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What News Ticker Is Running in Your Head?

The other morning Tom and I were sitting in our favorite Starbucks casually eavesdropping on some of the conversations around us. Soon the conversation at one table came around to the death of Michael Jackson.

One of the ladies mentioned how upset she was and that she’d cried about Michael Jackson. Another woman told the group at her table how her mother had called her the night Princess Diana died and that they’d cried together over the phone. A gentleman said he’d been upset first by Heath Ledger’s, then by Patrick Swayze’s deaths and the one who cried about Michael Jackson said she also sadly remembered when Ronald Reagan died.

We all know that celebrity deaths are big business. Since Michael died, millions of copies of his music have been sold. The phenomena of celebrity death-watches got Tom and I talking about the “news tickers” in our heads. I believe that where you focus is where you yield your results and when you look at where our Starbucks neighbors were focused, you could tell it wasn’t on anything positive.

News programs thrive on the “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality. Did we really want to watch Farrah Fawcett dying? We may not have control over how the media reports these issues, but we do have control over how we respond.

Start your day on a negative track and which way do you think it will go? I’m not immune from the negative thinking track, however I do all that I can to avoid the negative news tickers. I don’t listen to talk radio (all negative spin) or television news (more negative spin). I do read The New York Times on Sundays (an extravagance accompanied by a cup of rich coffee or healthy green tea) but during the week, I know if there is something going on in the world that I need to know about, plenty of people are around to tell me. I can tell when a hurricane is in the Gulf of Mexico (3 days of office paralysis whether it nears Texas or not), when someone’s been kicked off “Dancing with the Stars” (no other discussion occurs at lunch) or an election is near (please don’t ask).

I understand feeling a certain amount of sympathy for the family of a deceased celebrity, but call me heartless, I’m not going to spend my time crying over a celebrity’s death (unless it’s Richard Gere or another I personally know) and I’m certainly not going to stand vigil outside the house of someone I’ve never shared time with.

As nurses, I think we’ve all been there for a grieving family, but we know that to pretend to feel what that family feels will not ring true. We support, we don’t collapse. When I was at my mom’s funeral at age 23, I was personally put off by a hysterical woman who wasn’t even that close to Mom. Some might disagree, but I believe that mourning is a right earned, not a privilege for the masses. Is this misplaced energy and emotion a way of not dealing with the real-life emotions we face every day?

In the song “Easy to Be Hard” from the musical Hair, the character Sheila asks “how can people have no feeling… especially people who care about strangers, who care about evil and social injustice. Do you only care about the bleeding crowd?” What would happen if we put our energy into our own families, friends, legal nurse consulting businesses and lives instead of a dead celebrity?

We don’t have an unlimited amount of time on this planet. Each minute is a precious gift. I am often guilty of squandering this gift like the next guy, but I always strive to keep my energies within my “circle of influence.” We can spend our days railing about this politician, that TV program or some anorexic actor, or we can get to work on our own lives. I don’t want to sound trite, but if you’re not part of the solution, don’t rail about the problem.

To quote a favorite Buddhist proverb, “Even the smallest act should not be underestimated, for even tiny flakes of snow falling one atop another can blanket the tallest mountain in pure whiteness.” Spending our time upset over things outside our control may seem insignificant, but over time these small flakes gradually smother our passion and obscure our vision. You owe it to yourself to be your best and think your best. Put down the Star magazine and start today.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share how you stop the news tickers that run in your head.

P.P.S. My quote, Decide every day that nothing will get in the way of choosing happiness” will appear in the 2010 Woman’s Advantage Page-a-Day Calendar. My grandmother, who had multiple sclerosis, taught me this. Despite such a debilitating disease she was the happiest person I’ve known. She taught me that happiness is a choice.

One thought on “What News Ticker Is Running in Your Head?

  1. Vickie–Your comments really hit home to me. I think we have become so accustomed to what passes as “news” in the media, yet so much is just drivel. Someone once told me that as individual human beings, we are not designed to absorb that much bad news every day. It’s put out there because sensationalism sells, but we can choose not to partake. I too have stopped immersing myself in the “news.” I peek at the headlines each morning to make sure the sky isn’t falling, then try to stay informed by reading good journalism on issues that are important to me. I believe that the mainstream news outlets contribute to dysfunction in our society because of their focus on outrageous human behavior. Limiting exposure to the daily barrage of negativity has to be better for our mental health!

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*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.

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