Throw Out Your TV

Have you been watching the news lately?

Are you feeling a little uncertain about your future because the banks are breaking; financial markets are crashing and the headlines say that the world is going to hell in a hand basket?

Maybe you find yourself worrying about your future, or are considering cancelling your holiday because you’re not sure if your next paycheck is a sure thing…

Well, I’d like to share a very powerful strategy for ensuring that no matter what happens in the world, you remain in the driver’s seat – positive, powerful and prosperous.

Credit Crisis? What Credit Crisis?

I found out about the credit crunch a few days after the rest of the world did. Because I haven’t owned a television in 15 years and I don’t read the newspaper (unless I’m in it 🙂 ), I’m often unaware of what is going on in the world until I need to know.

Now, you might be thinking that this is a little irresponsible of me. After all, as responsible citizens, surely it’s our duty to stay up to date on current affairs, is it not?

Well, allow me to share my reasoning behind my selective ignorance.

Becoming the Gatekeeper

Having spent years studying how the mind works, I’m very aware that 1) either I am influencing my mind or 2) I am allowing somebody or something else to influence it for me.

If you are watching the television, listening to the radio and reading the newspapers, chances are that you are not deciding what is going into your mind – you’re allowing the media to decide for you!

No matter how many times you tell yourself that you are smart and can discern between fact and fiction – feeding yourself with negativity is impacting you subconsciously – without you even noticing.

And as you know, the mass media makes most of its money off bad news, because bad news is what sells newspapers, keeps you glued to the TV screen and listening to the radio.

Bad news is what makes money.

When was the last time you watched the news and felt fantastic afterwards? Probably not often, right?

We’ve been lied to. Society has led us to believe that being informed about global affairs is critical to our success. Well, I’d argue that this depends on the kind of information you inform yourself with.

I broadly categorize TWO kinds of information: ‘Relevant information’ and ‘Everything else’.

Most of the information in the news is totally irrelevant and does not support you becoming a more successful person. Yet, most of us soak it up as if it were air, essential to our survival.

I’m here to suggest that perhaps – just perhaps, you don’t need the news to be successful in your life.

If you are constantly feeding your mind fear driven thoughts and emotions (from exposure to the mass media), your actions (and therefore your results) are going to reflect this. You’re going to make choices based on fear, rather than making choices based upon where you do want to go and what you really want most from life.

By making choices designed to avoid some kind of fear or pain, you actually give your subconscious mind an instruction to move you closer towards that fear and pain, because your mind cannot conceive a negative.

e.g. Try NOT to think of yourself lying in a hammock listening to your favorite CD with the cool breeze moving through your hair… You had to picture it to NOT think about it, right?

So, by watching the news, reading the newspapers and listening to the radio, you are actually instructing your subconscious mind to show you more of what you read and hear on the news – the things you actually don’t want…

Given that most news broadcasts are filled with bad news, you’re definitely not helping yourself like this.

Are you beginning to see what a powerful effect the media has on your mind and your life?

AND no matter how smart you are, do not underestimate its impact on your subconscious mind. Here’s why…

Contrary to popular opinion, you are not in control of your mind…

My wife was sharing our ‘media free’ way of life with a colleague last week. Her colleague was shocked to hear that we don’t keep up with the news and responded by saying that she should learn to control her mind and just block out the information that was negative.

Yes, that would be a great idea if it were actually that simple, but in order to choose what information is negative or not, you first have to read it, watch it or listen to it!

Unfortunately, just by reading or listening to the news, you force your mind to make pictures in your imagination of the things you’re reading about or listening to.

Your mind has to make these pictures in order to understand the content you are reading or listening to.

Your mind is programmed by the pictures you feed it and these pictures tend to become your reality.

So, just by skimming the news, your subconscious mind is absorbing all the things you are reading.

Unless, of course, you’re watching TV…

When you’re watching TV, your mind doesn’t have to make up pictures, because the television conveniently provides the pictures for you.

