Breaking News: “If you could focus your attention upon the idea of experiencing physical well-being with as much passion as you focus upon the absence of it, not only would your recovery come quickly, but maintaining your physical well-being and balance would also be easy” Abraham Hicks.
Growing up, my father encouraged me to listen to the news and read the newspaper. Reading the newspaper was a sign of intelligence. Like many parents who prefer to see their children invested in a little more education and productivity, my father hoped my brother and I would show a little more interest in what was going on around the world. Though I wanted to please him, picking up a newspaper to read all about the world’s troubles was hardly the joyous activity I could even pretend to do.
Fortunately, the older I became, the more I continued to avoid the news. In fact, my father’s obsessive addiction to the news was becoming taxing on all of us. Every evening was at least a three-hour news fest as he flipped from the ending of one news channel to view the beginning of another’s broadcast.
So, what makes us so attentive to the news?
The answer is in the following question: what is the one instinct the creatures of this planet have in common?
Survival.
Our primary goal is to stay alive for as long as possible. Of course, we also strive to have the best quality life and we are often willing to defend ourselves and our loved ones against anything that compromises this.
Therefore, a smart man is a well-informed man and a well-informed man is also a well-prepared man. And where better to gather such important information than through media. Media is not just a source of information we emphatically consume but a source of information we trust. However, whose story, data, opinion or beliefs are we trusting in?
What we do not know is that much of the ‘information’ media provides undermines our physical and mental health. In fact, they prey on anxieties. Media plays not only the largest role but holds one of the most predominant platforms for inducing rage, worry, anxiety, terror, doubt and division.
And what draws us toward this negativity?
Fear, along with an already underlying negative attitude.
We wake up with fear and go to bed with fear. We fear the uncertainty of the future. We fear unwanted, negative pasts will repeat or become too big to handle. And, our present is barely a state we live in.
Fear is disempowerment and disconnection. It comes from a sense of vulnerability which makes us feel susceptible to dangers. And of course, once we expect it, we prepare for it and so it must be.
However, fear is also big business. What better way for a country, company or leader to gain our attention than to bait us with worrisome stories and persuade us that they have the information, answers and solutions we need to overcome them. In order to do so, first, they must disempower us through fear.
Religions follow this rule implicitly by establishing the fear of god and his wrath on judgment day in order to continue to urge new generations to attend places of worship.
Politicians do this by pointing out everything that is apparently falling apart within the country as they attempt to convince us on how THEY are the source to save us from future catastrophes.
Media’s success heavily relies on presenting exaggerated stories to increase satisfaction and ratings. Failing to be up-to-date on stories and details makes us believe we are vulnerable to them. Therefore, media’s deliverance of such crucial information maintains our loyalty.
Even those who have been in abusive relationships understand how convincing their abuser can be that their world will crumble without them.
All other companies who have an idea, product or service to sell will use every other misleading psychological ploy to convert us into loyal benefactors. Though it will not be based on fear, they certainly maintain the ‘I have a better solution to an underlying problem’ attitude. Whether the cereal we eat has less sugar therefore a healthier option or the car we drive has better suspension or even the burger we bought for lunch is a better deal than their competitor; there is always a method implemented to divert attention by making something sound exciting yet rooted in necessity.
Let’s face it, there are strategies in place that lend to psychologically fool and re-direct us from our truth into one that benefits the outcome of another.
Messages are portrayed and surround us everywhere through clever and obvious images, witty captions, silly slogans, repetitive jingles, interesting idioms, catchy phrases; you name it marketing is everywhere. In short, marketing is a tool used to capture our attention. Our exposure to it is non-stop. From the moment we turn on our television or radio, power on our laptops, I-pads, smart phones, every product on the shelf in the grocery store, the billboards, signs and images we come across; our mind is being persuaded, guided, influenced, re-directed and in some sense, manipulated.
Messages are being embedded into our subconscious through repetition to create familiarity so that our minds become accustomed to the messages that ultimately become the norm. They influence us by getting into our subconscious through sensory stimulation and repetition of word, sound, image or color.
Coupled with media sensationalism and we have the perfect mix for creating collective consciousness; a way of life that has us completely oblivious of their influence over us.
Alas, we have reached a time/era where we have learned to become thirsty for drama and are continuously exposed to this negative culture that warps our perception with fears, anxiety and worries of the world. Our expectations consequently become the equivalent of these fear-driven thoughts.
Fear of war, disease, climate change, natural disasters, financial doom or terrorism are but a few on our list of worry-based conundrums. The news is filled with so much negativity and apprehension that it breeds paranoia. An attractive caption or heading is short yet cleverly saturated with insinuations and sense of urgency that are deliberately injected to have one believe there is something one needs to be promptly informed about.
