By Keith C. Milne
Sometimes I wish I could watch a television news channel of only good news. And, why not? After all, we all have been expected to swallow every horror, every dash cam nightmare, body cam nightmare, helicopter view, or building or store video footage replaying the shocking scenes of the worst that life has to offer since the dawn of television.
A “Good News” TV channel. Wouldn’t that be awesome?! Weddings, graduations, births, celebrations, environmental improvements, personal and community and State and Regional accomplishments, good deeds done, helpful volunteerism stories, incredibly awesome and useful inventions, and a celebration of all the good that goes on in the world which is virtually overlooked by conventional media. I know some of you might be thinking BORING, but the list I just offered in defense of a good news channel was merely a quick list of positive things that came to my mind while writing this brief article, but you get the gist. The bottom line for me is: I wonder why no one has tried doing this? You’re thinking, Duh! it’s not shocking enough or sensationalistic enough, right? Perhaps. But the endorphins secreted as a function of positive experience can be of a magnitude that is well beyond what a runner gets from a workout. Watching a baby be born will do this for you, so will graduating from college as an honor student, or jumping out of an airplane. And, when did noticeable endorphin excretion become a prerequisite for quality news anyway?
Imagine that, from increased exposure to good news and positive things, we all begin to become accustomed to feeling good about what we are seeing and hearing on the news. Feelings of joy, comfort, happiness, well being, and serenity, become the new norm by our own CONSCIOUS reprogramming of ourselves towards thinking more positively, taking ownership and responsibility for our moods and our realities by proactively switching the channel from bad (news) to good (news,) whether we actively seek out more actual good news, or find a way to make our own by the way we learn to perceive the world through a more positive lens. With the good news offsetting the bad news, at least there would be a choice for us about what we want to input into our psyche’s daily, rather than having the binary choice of watching only the bad news or having to turn if off entirely to avoid the constant negativity.
Now, of course you can do this another way: turn off your television and spend time finding good news on your own online. At least you’ll be able to actively decide what you let in and what you filter out. I personally have turned off or purposely avoided watching the morning or nightly network television news with its constant horror and shocking video clips and everything negative, and it has been striking how my mood improves and life takes on a more positive feel by doing so.
99.9% of what you’re seeing on the television news are things that don’t directly affect you at all or things that you have no control to change whatsoever.
So what’s the point of spending a hour or more daily being fed a constant stream of negativity about things that you have no control over or are overseas or in another part of the country? Do you even know why you must know about that avalanche in the Himalayan Mountains, or the Tsunami that hit Japan? Why do you really need to know the local police log every a.m. and p.m. on the local network news channels? What would the day be without getting the low down on the bank robbery in a city a couple of hours away by car or the car that was pulled over on the highway nearby and was found to be carrying drugs? None of this matters to 99.99% of us. It’s sensational filler being called news under the guise of journalism, and it is quite often mindless news about nothing new or unique or even truly important.
If you should ever find that the stream of daily negativity seems only to anger you; or make you think that all strangers have evil or sinister intentions or are serial killers; or that the world is about to end; or mother nature is going to swallow us whole soon due to us ignoring global warming for too long already, and all this negativity leaves you feeling helpless and depressed, then it’s time to turn it to the good news channel or turn that TV off for good. Every day the bad news brings us more of the same: the weather is crazy, there is another shooting at a school, children are being separated from their mothers at the border, disease is out of control in Africa, and the president conspired with Russia to win his job and got away with it. Turn it off. Walk away. Read more, write about your anger or write about something fun and positive or go take a nice long walk.
Perhaps getting more proactive and taking the time to filter what we let into our minds by deciding what type of information and video we will allow ourselves to see, and how much, and for how long, might be something to also consider. Once the information input has been proactively managed, or more customized to our own particular preferences, then we can begin to purposely look for, and observe all of the good things around us as we advance through each day, coming and going here and there.
Good is EVERYWHERE! I really think that practicing this can help us discover the love and goodness residing within ourselves, and also help us begin to see the same thing in others, and allow us to glimpse just how miraculous our lives and living in this amazing world really is.
By practicing actively being grateful for your life and all the potential granted to you, and for all the good you have already enjoyed, you will fan the fire of positivity and wellness for yourself and for those around you. Good news indeed!
Now do something positive with your gifts and, somehow, find a way to pay that good fortune of yours forward.