Today’s affirmation is:
“Today I am making the radical choice to be absolutely happy.”
Being happy is a radical choice. It takes work and it requires strength to be happy in our world. The news is filled with the negative. There is a camera, it seems, ready to record every negative event happening on the planet.
Sometimes I think these broadcasts would be more accurately called “negs” rather than news.
Fox News likes to call itself “Fair and Balanced” because, it claims, it provides both sides (apparently meaning left and right) to a story. To me, fair and balanced news would include equal time for the positive and the depressing news.
Hey, there are really bad things and really bad people in this world. It would be naive to stick your head in the sand and not be informed.
The fact is, though, that the overwhelming majority of people on this planet get up, go to work, raise their kids, try to set aside a little bit for a rainy day, and try to get along with their fellow human beings.
This is true of Asians, North Americans, South Americans, Middle Easterners, Europeans, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, men, women, rich, and poor. It is true of the educated, the uneducated, techies, farmers, doctors, managers, ministers, secretaries, and, well, you get the idea.
All these people get up every day and want to be happy. Instead, their leaders and their information brokers work overtime to present them with a world filled with threat - people wanting to kill them, steal from them, cheat them, and rape them. In short, they work to create an ambient fear that makes happiness tough.
This atmosphere is the reason the affirmation says “the radical choice” to be happy. You, the individual, have to make a radical choice to distance yourself from the matrix of negativity and find a positive place within you to achieve happiness.
The good news is you are fully capable of doing just that. Look for the positive things in your day. Remind others of the positive things going on around them. Spend time each day in prayer, meditation, or using tools like affirmations to counter the prevailing current.
I don’t necessarily encourage you to turn off the negs unless it really causes you distress. To be a rock and a resource to others caught in the negative whirlpool, it’s helpful to know what is being discussed.
I would encourage you to find ways to counter those messages and check them against your own experience of life. Is the world really on fire all day long everywhere or is that an exagerration?
Are there things happening everywhere all day long that redeem the character of your fellow human beings and demonstrate that the world is, in fact, a miraculous place full incredible opportunity for you?
My answer is yes, if we make the radical choice to recognize them and find happiness.
The choice is yours. Will you get radical today?
Ray Davis is a writer, poet, and thinker based in the American midwest. He is the founder of The Affirmation Spot.com - a website offering downloadable mp3 affirmations and other positive thought products.
Ray authors a near-daily blog called The Affirmation Spot on positive thinking and other motivational topics