Fear invariably begins with a stressful stimulus. We know it’s the shock factor that hooks us therefore, there is always something generated to ignite arousal. It’s no secret reality shows are producing more spectacles, journalists exploit tragic events, news coverage magnify relational issues and are the catalyst to strategically embedding innuendos. However, this constant fear feeding frenzy and abnormal levels of stress and anxiety can become chronic and debilitating; limiting a person’s ability for success and joy of life.
Media stimulates thought in great detail and when they do, we experience the emotion to it. It influences how we behave, communicate, respond, what we expect, believe, and ultimately how we perceive ourselves, others and the world we live in.
Media are capable of excessively dramatizing and discussing a situation to no exhaustion; impacting and influencing our thoughts and beliefs dramatically. They rehash past events that once caused panic, anger or despair; repetitively discuss these issues by strategically linking them to current events and successfully building on this notion of unresolved issues. Our attention maintains and preserves their seat in our lives, minds and in our homes.
Ironically, we become the stories and breaking news media report on. One single event manipulated, molded and delivered to us with an underlying artificial lingering race issue and off we go in rage and protests about racism – delivering much heartier news coverage they can now dig their fangs deeper into. Media often perpetuate a myth or dramatically inflate a current situation which makes people respond in panic.
Moreover, modern communication is not only capable of spreading the word of fear exponentially but, it also allows us to have more intimate experiences with threats. We learn to question and doubt the things that most serve us and accept those things that don’t serve us without question. We have become so well-rehearsed and programmed into observing these negatives that we sadly call it our ‘reality’.
This is not to reduce the importance of current events. It isn’t about who is corrupting our minds nor is it reducing people to extreme naivety. We are not puppets on a string being played by our governing bodies and manipulated by the media. They hold no power or control over us other than the power and control we allow.
It is also not about blame or how terrible the world has become. In fact, the world is a beautiful, most extraordinary place to be and technology has allowed us to thrive, share and expand in ways previously unimaginable.
However, how we perceive risk and what causes us to overreact to extreme events heavily relies on the messenger, or better yet, influencer. The longer and louder a thought or belief lingers, the more likely others will eventually adopt it into their lives.
It only requires the persuasion of a few to attract the masses because our main attraction is each other.
We become accustomed to searching for these fear-induced negatives in our daily lives that our focus and attention to them only elaborates, amplifies and exaggerates them into our experience. We are like waves in the ocean; once decided on the perspective of the world, we flow and move in the same direction together. We do this because we are energy beings and ‘like attracts like’.
What is more likely to follow when majority of people are sharing a fear with the same energy flow, the same emotional intensity, sharing the same thoughts and beliefs and focused intensely on the same future projected outcomes? An inevitable pandemic.
There are multiple new viruses and diseases around the world that take the lives of thousands of people each year. We have become less attentive to threats more likely to harm such as the flu. Thus far, 14,000 people have died and 250,000 hospitalized during the 2019-2020 flu season in the US according to preliminary estimates from the CDC. They also estimate at least 12,000 Americans will die from the flu in any given year.
Fun fact: did you know that the common cold can be caused by more than 200 different viruses?
Novel, exotic threats such as the coronavirus raise anxiety than familiar threats do not only because it is novel but because of our fixation on body counts. Since many are familiar with the flu, have overcome it or know of someone who has overcome the flu; becoming infected with the flu is not as feared. Additionally, when statistics of risk portray the seriousness of something, it heightens anxiety.
However, what separates the current virus to any other virus is our tracking of it. It has been placed on a map and we are seeing the world-wide spread of this virus rendering it aggressive.
In a modern world with several transport alternatives and frequent travelers; numerous viruses, bacteria and illnesses are carried and spread all over the world every day without our knowledge of them. We are constantly in contact with people the moment we walk out the door exposing us to a plethora of viruses we are unaware of. And when we come down with a cold or flu, we would never know the source, the strand or even ‘seriousness’ of it. We merely do our best to recover. And for the most part, we do. Unless of course we have been provided with a label or diagnosis for our illness to which we often feel compelled to grip tightly onto and make it part of who we are.
Certainly, it would be fair to acknowledge that it is ‘better to be safe than sorry’ in which case it would also be better to over than under react to a situation. But, wouldn’t overreactions just keep us indefinitely stuck in chaos and overdrive? And, with our genius imaginations, do we not think we could imagine an infinite array of high anxiety scenarios to keep us captive in fear for a lifetime?
What makes fear more predominant, concrete and superior to joy and well-being? Have we not created enough evidence of joy to claim its presence in our life?
There is an even greater pandemic than the birth of a new virus and it is FEAR.
Fear is a potent and highly contagious virus embedded in our minds spread by word alone; indefinitely affecting people’s joy and quality of life. There is no cure or vaccine for fear. Symptoms and behaviors vary. And it can be equally deadly. In fact, as deadly as 129 Americans dying by suicide each day. Fear too has many ‘strands’ and one of them is hopelessness. When we are locked in fear and our quality of life is compromised for long periods of time, our joy and lust for life shuts down.
