and praise, acknowledgment and gratitude.