Whether you like it or not, the pictures you watch on television enter your subconscious mind subliminally and over time, with repeated exposure, these images become programmed deep within your subconscious and eventually manifest in your reality.

This would be a great thing if all the television we watched was empowering and inspiring.

However, continuous exposure to this kind of negative programming has to manifest itself in your life in some form, through the actions you take, in your financial life or in your body (in the form of ill health).

My intention is not to put down the mass media, but rather to drive home the point that if you are not consciously programming your mind, the media is programming it for you.

And the more you let the media decide how you feel and act, the more you’ll end up creating a life that you actually don’t want.

Do you really need to know the daily blow by blow updates on the details of which bank just collapsed and how many people were made redundant this week or how the property prices are set to collapse etc?

Of course not…

I’m not suggesting that you stay totally ignorant of what’s going on in the world, but I am suggesting that YOU become the GATEKEEPER to your mind i.e. YOU decide what you allow into your mind and what you won’t allow into your mind, rather than letting the media decide for you.

How To Stay In The Driver’s Seat

My recommendation is not a subtle one.

I wholeheartedly encourage you to take the plunge and throw out your TV, cancel your newspaper subscription and put the radio in the attic (just in case you hear that I’m going to be interviewed on it!) – at least until you’ve given your mind some time to recover from years of mental abuse.

I challenge you to try it for just 1 month.

If after 1 month, you find your life has not improved dramatically, feel free to bring the TV back, but I doubt you’ll want to when you experience the benefits of not having one.

Seriously, by cleaning up your mind like this, you’ll be cleaning up your life and you’ll create the space to fill it with inspiring content – content that actually makes a difference.

When YOU begin feeding your mind (instead of the media feeding it), you become liberated, a free thinker, and nobody can control you without you consciously giving them permission to.

Then life becomes really fun because YOU get to choose what your mind is programmed with and ultimately, where your life goes.

Suggestion For A Liberated Mind

Assuming you do decide to take me up on my challenge and throw out the TV, here are some suggestions for how to fill your time now that the TV, Radio and newspapers are gone.

1) Create a fitness routine. Regular exercise makes your brain release endorphins, which are chemicals that make you feel happy. Not to mention all the other positive side effects of exercise.

2) Create a morning ritual to ensure that you begin every day feeling inspired. I listen to my Relaxation For Manifestation every morning to help me feed my mind with powerful pictures of my goals. This is a great way to consciously choose what pictures you want to feed your mind.

3) Begin filling your mind with information that actually benefits you.

4) My ex-wife had a ‘get up and go show’ every morning – a selection of music, dancing and general frivolity. By the time she arrived at work she was bouncing off the walls. How can you create your own morning routine that sets you up for success?

5) Do the things that you enjoy. Begin a project that inspires you. I met a woman the other day so excited about restoring her 1964 Cadillac. What’s your passion?

Doing activities you love will positively contribute to your quality of life and peace of mind – no matter what the financial climate of the day…

Take It Slow

Lastly, here are some guidelines for maximizing your chance of a total recovery from negative thought viruses.

– Before you go to bed at night, find some time to focus on being grateful for everything that you have in your life right now.

– Don’t hang around people who talk about how bad things are. Find positive people to rub off on you.

– Be generous, to yourself and to others. I recommend tithing 10% of your income to a charity that you believe in. Its counter intuitive in this ‘financial climate’, but it tends to open you up emotionally to let abundance in.

– Treat your friend’s opinions with a pinch of salt until you have actually thought about them and decided whether or not you want to see your world in their way.

– When you look in the mirror in the morning, tell yourself how much you love yourself. This will begin building your self image and when you love yourself, nothing that anyone says on the news can affect you for long.

The Future

As global citizens, we need to stop picturing how bad things are in the world and start focusing on how we want the world to be.

Now, more than ever, is the time to begin spreading possibility into your world and who better to start it than you and I.

Bruce