Find the good around you

It’s almost impossible to wake up nowadays without hearing something “negative” or horrible somewhere in the world trumpeted in the media, whether a natural or man-made disaster. There is sadly always “something” scary going on in some corner of the globe.

Sometimes I wonder if these catastrophes deliberately attract headlines or it just so happens that disasters naturally focus human attention. This really awes me. At times it makes me wonder if there is any “good” left out there?

It seems that whenever you pick up a newspaper, switch on any news channel or even surf online for news – there is something shocking, scandalous or nerve racking waiting for you.

One might wonder if there is any good happening in this world that we ought to know about? Perhaps, positive events that ought to capture headlines or front pages of the newspapers? It is really difficult to imagine that we live in a horribly negative world.

How does it affect us as human beings, one might be curious to know? Or how do we avoid the constant bombardment of negativity? Can we control our diet of media news?

I somehow draw a parallel with how we plan our holidays or breaks. We choose where we want to go, what we want to see or experience and dismiss that we do not find appealing.

Perhaps we can do the same with the events taking place in our daily lives. We could choose what we want to read in the newspaper or watch on television and not necessarily get carried away with all the negativity.

I recently read an interesting article entitled: "Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it, and you’ll start believing in it."

This made me believe that it sometimes is a matter of a choice. Just as we choose to or not to do certain things, we can similarly choose to look for the positive of this world.

For instance, I happen to be one of those rare creatures who do not own a television by choice, I have not had one in over seven years. I have never bought nor do I intend to in the near future. This over the years has shocked many of my friends, as a television has become an indispensable fixture of a modern comfortable home. I never bought one because I knew that I could easily spend half the day glued to that box to the exclusion of more productive occupations.  The TV is to me largely a time wasting distraction with few “benefits” and countless disadvantages.

Similarly, I have opted not to read everything in newspapers, as I do not find everything rewarding or uplifting. The only time I might actually read the news is when I cast a quick glance at the headlines or surf online for those one-minute news updates.

I’ve come to realize over the last few years that in this way, I’ve managed to strike a balance between the negative and the positive in my daily life. Perhaps even found the good and actually started believing in it. So much good takes place under our very noses but to which we have become oblivious in our preoccupation with the negative.

One cannot possibly ignore the “world news”, though we could concentrate more on the good side, and showcase it to others. One might never know, it could have a trickle effect with one after another starting to believe in it and thus in the fullness of time succeed in creating some good around us which we desperately need in order to create a healthy balance in our daily lives.

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