March 2009

Monthly Archive

What Is News?

            I was having lunch with my friend Greg, who I don’t get to see very often.  Our drive to the restaurant had been pleasant, the food was good and the day was sunny, but Greg was distressed.   It seems he has a bunch of e-buddies who regularly share information with him about what is threatening the peace and safety of the nation.  He is also careful to watch the national news each evening. He’d received a lot of negative news the day before, found himself sharing it with his wife – who had very different ideas about it, and they wound up in an argument. So Greg was doubly distressed.

I asked him if he thought it was important to tune into all this negative news, since it obviously was making him unhappy and affecting his relationship negatively. He said yes, because it is very important to be informed.              Later I started thinking about that comment.  Clearly, he believes that his “news” sources (I put the word in quotation marks because so much “news” is actually opinion) do a good job of keeping him well informed.  But I disagree.  (more…)

Maintain a Confident Attitude in Tough Economic Times

Economic down times are an invitation for a person’s whole outlook to turn negative. There is constant news of layoffs and rising unemployment. Although pessimism and discouragement are understandable, they are not helpful. They tend to rob us of energy, convince us that action is useless, poison our relationships, make us ill and destroy our ability to bounce back. Clearly, keeping a positive outlook is important. It is not easy to do, but with practice we can learn to change our interpretation of negative situations and keep our minds on a positive track. We can also learn to take bold action to improve our situation and extend assistance to others.

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