Tag: optimism

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The Progress of Evolution

It’s amazing how people tend to look at everything that’s going wrong in the world, and how far we need to go rather than noticing the much improved world of today as opposed to only a little while ago.

We still complain about the economy but truth is poverty has declined significantly. According to a study by Bourguignon, Morrison and World Bank Estimates (2002), there has been a significant drop in poverty over the past two centuries. According to the research, there was just under 1.1 billion people in the world in 1820, of which over 1 billion people lived in extreme poverty. Today we have over 7 billion inhabitants, and as of 2015, the number of extreme poverty cases decreased to 705 million people. Consider the fact that we have over 7 billion inhabitants in the world today and we had under 1.1 billion people in 1820 and the number of extreme poverty cases still decreased from 1 billion to 705 million. The number of people living in extreme poverty dropped by 137,000 since 1990.

People tend to see the worst in every situation, and I do agree that we must take action to create a better tomorrow, but being pessimistic about the world and the future, isn’t an accurate description of where we are today as opposed to just a little while ago.

Many people say there’s much more cruelty in the world, but they don’t consider the vast media sources of today. We have the internet, cable television and hundreds of channels as opposed to the few we had when the television was first created. Not to mention how many news channels we have, and what is broadcast on those news channels. We have all sorts of devices we use to check recent updates on the latest news. Not too long ago we depended mostly on word of mouth. What are we basing our information on when we say the world is worse off than it was?

Why do we feel the need to impose fear in order to cause global change? Do we need fear in order to take action to cause global change? If this fear is causing you to create a better world and ecosystem, then great, but if this fear is causing you to say “the world is deteriorating, or ending, in just a matter of time,” then is this better? You say it’s just reality, but is it? Do we have an account of everything that ever happened in the history of mankind? Now ask yourself, how much information do we have today on global news as opposed to a few decades ago? How much information are we bombarded with on a daily basis?

Of course after watching what the media is showing on television, I can agree that things do not look so good. I wonder what would happen if there was a news channel dedicated only for success and break throughs. Success in careers, breakthrough healing and recovery, or people gathering to support global peace.

I do agree that the news has these uplifting stories, however, how much do they have of uplifting stories and how much do they have of sobbing stories? I do agree that death is a part of life, and so is mourning, but when the news “only” depicts stories on death and worldwide disasters, it creates fear and a belief that the world is much worse than it actually is. We negate the much more considerable number of uplifting stories that would help us see the world through different lenses.

Consider the fact that there are many people who would go out of their way to help others, and that the beautiful things of this world are much more substantial than the chaos that would make the front page.

Consider equality and justice today as opposed to the 19th and 20th century. Consider the prejudice among the visible minorities and women in general just a few decades ago. Consider the fact that black men were not allowed playing professional ball, despite them being among the greatest ball players. Consider the integration of the visible minorities in many parts of the world. Consider the fact that women are freely able to vote today as opposed to the 19th century. Consider the slavery abolishment in many countries, and the substantial decrease in global war. According to Goldstein and Pinker (2016) global war has decreased significantly. From 1945 to 2011 the global death rate has declined from 22 per 100,000 to 0.3 per 100,000 primarily due to less conflict.

Our rights, laws and overall lives are constantly improving and evolving, but then we focus only on the prejudice and mistreatment which are far fewer than a few decades ago. Then we conclude the world is deteriorating and everything is getting worse.

I agree that the world needs to change and that there is still much work to be done to have peace among nations, but is the world getting worse?

We’re so focused on our preconceptions of the world deteriorating that we forget about the improvements and evolution that we so take for granted.

We’re not perfect and this world isn’t perfect, and unfortunately we must learn through trial and error, but the most important concept to remember is how far we’ve come, and how much we’ve grown.

 

References

 

Rozer, M. and Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2017)-“Global Extreme Poverty”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty/

Goldstein, J. S. and Pinker, S. (2016, April 15)-“The Decline of War and Violence”. Published online at BostonGlobe.com Retrieved from: https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/04/15/the-decline-war-and-violence/lxhtEplvppt0Bz9kPphzkL/story.html

 

 

 

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The Misconception that Deprives Us

We’ve heard the saying “it’s too good to be true.” Many people say “it’s too good to be true, this can not possibly happen to me considering my luck and misfortune.” “It’s too good to be true, nothing ever comes so easy for me, I’ve always had to invest substantial time and effort to achieve a moderate amount of success.” “It’s too good to be true, this never worked out in the past, why would it happen now?”

This preconceived statement “too good to be true” has become a mantra for many individuals and it has become their way of looking at things. Many people come to conclusions too soon and they obliterate anything worthwhile pursuing because they don’t believe good things come to them, or because it’s never worked out in the past. Then they make choices based on this limited way of thinking.

When something good occurs or there’s an opportunity for something good to happen, already they’ve convinced themselves that they’re not fortunate enough to receive whatever they want. Doesn’t reality always change? Why do we base our beliefs on past situations and circumstances?

We convince ourselves on the validity of the saying “too good to be true” and we believe this is the reality of today, and the proper way to think. All that’s needed is a change of perspective, to know that we can have whatever we’re asking for, with an effort to stop thinking others are more fortunate than us or they deserve something more than us.

Is it too hard to believe that God simply wants us to be happy and he wants us to know that we are the creator of our lives, and we can choose to be, do, and have anything we want? Is it too hard to believe that we are an extension of God, and that the universal forces are always on our side?

Is it too hard to believe, that reincarnation can not possibly exist because that would mean we can come back as many times as we want, and we would have as many chances as we want? Are we tested in one lifetime? How many chances do we get?

