A Sunday Message

A Sunday Message

Is our glass of life half full or half empty?

That is a question we should all be asking.

The answer will determine if we are taking a positive or negative path in life.

We are not alone if we are on social media.

We are subjected to barrages of information, advice, and opinions – both positive and negative.

The negative elements of social media often leave us perplexed and upset.

We often blame social media for the malaise that many of us feel and the lack of confidence we have with respect to the future.

I am often asked what we can do to counteract this dynamic and change the future amid the challenges we all face.

My response is to quote Mahatma Gandhi “be the change that you want to see in the world”.

Carl Jung once wrote that “your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside, awakes”.

And therein lie the answers.

There are positive messages on social media that can help us grow in wisdom and happiness and enrich our vision of ourselves and our lives.

None of us alone has the power to change the world. We can only change ourselves to react differently to the stimuli that we receive through social media and other news forums.

We can only try to glean the good and positive messages that we receive on social media and adopt that advice as a guide towards our own thinking and feelings.

By the same token, we must learn to avoid allowing the negative messages to affect us. We must avoid getting into useless arguments with those who think differently from us and concentrate on learning from them what appeals to us and what our value system rejects.

We live in a polarized world in which many are drawn to those who would manipulate them through cultish means. Arguing with them should be a non-starter since much energy will be wasted on those whose minds are captured and are set in their views.

Rather, use social media to reflect your values and allow those who agree to understand that they are not alone and, through their comments and replies, reinforce that you are not alone.

Happiness is a choice that we must make, and we can only make it with effort and discipline.

Everyday gems of wisdom come to us on-line and can be a positive influence if we absorb the messages and incorporate them into our mental and emotional state.  

We must realize that while we cannot change the world, we can change our personal world and environment to reduce the negative and enhance the positive. This can allow us to be more positive in our interactions with our own immediate environment and influence others through example and experience.

The Roman sage Marcus Aurelius once wrote that “The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it”.

Change is the one constant element in the universe, and changing ourselves must be the one constant element in our lives.

The Persian poet Rumi reflects that when you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. That river is the energy that comes from evolving towards a more positive self. From connecting with others on the same voyage. And from separating from those negative influences that can drag us down.

Rumi also wrote what is meant for you will come in search of you. But unless the doors are open it can never reach you.

You must be open to change, and to exploring the new and different stimuli that come your way. Change brings growth, and growth brings increased confidence and peace.

Social media opens many doors that we can explore. It also enables us to contact many people and ideas we would never have known otherwise.

American author Kurt Vonnegut once wrote that “You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society”.

So, look for the glass half full, and continue filling it. Use social media to increase your knowledge of things and explore your own self-awareness.

That is my Sunday message.