Unfortunately, we do not know what to do with depression and suicide. We deem it as a selfish act and feel victim of such ‘self-centered’ behavior as if it is the responsibility of those stuck in depression to soothe the rest of us who do not know what to do. Though it is easier to judge what we do not understand, we are all ‘contaminated’ with the same ‘virus’ – the voice of negativity. When focused upon long enough, it not only multiplies, it consumes our every thought, changes our perspective, behavior and ultimately our reality.
Napoleon Hill accurately explains that “Fear is nothing more than a state of mind”. Frankly, curation of anything is our thought to it and when we are collectively fearfully thinking, speaking and behaving similarly surrounding a topic, it becomes a pandemic.
We give it a name, an identity and ultimately life form with its own purpose and destructive characteristics. That which we hold intensely as the object of our attention is magnified. And when we see the evidence of it through other people’s stories and experiences and more particularly our own, it not only becomes part of our reality; it becomes our truth.
Every person on this planet are like individual cells to a larger worldly body similarly to the multiple human cells that make up our physical body. Like a virus, fear cannot survive without a host. They are both incapable of independently reproducing. Fear cannot thrive in optimism. And, depending on how positive or ‘immune’ we are to negative attitudes or situations, fear cannot spread. It remains isolated within the carrier.
In a similar manner to a virus, humans search for their next host to influence for the same reason we procreate – to maintain our survival. We understand the more people we convince of our beliefs; the stronger, more believable and therefore, more ‘real’ they become. Otherwise, we become societal outcasts holding onto our ‘forsaken’ signs on the side of the road. We crave to be noticed and understand if we are not influencing someone, we are being influenced. The problem is when what we are influencing or being influenced by is attracting and infecting each other with fear.
The more people adopt this fear, the faster we are ultimately bringing each other down.
A weak immune system is of great advantage to a virus as a weak mind is to a negative predator.
Therefore, it is highly important to quiet the noise outside in order to strengthen the communication within.
Here’s the upside. Viruses are not our foe. In fact, there is an evolutionary benefit to them. Our immune system learns by exposure and viruses educate. Our cells recognize these foreign intruders and become immune to them by preventing replication – hence making us stronger.
As Lynn Margulis (an evolutionary theorist and biologist) once said, “Viruses spread genes among bacteria and humans and other cells, as they always have….we ultimately are our viruses”. She also stated that, “Life did not take over the world by combat, but by networking”. Unfortunately, our combative attitudes in life have gone on for eons. We seem to always be at war with something or someone as if eradicating a perceived threat paves the way for a safer more predictable future.
Furthermore, science literature claims the human body is thought to be composed of 10 times more microbial cells – which include 100 trillion bacterial cells – than an adult human which typically has around 10 trillion human cells; yet all play a vital role in human health.
It is not about what is going on around us, rather what is going on within us that matters.
And it isn’t a virus that weakens our immunity or kills us rather an already weakened immune system and mind. Chronic stress, fear and worry are major violators to a weakened immune system. Of course, bad habits, unhealthy diet, lack of sleep and exercise or simply partying too hard will also compromise the strength of our immunity.
However, our cells primarily respond to our thoughts. Therefore, chronic stress produces toxins which are released in our body killing off our defense soldiers and weakening our boarders to potential threats.
Prevention is always the best cure, but it is not locking ourselves up in our homes. In the manner and for the same purpose we wash our hands – we also need to cleanse our minds. In fact, the greatest defense is a strong, positive mind and energy. Physically avoiding sick people is only the minor action taken. The most powerful practice is maintaining focus on well-being, joy, love and appreciation. It is knowing that all is well.
When we feel empowered, we have something positive to offer, not destroy. A healthy mind certainly does not dwell in fear and fear cannot thrive in positivity and optimism.
There is a way to positively affect and influence each other. Resources for well-being are endless. The most powerful resource begins with self. Knowing and believing in our own strength and immunity rather than exclusively accepting vulnerabilities. Elevating each other with words of joy and encouragement rather than spewing the same harmful, negative sewerage echoing from our televisions.
Life does not just happen – we are life. Circumstances and events do not just come out of the woodwork and throw themselves upon us. We are the creators of these fantastic tales; the good, the bad, the ugly, the crazy and the scary. The stories that present themselves in our experience are not beyond our imagination, they emerge from our wildest fantasies or paralyzing fears.
The world is abundant in kindness, generosity, compassion, health and wealth. Imagine what our actions, behaviors and attitudes would be like if media solely reported on positive stories. Imagine it was flooded with a different kind of narrative. Imagine how it would change our world view, mental health and overall well-being. We are much wiser, stronger and more resilient than we are led to believe,
First and foremost, we are pure, positive, pulsating energy. Our force, power and well-being are underestimated. There is no limit to what we can create, attract or overcome.
Harmony and balance is our natural state of being.
When fear is released, so too do all negative stories dissolve and the current state of our reality will change to match our ‘state of mind’.
Until we flip the channel…