Fire occurs between oxygen and some sort of fuel. The fuel must be heated to its ignition temperature for combustion to occur and destruction to begin.
Think of negative, limiting, fearful thoughts as fuel. Think of negative, outside input as heat.
What do I mean by negative input?
a) Too much news - in other words, listening for the sake of listening without any proactive involvement. It’s paralyzing. It’s stifling. It’s frustrating, unless you are in some kind of action about what you are listening to. This world needs less agitation and more action. Get involved or turn it off.
b) Too much music - especially Pop - In 2008, Adrian North of Scotland's Heriot-Watt University published the largest study yet of musical taste, involving 36,000 people, 60 countries and three years of work. One group of listeners showed a genuine and significant lack of creativity: pop music lovers.
It’s not just a lack of creativity though. Music in general takes you into someone else’s world, someone else’s emotions, someone else’s story and out of your personal power. I’m not saying there’s not a place for music. There definitely is, especially inspirational music (i.e. “I Can Only Imagine”), and sometimes you are indeed blessed with someone else’s story - a story with good ending- a story that inspires action.
In general though the danger of too much news and too much music is thinning not only your creativity but your sense of personal power, literally adding heat to the current fuel of negative thoughts, creating of course a fire and your life coming down.
Let’s go back to the initial fuel: Your own thoughts - meaning, without realizing it we tend to hurl ourselves into a powerless stupor as we turn the brain to “spin cycle” and continue to play the old tapes of our personal failures and weakness, with no clear objective. We don’t even notice we’re doing it. It’s just happening in the background.
So, fuel (your thoughts) + heat (negative input) = fire (your life burning down)
What’s the solution? Positive, inspirational, input. How much? Pour it on.
When a fire truck pulls up to a burning house they don’t show up with squirt guns. Check the picture above. These guys are drenching the place. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? That house is your mind. Pour it on!
My friend Eric, who inspired this blog, was talking with me yesterday, “John, with what’s going on in most of our heads, we can’t afford to just dabble in inspirational input. We need to put our headphones on and flood ourselves!”
What am I suggesting?
Joel Osteen
Tony Robbins
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
K-love Christian Radio
Casting Crowns
Mercy Me
Stephen Covey
Louise Hay
Les Brown
Caroline Leaf
Steven Curtis Chapman
The list goes on. The result? The real you emerging. Because according to Caroline Leaf, the real you, buried beneath the negative, is actually and naturally positive.
That doesn’t mean you don’t need to cry it out sometimes. You do, and when you’re crying from your pain, not your blame- when you’re crying out the pain and hurt so you can open yourself to healing, this is super positive. I’m talking about, as a main diet, positive, inspirational input.
Getting somewhere wonderful, for most of us, is a long journey. And that takes fuel. So you know what to do.
P.S.
1) Inspirational input is not a substitute for action. It is to inspire action. This is not the case with millions, who listen to everything and seem to do nothing. This is not you!
2) Walking is the perfect combination with inspirational input.
3) I'm not saying not to listen to music. I am saying, get fueled up with positive thoughts and energy. At the same time, be sensitive to your need for balance. Research indicates, for instance, that upbeat music can really enhance your workout. And sometimes it's just time to party! Putting on some great dance music and going wild with your friends can be balancing and even healing (My personal favorite is Michael Jackson).
4) Headphones, CDS etc. are for your steady, daily flow of inspiration. But now it's time for your Friday night movie. Oh yes, and we are just getting started on the inspirational input:
Classics like: It's a Wonderful Life, Family Man, Big Fish etc.
Christian movies (which are always good, even the B movies) - "I Can Only Imagine" (one of Narelle and I's favorites) "War Room," "The Passion", "The Encounter", etc.
LDS movies (i.e. "Once I Was a Beehive", "Saratov", "The Other Side of Heaven")
The list is endless
My friend Eric even suggests that some post it reminders could be helpful.
