State of mind — state of being

I’m no scientist but I’ve observed that if you do something long enough, such as listen to positive sources of information or entertainment for as little as 30 days, chances are you will begin sounding and behaving more positive than usual. In like manner, if you listen or hang out with people who are critical or negative, you will in time begin to express or demonstrate the same negativity or critical mentality. Behavior is learned especially from people who are impressive, influential or amusing.

There was a time in my life when I cursed like a gang member from the projects in LA, that a foreigner asked me if I was part American because I seem to know every dirty four-letter word in use in the American language. All that was a result of all the movies or the TV shows that we picked up via UHF aired from Clark Air Base in Pampanga. In addition to that, I also read a lot of so called adult literature, which in hindsight was nothing more than glamorized pornography. Much later in life all those dirty or foul words nearly disappeared from my vocabulary as a result of becoming a “born again” Christian and keeping the company of people who shared and practiced the faith. Not only did I lose the cuss words, I also lost the cigarette addiction, binge drinking at times, and the generally combative attitude.

But believe it or not after watching and monitoring the speeches of President Duterte during his first three months in office, the PI’s and a few cuss words started to slip out of from my own mouth. The President is quite a character, influential to say the least, but what really sells or makes his PI’s popular are the audience who laugh and thereby affirms or validates the use of such language. Our collective reaction is what makes something bad become OK or “good” even when it’s not. To his credit, President Duterte has toned down his colorful language.

In order to sustain my desire to maintain a positive and constructive mindset, I have for the longest time subscribed and listened to podcasts of motivational speakers and pastors such as Joel Osteen of Lakewood church, Brian Houston of Hillsong Church, Andy Stanley – Your Move, Rick Warren and TD Jakes. They are straight shooting, modern men who can make preaching sound more like a leadership or business conference.

They are of course only secondary resources to my daily Bible reading that I try to do daily without fail. I have learned many business lessons, financial wisdom and made many major career and investment decisions as a result of reading the Bible. I don’t know what you’ve been sold or have not been told, but until you spend time and make an effort to go through that piece of work and all those books about human experience with and without God, and put them to the test, you really can’t comment, criticize or make assumptions about what the Bible is and what you assume it is not. Ignorance is never a good starting point for making a stand.

I’ve noticed that when I break my listening and reading habits, or inject more secular information sources such as opinions from radio and TV, my normally positive and polite state of being starts getting sour or negative. This is especially the case when I listen to public affairs commentary from people who don’t balance their “Media Work” with an equal amount of positivity, spirituality, church life or godly inputs in their lives. How well you fertilize your tree is shown in how much and what fruits it bears.

This is essential and mandatory because people who feed on positive or biblical and godly information and influence tend to hold themselves accountable, first to God and then their spouse or mentor.  They also avoid becoming too full of themselves, pride filled or taking themselves too seriously. Yes many of us in media still go to church and pray, some probably more regularly than others, but many are spiritual or intellectual Lone Rangers who eventually start to rely on themselves especially in a squeeze or start to rewrite the rules or make their own interpretations.

I recently heard several senior Media practitioners express their views on the role of Media in society and I realized why traditional media or veteran practitioners in the Philippines are such Negatrons. It is because they start with an assumption and a fixed mind set that the so-called fourth estate or media is suppose to and I quote: “ hold those in power accountable,” “to be fiscalizers,” “Adversarial,” preferably “Libelous rather than restrained,” self-appointed guardians of the truth, and the promoters of Critical thinking. All this of course was thought of and pedaled by media people decades ago.

People who begin and end their days believing it’s their job to find sin or looking for trouble or something to criticize usually find what they’re looking for and nothing else. The problem with that is they pass on to others, the by-product of their negativity or lack of positive influence and like a virus, it gets passed on to the public.

Whether you are from the media or the audience, it would be wise to step back often and look at the man or woman in the mirror, do a self evaluation or ask those you love or admire to tell you if you are a ray of sunshine or a child of Darth Vader in people’s lives. If those who have nothing to gain from you or don’t fear you say: “yes,” well go and buy your self an ice cream! If not then consider what St. Paul said in Romans:

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” – Romans 24:31

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