Newspaper headlines supported by twenty- four hour cable news video of riots, killer storms, epidemics, terror threats, school shootings, suicide bombings, political misdeeds and other assorted chaos, is covering us with a heavy blanket of negativity.President Ronald Reagan said "Information is the oxygen of the modern age" however this source of oxygen is becoming toxic. We are surrounded by negativity much of it advanced by the media
A recent survey of local television newscasts by tvsurveys.com noted the majority of viewers still think there are too many negative stories on most local newscasts, and that more positive content is needed for balance.
In fact, many say that their local newscasts are ENTIRELY negative, with the possible exception of weather and sports. "You get slammed every day with all the bad stuff...You don't see any positive. Everything is negative, negative, negative...You almost don't want to turn the news on, because it's all negative. We don't want to spend an hour just listening to everything that's bad."
The doom-boom in today's media suggests the world is going to hell in a hand basket - don't you believe it - if we just take the time to truly evaluate our lives and the world around us, the positives still far outnumber the negatives.
More good news - we can use this media negativity to our advantage by using each pessimistic report as a trigger to fire-up our brain computer and delete the negative and insert a positive.
One of the key steps of developing a positive attitude is to replace a negative thought with a positive thought. It sounds simple enough but it takes time and dedication to program your brain computer to automatically "delete" a negative and "insert" a positive. However, once this mental adjustment software is up and running and this thought replacement procedure becomes mechanical, you take control of your life.
When reading or watching a negative news story, don't turn the page or switch the dial. Use the same mental software - force the story to the background and think of something positive that happened to you recently. It can be as simple as the stranger's smile of thanks when you held open a door or a sunset that was so vast and beautiful it made you wish you had a camera with you at the time.
If you are new to this "delete" and "insert" technique start by taking time to make up a "positive tip list" on an index card. This will help you "insert" a positive thought without having to spend time trying to think something up - once you "delete" a negative you want an immediate positive replacement. List a series of cues that will project a positive image in your mind so you will have instant images to "insert" into your brain computer.
Once the software is fully programmed, "delete" - "insert" becomes routine as you take control of your life. The file in your brain computer could be labeled - "My Tranquility Zone" - sub title: "Media Rewrite" (Go to URL)
