The NIghtly NEWS

Mike and I were watching the news the other night when it became incredibly apparent to me that this late evening ritual of watching the nightly news was just not healthy for me.

The constant barrage of information about rape, murder, drugs and crime, gossip, illness, death, tragedies, and all this mixed together with the delivery by affected newscasters with their unauthentic personalities is just too much.

How might this ritual be affecting me? How may it be affecting all of us?

Yes, the world has horrendous things occur in it each day. Yes, there are stories that I may not know about that people will be talking about...SO WHAT? If something is really important I will become aware of it by reading a newspaper or checking news on the Internet. Sports and the weather can be found on their own cable stations.

The world can be a very frightening place and certainly terrible things occur each day. However, if one watches the nightly news each day, one can come away believing that that's ALL there is in our world. Not so! The world is also filled with beauty beyond compare. There are heart-warming stories of people exhibiting kindness and compassion to others. Why is it that these stories never seem to make it onto the nightly news? What does this tell us about ourselves?

So, we are not watching this crap anymore. This is the last thing I need to deal with after working with patients in physical and emotional pain all day. I need more balance. I do not need to be going off to sleep with all of this pathology and negativity in my subconscious mind.

Life is beautiful. This is what I will be more mindful of. Life is painful enough at times. Why add to it?

In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, "We become what we think about all day."