How The Olympics Impact Your Happiness
Alas, the Olympics have come and gone. As I watched the athletes from each country go for the gold I realized that, although winning a medal is amazing, the accomplishment for each of them was to get there in the first place. “I won a Gold medal is a great statement.” So is, “I competed in the Olympics.”
What a wonderful opportunity the Olympics gave us to focus on very positive events. As we felt thrilled by each competition we were feeding our minds very healthy food.
What are you feeding your mind? Think of the last TV program you watched, book you read or movie you saw. How about the subject you last obsessed about? Do you really want more of that in your life?
It is not a trivial question. In a country where there is so much abundance and where very few go hungry, why are so many of us vaguely unhappy or even downright miserable? Could it be that we are not being careful about what we feed our minds?
It’s somewhat of a running joke with my friends that I’m a big sissy when it comes to entertainment. I’ve never seen the Titanic-I couldn’t bear to watch what happened to those people. I won’t watch shows with violence although, ironically, I love murder mysteries. (As long as the person is already gone I can deal with it. I just don’t want to watch it happen.) Forget the news. If Bill puts it on and a story is gruesome—as so many of them are—I routinely leave the room, on an invented chore.
The Law of Attraction dictates that you get more of what you focus on. Too many of us think that we can spend 20 minutes envisioning what we want and that what we pay attention to the rest of the time doesn’t matter. It matters. It matters a LOT.
I am in recovery from clinical depression. Somewhere along the path to health I realized that I am extremely sensitive and must be careful what I expose myself to. I believe that all of us share the same sensitivity and that ignoring it leads to vague unhappiness or downright misery.
Do I live in some sort of bubble where I don’t know what’s going on?—No!
No. Believe me, if something important happens, either someone tells me or I catch a glimpse of a headline on the Internet. I DO watch the news but on the Comedy Channel. I get insight into what’s going on and I can laugh at the insanity of it all at the same time. Such a deal!
If you are ill at ease, stressed or downright depressed, take inventory of what kinds of information you are routinely exposing yourself to. Paying attention to negative messages and expecting to be happy is a lot like eating mostly fried foods and expecting to lose weight—not gonna happen!
Happy focusing!
