A Balanced Worldview

Happy Day! 🥳

In the brief movie clip are the end scenes of the film Love Actually starring Hugh Grant. To make the scenes at the start and end of the movie, the production crew simply set up hidden cameras at an airport and filmed real people greeting friends and relatives in the arrivals hall. Not one hug was staged. Writer/Director Richard Curtis commented that in order to use the footage they had people with clip boards run around asking those filmed to give permission to use it.

The opening monologue poignantly points out: Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love.

And that’s the point here – we do have to look for it.

I have a very dear business friend who takes a daily bath in his favorite news channels. For years he has tried to engage me in political or religious discussion based on the latest hatred headlines. As I don’t watch the news, I don’t engage. Instead I tell him to look around us. Whether we are in a restaurant, airport, or a hotel lobby all we can see are people holding hands, kissing each other, laughing.

Of course, there is hatred in the world, and much of it is promoted and propagated by those who own the TV, radio, and pulpits. If you make the effort to look, however, hatred is the minority position. If you live or work in an environment which has a high percentage of exposure to hatred, it is important to take an antidote.

Go to a hotel lobby and just sit in a chair as if waiting for someone. It is fun to see so much genuine spirit and love in one place. I don’t think I have ever seen people fighting in a hotel lobby. I am sure it happens but most of the time it is just filled with people feeling happy.

Now, the cynic will point out that there are news bulletins of people shooting and bombing hotels. Of course there are. There are, however, millions of hotels in the world. If a hotel lobby is not your thing go to a beach or a park and people-watch.

If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.

Another word from Jill Taylor, My Stroke of Insight.

“For me, it’s really easy to be kind to others when I remember that none of us came into this world with a manual about how to get it right. We are ultimately a product of our biology and environment. Consequently, I choose to be compassionate with others when I consider how much painful emotional baggage we are biologically programmed to carry around. I recognize that mistakes will be made, but this does not mean that I need to either victimize myself or take your actions and mistakes personally. Your stuff is your stuff, and my stuff is my stuff. Feeling deep inner peace and sharing kindness is always a choice for either of us. Forgiving others and forgiving myself is always a choice. Seeing this moment as a perfect moment is always a choice.”

To truly transform yourself from quicksand to your life of dreams you need the discipline to reprogram your RAS. That means switching off the TV news channels, no more violent video games, no more “shoot em up” movies. No more hatred. Go on a strict diet for a week and sense just how better you feel when you take control of what you allow into your mind.

Switch the media out for things you want in your life… love, laughter, luxury, success.

For some reason I have always viewed the world as one huge musical. At any moment in time I would not be surprised to suddenly see everyone jump into a dance routine. In the video below a brilliant flash mob gets to change people’s perceptions in a beautiful, fun, and loving way. How better to see the world this way. We are all actors on a stage and we have a say in what characters we play.

(video)

Most of our fears are biologically encoded from our most recent journey from the last cataclysm to where we are now. Fear of snakes, spiders, being trapped, being hunted are deeply embedded. Media plays on these fears bringing us minute by minute live news from a location where a small group of careless people is trapped underground or a plane crashed into the side of a mountain, or someone just discovered a new species of Amazonian spider ‘as big as a baby’s face.’ (That was a real headline!)

While above ground in that same year 800 people successfully climbed Everest, 40 million planes took off and landed safely, and synthetic spider venom showed tremendous promise for treating neurological diseases.

My prescription is not to bury your head in the sand because we need our survival instincts too. It’s to achieve a balanced worldview. Stop forming ‘your’ opinions based on headlines or the only religion you have ever been exposed to. I often get contacted by people who say ‘I’m a Christian, how does this work for me?’ My response is always the same. Have you chosen to be a Christian based on an analysis of all alternatives? I rarely get a follow up email.

Seek the facts and compare. For that, I highly recommend the brilliant book “Factfulness; ten reasons we’re wrong about the world – and why things are better than you think.” By Hans Rosling. You will never view the world you thought you knew the same way. It will also help rewire your RAS to seek more facts instead of myth and propaganda.