For 2022: Change the Channel from Fear to Love

In the last 2 years, individuals across the country have shared theories about what is taking place in the external world. Pizza-gate pedophile rings, Russia conspiracy hoaxes, orchestrated viral chaos, voter fraud, media manipulation, New World Order, an underground sex-trafficking enterprise run by rich socialites, celebrities, and perverted politicians. Are they speculations of over-active imaginations of isolated individuals or is there credence to any of the theories circulating the social media and gossip blogging realms?

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that all these theories are true. Or, for the sake of argument, none of the theories are true. In the end, what matters more is how the theory of another has any direct impact on your individual life. That is how we must gauge where we direct our attention.

If the theories are true, this means that we ought to be more skeptical about the choices we believe we are making for ourselves. If there is even the slightest possibility that the media can control the minds of citizens who are secretly drugged with fluoride and robotic vaccination microchips, then there are steps that one can take to prevent themselves from becoming a victim. Question what you claim to believe. Offer yourself the space to really think about what your impulse tells you to cling to.

I listen to a lot of stories, and I find myself walking through the idea as though it were a reality. I ask what the point of this illusion would be. What could be gained by it? Who stands to benefit from such a malicious plan? How many people would need to be in on the cover-up? Reasonable questions. Our imaginations can carry us to logical deduction or enticing and seductive drama.

I realize that so many scenes in society depict nothing but climatic dramas, but life is often not so glamourous or staged. Perhaps that is why we want to believe such odious and mysterious stories. Life is quite simple and boring when you think about it. And maybe we like to be entertained. (I know, it is rather obvious, isn’t it?) The stories that we hear or read about entice us and draw us in. We attach ourselves to the idea and by digging deeper, we believe that we are participating in prevention or change. Really, we are just feeding our attention to a consuming mass in the media that, in one way or another, profits solely from our presence.

What this means is that there is always going to be someone who wants you to pay attention to them. Some create an imaginative drama that seems believable enough to keep your attention solely on their channel or platform or page. Some of those platforms, channels, and pages, do directly profit from your attention, your likes, and your shares. Attention is the price we pay to share the space with another, whether it be face to face, in the physical realm, or face to screen in the virtual realm. The question most important to ask of the self is this: Is the price worth the information? Does having this information benefit me, or induce fear? Does this information edify me or frighten me? Does this information reward me with positive feelings or does it infuriate me and bestow upon me negative feelings?

I don’t want to make light of the very heavy and serious issues that our country is facing. I am not suggesting that all the stories that circulate are either true or false. More so, I want to implore individuals to sit with their beliefs, whatever they may be, for an extended period—far longer than five minutes—and ask yourself if what you believe is believable. And if it is, is it applicable to your life, really? To take it a step further, then ask yourself if you can do anything to change it. Then ask yourself which actions you could take to change what you believe to be true. Then ask yourself if you decide to no longer believe what you believe, does that mean that what you believed isn’t true?

Do Not Deceive Yourself

The way we can really deceive ourselves is to readily accept anything as factual or “true” without really reflecting on what holding that belief really means. Because when one claims to believe something, you can see it in the way they interact with the world every day. It impacts all that you do. Take for instance if I say “All lives matter” I show that in every interaction I have with any and every lifeform that I encounter, daily. I live that out loud, not in just mere memes on my social media account.

If your beliefs don’t have any impact on your actions, if your beliefs aren’t tangled around your behaviors and your choices each day, I would question whether you really believe what you claim.

Maybe you realize that you don’t know what you believe? I have been there. It’s a frustrating phase in life. But do not fear! All the attention you give away does not have to pay for fear. You can choose to pay your attention to love, instead. How do you do that?

An attitude of gratitude is one method that significantly reduces the anxiety, fear, and worries that accompanies fear frequency broadcasts. I realize there are not a lot of positive people broadcasting encouraging or helpful messages out there. But have you considered setting up your own channel to broadcast to yourself? This is a handy trick I use when I feel like the darkness of doom has cast such a tall shadow over all the light. I tell myself what I need to hear rather than listening to fear porn and anxiety-inducing commentary.

What are you grateful for? ‘Tis the season to recall our gratitude. Do you have a roof over your head? Do you have pillows to rest your head on at night? Are you in good health? Do you have a small tribe of people that you can count on? Is your belly full at the end of the night? Do you still have a job? Can you still pay for the electricity and the water bill? I know these things that we are responsible for seem trivial, but the fact that you have the capacity to care for your most basic needs is a sign that you will thrive while you are alive.

That sneaky little negativity bias always consumes more of our mental space than is required. To compensate for that, look for the little things that bring a smile to your face. Look for the simple presentations in life that remind you how lucky you are to be alive. You can create daily affirmations for yourself that you play on repeat throughout the day to bring you back to the frequency of love and obliterate the broadcast of fear.

Inject regular announcements to yourself throughout the day. When you notice the overwhelming sense of panic and fear rising from within, think of a message that you can send to yourself, mentally, that will help alleviate the anxiety. One affirmation that I have carried with me for over 2 decades is this: “My life is filled with positive abundance; my needs are met and more.” When I center on that mantra, I start to remind myself how fortunate I am to have a supportive and loving husband. I remind myself that I have healthy, happy, well-adjusted children. I have a warm house, food in the fridge, and a vehicle that gets me where I need to go. I have snow boots for the Minnesota winter. I have the privilege of watching the sunset from my office window every day. These are things to be thankful for!

Again, I realize that it seems all too simple. I have been dismissed for my “overt optimism” which some refer to as “toxic positivity,” but I don’t let that stop me from reprogramming my mental bandwidth so that I can download from the love frequency. The world will try to convince you that what you have will never be enough, that what you believe won’t save you, and that if you don’t rush to buy this or listen to that, you are doomed. Do you believe it?

The goal of the world is to get you to believe that you cannot experience heaven on earth. Be skeptical of those messages. Be skeptical of yourself when you allow those messages to throw you off your path. Fear is the obstacle—a big boulder blocking your path. But love is the skid loader that picks it up and moves it out of your way.