The chemical reaction in your brain that causes you to be addicted to drugs, alcohol or porn, has been proven to be the same chemical reaction for fear and a lot of the news channels, have basically been putting out fear porn for about 8 months now and as a result have record ratings - so it’s clearly working for them.
We have watched the news so much that we’ve become addicted to fear, and what happens when you do that is you spend your whole life trembling and you lose your critical thinking skills.
You no longer have the ability to look at the data coming out with a clear mind, household debt’s down, unemployments not as bad as they expected, the stock markets doing pretty well, consumer spending is at pre covid levels, social distancing data, or death rate data.
But instead of this, we get ourselves in such a state that we explode at someone who had the nerve to step within 6 foot of you at the supermarket. Or even worse you don’t explode at them but you let it ruin your day.
And then you get to the stage where you see a threat everywhere.
The brain is designed to protect us and when it senses fear it puts you into one of 2 places: fight or flight. Most people go into flight mode - "I’m afraid, I’m not going anywhere, I won't do anything and i'll freak out at anyone who doesn’t share those beliefs"
Why not try focusing on the fight mechanism and saying, "you know what, a lot of this I cant control, but I’m not gonna let these circumstances and other peoples reactions shape my own perception. I’m gonna focus on what I can control like how I feel and control what I consume"
If all you watch is fear and negativity you’re gonna be accustomed to looking round every corner for what’s gonna hurt you.
Yes, this is a tough time and I’m not trying to take anything away from it or lighten what’s gone off, but we’ve been through tough times before and what have we seen? The human spirit if it decides to fight and adapt, will overcome everything.
This is a storm, and storms always pass, some are worse than others, but they don’t last forever.
A prime example of this being the great toilet roll shortage of 2020 where you couldn’t get it anywhere, for about... 2 weeks?
So the message of the story is just be very careful about what you consume, and remember, you choose how it makes you feel.
Makes sense? Makes sense.
Thanks for reading,
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