For years, I’ve boycotted news. In the days following 9/11, I became a news junkie. Pursuant to our human desire for drama and conflict (counter-intuitive though it seems), I simply could not get enough information about the horrendous event. Since I worked from a home office, I could have the news on in the background as often as I liked.

Over time, I began to allow the emotions surrounding the event to affect my mood. I would go to bed sad for the world and the people directly affected by the tragedy. I would wake up angry and disheartened. I would take this pervasive negativity through my day, allowing it to cloud my perspective. I couldn’t see all the good in the world because I was carrying the tragic weight of this one event in my heart.

At some point after that time, I began to think about how news stories are told through the perspective of creating drama. It’s relatively common knowledge that news outlets gain more viewers (and thus advertisers) based on over-dramatizing events. If you don’t believe me, consider how many helicopter chases you’ve seen on the news. Remember the last time you came upon an automobile accident? We slow down and nearly create another accident due to our sick curiosity. We have a perverse desire to know the details of a person’s tragedy. News organizations capitalize on this basic human trait by giving us what we want, and more.

Finally understanding that this news habit was unhealthy for my psyche, I began my news boycott. I suddenly saw how much of the news was fear based, and how these stories perpetuated our inherent reaction to live in fear. I didn’t want this kind of life.

This is not to say that I don’t have a desire to know what is going on in the world. Conveniently, my friends, family, and colleagues know that I’m not exposed to the news in the way that most are. The important news stories come to me through them. Then, if I want to know more, I’ll scour news sites to get many different perspectives; never satisfied that the whole story comes through one source.

Many years later, I can say that this decision created a significant turning point in my life. I am in control of the information I allow in to my subconscious mind. I choose to create a balance of information from which to form a perspective. It’s not that I’m delusional. I know there are really bad things occurring in the world. I do my part to serve the world in a way that counter-balances these bad things.

And in my world, the sky is blue.

Coach Charrise

Mad World – Gary Jules

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad World
Mad world
Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
And I feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what’s my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very
Mad World
Mad World
Enlarging your world
Mad World.

I’ve been running in circles, looking for something that’s already inside me. I’m slowing down enough to appreciate what is right here, right now. Helping others do the same is the greatest gift of all.

Is it time for you yet?

Coach Charrise

Whenever there is a will to do something, there is an opposing will that occurs. It’s similar to what Pressfield calls “Resistance” in his book, The War of Art. It seems we can be our own worst enemy.

The simple act of recognizing when that opposing will rises up, helps me conquer it. It becomes a choice between doing what I know I want or need to do, and succumbing to all the trivial reasons not to do it. Resistance can be a daunting rival in getting good work accomplished. And yet it really is just a choice that I’m making in each moment.

I know that makes it seem really easy, and maybe even over-simpifed. It doesn’t work well for me when I view it as difficult. Because it’s either easy or hard, according to how I create it. So I’m choosing easy.

Coach Charrise