Don't Give Up On Hope
Life is as beautiful as you want it to be
For survival, it makes sense to focus the majority of your energy on what’s most likely to kill you. Mitigating the negatives is a viable strategy when a single catastrophe might be the end. The tradeoff is that the more you focus on the negatives, the higher the percentage of your brains processing power is tinted by a dark lens, bringing clouds that shade your entire existence. The man who lives in a boarded-up home is always prepared for a hurricane, but is never able to see the light.
Our social media is a constant influx of worrisome news, aggrandizing the Fox News effect of using emotional power to keep people engaged. The speed and range of bad news is a torrent that is incredibly easy to drown in, showing you ways to be scared that you didn’t even previously know existed. That kicks in a defense mechanism to protect yourself at all costs, shrinking your life down to that of a rabbit, who scans the environment for threats any time they’re above ground, with a racing heartbeat and muscle reflex to match.
You can choose to live otherwise, to live a life of magical realism and wonder, instead of fear and worry. Dramatic darkness has strengthened your fear muscle, making it so strong that your brain is imbalanced. If you only ever work your upper body muscles, your legs wither away, but it is within your power to bring things back into proportion.
It will take constant, diligent, conscious action to do so. Action that only you can perform, and that no one else will do for you.
When you go through the world, you have to remind yourself to focus on the beautiful, and once you begin, there will be no shortage of ways to do so. You have to work the ‘seeing beauty’ muscle until it is strong again. Those who are happy exist constantly in that state. Single thoughts, when piled up in abundance, become your entire mindset. You have to bring it upon yourself to be a positive person. It is no one’s job but your own.
Here is one very simple rule to get started: Look harder at things.
When you’re out on the street, look at a sign. Notice how a font makes you feel and realize that someone creatively designed it. How colors have connotations to specific businesses and customer categories. How we are all largely connected by simple shapes and strokes.
Look at a flower arrangement in a highway median and appreciate how someone used pattern, size, and color matching to bring small wonder into a concrete square. Look at the concrete itself and be amazed that humans have taken the earth underneath our feet and formed it in ways that bring flow into our environment and our movement.
As you walk, feel the muscles flex in your feet, pushing and counterbalancing our momentum in sync, to propel us forward. Look at your own clothes and allow yourself to be impressed at the generations of human ingenuity that have led to materials with different properties, being machined into specific patterns through a loom, that warm and protect our bodies while allowing us the freedom of expression through them.
When you receive junk mail, be grateful for the behemoth of logistics that lets us draw marks onto wood fibers and have it transported directly into the hands of another, anywhere in the world, for a remarkably cheap cost to us. When your potted plants wilt, be inspired by the plant structures that move water from the soil into the tips of the leaves.
The world has limitless points for gratitude, appreciation, and beauty. It is your job to acknowledge them. It is your job to flex that muscle so constantly and efficiently that it becomes the default. You cannot expect industries that rely on emotional capture (a powerful drug for manipulating dependence out of fear) to have your best interests in mind. It’s not good business, and capitalism does not reward it. Chirp about how things should be all you want, but you’d be better off chirping at yourself for allowing a business to dictate your reality.
Danger is real and should be acknowledged, but not at the expense of wonder. Controlling your own narrative of the world will bring much more inner peace than whatever the scrolling newsfeeds dictate to you.
If you want to change the world in ways where these feeds don’t exist, then starve them of attention. The greatest form of rebellion against fear-driven industries is to live a life of attentive gratitude. By seeing the world as a place of beauty, you give others permission to do the same, and exponentially increase the effect.
Negative media acts from the same cognitive base that a child does, operating out of emotional reactions and polarization. You must choose to be the adult in the situation, to seize back control and define your own reality. Happiness is your burden to create.
In effect, you must choose to be happy, even when the world does not want you to be. Take all of the energy that you previously placed into worry and anxiety, and instead channel it into putting in the work to seek out and dig for positivity. Victor Frankl found solace and purpose from deep within Nazi internment camps, and constructed the framework of his mind to let that flourish. In turn, you must also find your own meaning.
Global tragedies will punch you in the face, determined to knock you down and keep you there. Standing back up is an act of defiance. Choose to do so, over and over again. Bring control back into your existence and make that choice.
With love from me to you,
Alec
Note: No AI was used to write, edit, or otherwise modify this article.