Would a loving father deprive us of something, because we failed, considering he knew every mistake we would make in this lifetime? Would he deprive us of something because of our shortcomings considering he created us in our mothers womb?

Is it too optimistic to say there isn’t an outside force judging, testing and punishing us? Is it too optimistic to say an outside force is not deciding everything for us, and that we have complete control over our life and future? Is it an offence to God to think we have complete control? Would he be a loving father if this was an offence to him?

We are the masterpiece of our own lives and we are all creators in this universe and in the expansion of the universe. There’s nothing too good to be true other than our own misconception and our limited thinking. Whatever man has not accomplished through God, it’s just a matter of time before he does, because God said ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!

If God was standing beside you and he had one thing he wanted to tell you, he would say NOTHING IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!

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Discipline and Self Control

How do we master discipline? How does anyone master anything other than practice and repetition, and a determination to persevere to our goal.

How does a great ball player become a great ball player? How does a great stock broker become a great stock broker? How does a great father become a great father?

Mastering discipline means being in control of our thoughts, words and actions. When we’re disciplined enough to change our thoughts, words and actions when they’re not serving us, we’ve mastered discipline. We then take this practice wherever we go and it serves us. Every day we deal with a whole new set of circumstances and experiences in which we learn again how to gain self-control.

Lacking self-discipline can be described as an affirmation that we don’t have self-control. When we’re undisciplined we’re basically saying that our thoughts, words and actions are not in our control.

Ponder a subject in which you exercise self-control, and ask yourself why you have control over this subject, and not the other subject which you say is out of your control. If you have control over one matter, then you can have control over all matters since you use the same practice of discipline over everything. The only difference is your feeling of powerlessness on this subject in which you’re lacking self-control.

When we affirm we have self-discipline we’re changing our beliefs system into believing we’re in control. If we were to tell ourselves all day long we want to eat a piece of chocolate cake, what would eventually happen if we didn’t change our focus?

This applies to everything in life including the larger problems we believe are beyond our reach. If we keep focusing on something over and over again, we move towards it by law. If you were to tell yourself in your earlier years, I have discipline and self-control, I believe in myself, I trust myself, and I can do anything I set my mind to, would you be in the same place you are today?

If you say yes, I think I would still be in the same place as I am today, then you’re basically saying that your thoughts and words hold no power. If you say I believe I would still be in the same place regardless of how many times I spoke these affirmations, you’re basically saying I have no control. What do you have control over other than your thoughts, and the words you speak? Doesn’t all action stem from the thoughts and words you repeat over time?

What happens when we live with someone who lacks discipline all our lives? Many times, we begin to pick up on these traits, and if we don’t do anything about changing these negative patterns, they will eventually create our experiences. Don’t wait until the problem manifests before changing the underlying thoughts that created the problem to begin with.

Without discipline we can’t stick to anything because everything in life requires self-control in order to move forward. Everyone can have discipline, it just takes time, practice and perseverance to achieve our goals. This practice begins with the affirmation I HAVE DISCIPLINE

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The Placebo Effect

We’ve heard of the placebo effect, where you take a pill you believe will be good for you, and it produces positive results. The placebo research states if we expect a pill to be effective at treating a disease, by our expectations, our symptoms will improve. Therefore, after ingesting a placebo pill, the outcome is depended predominantly on our focus and expectation. 

Wouldn’t the opposite happen if we were focused on a medicine harming the body? Meaning if our thoughts were focused on the medicine causing adverse effects, would it create more harm to the body? Denying this statement would be saying that our thoughts have no power over our physiology, which completely undermine the placebo effect research. So if that’s the case, and our thoughts have power, why not focus on the medicine doing what’s it’s supposed to do, minus the adverse effects?

The placebo effect has been on tv, in books and in articles, and the research on the placebo effect discovered it’s primarily our thoughts that are creating the outcome of a medicine. If expectation brings about an outcome, and if we’re constantly worried about something we’re ingesting, what are we projecting? We expect our concerns and fears and therefore we bring about our concerns and fears.

I do agree that medication has side effects, but if our thoughts can create healing through a placebo pill, why wouldn’t it be able to do the reverse if we’re constantly worried about what we’re consuming?

If the media is always reinforcing the concept that medication is harmful to the body, and if we believe this concept, what are we projecting again? All you have to do is type in medication on YouTube or google, and you get as much negative feedback about medication as benefits.

I believe we should be informed but there’s such a thing as too much information, and our physiology as individuals don’t all work the same with treatment. Why does one person feel benefit from a medicine, yet another feels only side effects with the same medication? Body chemistry plays a role, however, considering all the research that’s been done on the placebo effect, we have to admit our beliefs and expectations are crucial in determining our physiology according to treatment.

The problem lies in people’s perception of medication, and we’re so immersed in this world of side effects and reactions that we forget about the many more benefits. From an individual perspective, there’s so many benefits and effects from what we consume, so why are we trying to figure out the one right way for everyone?

It’s quite evident that medication can have adverse effects for some people, but if someone was allergic to peanuts, would you tell everyone to not eat peanuts? Would you say there are no benefits to peanuts considering all the research that’s been done on its potential health benefits?

We need to accept everyone’s beliefs, and we shouldn’t expect everyone to follow our way and only our way. There’s nothing wrong with sharing our opinion on the matter, but there’s too much diversity in the world to think there’s only one approach to healing. We should appreciate all the resources and technology that we so take for granted.

And next time you take a pill tell yourself it’s going to do what it’s designed to do minus the adverse effects, and don’t let anyone change your mind.