Turn Off the Negativity: Watch the Wildlife, Not the News!

Sometimes I truly wonder why the news networks always choose to sensationalize and spin the news so it somehow makes us feel like even good news has its dark sides. Could it be because they want to stir up the emotions of fear, anxiety, discomfort, unrest...instead of peace, security, comfort, rest, which may come if they offered positive news without all the hypes and yipes?

It is interesting to note that one of the guidelines for so-called successful news reporting states:

"Negativity: Bad news is good news. Bad news has many of the other (guideline) characteristics as well - it may be unexpected, unambiguous, consonant with our general expectations about the world, it may be 'big', e.g. a major catastrophe etc. Fiske (1987) refers to an American journalist arriving in the Belgian Congo during the war there, running up to a group of white women waiting for a plane to leave and shouting out: 'Has anyone here been raped and speaks English?'"
So, It is no real secret that the big news companies prefer to push negative or bad news stories (see above link).

Nor is it a real secret that Government has at least some say in what national and international news gets published over the networks.

And, it is no real secret that the purpose behind all of this is that of controlling social issues and painting the kind of picture they want all of us to see; usually doom-and-gloom, to keep us all on our toes.

But we don't have to just sit back and take it! We can make the decision to press the OFF button on the remote, or switch to another channel where the news is not being aired...or do something else entirely! And, that small first step of choosing to shut out the negativity can be the beginning of a journey into a much more blissful existence, where the balance of negatives and positives are in perfect harmony, and where the best things in life can be appreciated and favored and promoted.

Sometimes, my wife and I do just that. Instead of having our dinner in front of the news blare, we will eat on our back screen-porch, where we can enjoy watching the hummingbirds come and go at the two feeders we have outside the porch. We watch in amazement, as they zig and zag...up, down, over and under...all the while chirping their little giggles (or so it sounds). When they land on the feeders or the pulley-clothesline, their true size and daintiness become apparent, as they bob up and down at the feeders or preen themselves while perched on the clothesline...then, they're gone in a flash!

Then there are the goldfinches who come to the thistle-seed feeder; he, in his bright yellow and sharp, contrasting black; she, in her velvety yellow-gray-taupe, demure and yet elegant. To watch them de-shell a tiny thistle seed simply by working it around in their beaks to get at what must be minimal nut-meat is quite a humbling experience...though it is so richly rewarding to recognize that they are capable of such things because of the Love of our Creator.

And, there are the squirrels...gray ones, red ones. Those little red squirrels are quite the chatterboxes, and it is interesting to observe them perched in the crook of a limb against the trunk of the tree...tail flipping nervously...chattering away at something or someone...perhaps even we, ourselves?! Nah! Couldn't be! Animals and people cannot communicate...or can they?

Of course, there are so many other more positive and healthier things we could be choosing instead of the negative news reports. And, I must say, we do not always resist and refrain as much as we could or perhaps should...but it is a re-learning exercise, and it takes time to break old habits and routines.

It is certain that we all have our own best other-choices. The real key is that the first step is made...and when we truly take the time to stop-and-smell-the-roses, as they say, there is no limit to the benefits we can reap, because true miracles are all around us, and the confidence we can glean from knowing those miracles are real and are for our benefit, and they are there to reassure us that the same Love which is so evident all around us in the Natural world is at work on our behalf as well. Believing that completely is to have the power and strength we need to fend off ANY negativity...because it comes from Love, and negativity has NO part in True Love.

Peace!