I’m not sure if it’s considered advice or just the passing on of wisdom but one of things I remember my Mom telling me is that what goes in is what comes out. She was mostly concerned with what books and television I was consuming as a teenager. I’m not sure I appreciated her badgering me about it at the time, but I do now.
As an adult I can see how accurate that statement is. And it applies to pretty much everything. I’ve been thinking about that more than usual lately. It’s a difficult time when you lose a loved one so I guess my headspace has been different in recent months. I’ve been on autopilot I think. The thing about autopilot is that if you’re observant, you can really tell what’s been going in.
A few people have mentioned that they thought I was handling my loss and responsibilities well. I don’t know how to know that but if I have it’s because of Mom’s wisdom and badgering from years ago. What goes in does matter. And in the last few years especially, I’ve been on a relentless quest to consume better.
I bring this up today for a couple reasons. One, it’s on my heart. And if God puts it on my heart, I’m going to write about it. Two, these are the reserves we’re pulling from when we go through struggles, and I’ve had some of those lately. This is the autopilot’s directives. If we’re full of negativity, skepticism, anger, hate or bitterness of any kind – it’s going to come out and we’re going to struggle with the challenges life throws at us.
The time to work on this is right now. When our social media feed is full of nothing but anger, we’re going to spew anger. When we can’t turn away from the bad news and fearmongering of the 24-7 news cycle, we’re going to spew negativity and fear. Ladies when we look in the mirror and can only see our flaws, then we talk to ourselves negatively. And guess what? That’s what comes back out, and our children hear it. Our spouses hear it. Our friends hear it.
I’m not suggesting that we need to be Pollyanna, pretend we’re in a Hallmark movie or just put our heads in the sand. Nor am I suggesting that this how to handle a mental illness. Mental illness needs professional attention, not silver-linings. Please, please consume some legitimate news. Be upset when injustice is afoot. And realize when your bad habits are what’s leading to something you don’t like looking at in the mirror.
But let’s balance it with some good and some grace. As a former journalist, I can assure you that there’s always another side. Sometimes we have to look hard for it. Let’s make sure what we’re consuming is as full of good stuff as possible. The beauty is that we get to decide for ourselves what we consume. We can curate our world to a large extent.
We can choose to look for the positive instead of the negative. I can choose to not participate in conversations that run people down and look for problems. I can choose to watch people be good to each other rather than watch people be mean to each other. Then when it’s time for me to act, I’m more likely to choose good because that’s what I’ve been seeing. And if I’m beyond my ability to choose, my autopilot comes from the good reserves.
Whether it’s the food we eat, social media we read, the television shows we watch or the people we spend time talking to, you can take it to the bank that whatever goes in is what will come back out. It’s as simple as that. Friends if you’re angry, frustrated or just the think the world is out to get you all the time, take a close look at what you’ve been putting in. What we put in, we get back out. Feed your belly, your eyes, your mind and your soul with good stuff and just watch how it changes your perspective.
