Friday, April 27, 2007

A self-help newsletter on The Media

the Better Living With Hypnosis Newletter says:
You must become picky about who you allow to put information in your head. Find a good source of information and even then limit your exposure to it. So much of our negative programming comes to us through the media. We passively watch and listen, but our subconscious mind records everything. I rarely watch television, but I was watching TV recently at a gym. I discovered that the networks have managed to train people to have anxiety on cue. I believe the Pavlovian-style stimuli were called level yellow, level red, etc. The TV now tells us how anxious we should be based on information that we cannot verify. How interesting...a box can ruin our day and cause us to think negatively about our lives and our possibilities. My advice is to control the box. We are certainly more mentally powerful than a box.

Newspapers accomplish the same goal, raising our anxiety level, by displaying tragedy as headline news. What about all the people who had a wonderful time on the beach in Santa Monica today? Why isn't that on the front page? What about the flower in a vase on the windowsill of a beautiful house? Why isn't that on the cover of the LA times as the lead story? Does that sound absurd to you? That a flower would be the headline news? Who would buy a paper like that? Maybe a handful of people. Not many. We have been programmed to feed on all of the anxiety offered by the media. People start to look forward to the next anxiety-generating story...someone was shot, someone stole something, some group of angry people is hurting another group of people...and on and on it goes...this steady diet of anxiety. Take control of what goes in your head.

I am not suggesting that we ignore the problems of the world. There are real problems going on which need our attention. I am simply suggesting that we find ways to protect ourselves from the constant barrage of negativity being aimed at us. The information is often valid, but packaged in a very harmful way. When we take responsibility for what goes in our heads, we can truly begin to live powerfully. In an airplane the flight attendant will tell you to put your oxygen mask on first, before helping others. I am suggesting the same. Clear your mind of all the rubbish being aimed at it, by yourself and others, and then you will be better able to live your life on your terms and help others.

Gore is news. You probably don't have any in your life. Not even Al Gore. Or anything he's worried about. "News" means novelty. The sort of thing they write novels about.

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