I have always been fascinated by the topic of mental saturation. It’s the idea that you can manipulate your own thoughts, perceptions of the world, habits, and inclinations simply by choosing what you consistently expose your mind to.
A friend of mine once complained to me about nightmares she was having. We got talking about the content of her nightmares, and the possible contributors to her nighttime anxiety manifested in the world of her dreams. It didn’t take long for us to stumble into conversation about her love of horror movies.
As I write these words, Superman is staring at me. The original Superman movies were fairly cheesy, but a friend of mine gave me a Superman poster along with a single clip from an old movie reel from the film. I hung it in my office as inspiration to pursue goodness and to do my best at heroically serving others. I swore off horror films long ago.
My friend and I talked about my decision not to watch horror movies. To her, horror films represent the highest form of art. She loves the idea of striving for the most creative and dark forms of gruesome torture. However, as we got talking about the way she routinely saturates her mind with thoughts of malevolence and death, she couldn’t help but agree that she may predispose herself to more vivid nightmares than would be typical for someone who grew up on a farm two hundred years ago.
The fact is, these days we have far more choices about what we will expose our minds to. The world has changed. If you do not consciously adjust the stream of information entering your mind, you put yourself at risk. There is an endless stream of videos, magazines, websites, books, movies, and other mediums that allow me to focus in on any narrow subject I wish.
Two hundred years ago, you didn’t hear about every violent crime that happened. News that traveled across the country was limited to the most crucial bits of information. I, on the other hand, get automatic exposure to statements like, “A woman is violently beaten and raped on the south side of Chicago, plus find out why mold may be deadlier than you think! Stay tuned for all this and more tonight at ten.” It was the ten seconds I accidentally recorded following a television show I like to record at 9 PM.
The news media consistently focuses in on dramatic news. Since dramatic news is generally more negative than all of the positive news they could report, the negative stuff ends up saturating the news channels.
We don’t need to watch horror movies to fill your mind with thoughts of violence and malevolence. In fact, these days you have to make a conscious effort if you choose to saturate your mind with thoughts of hope and inspiration.
It is my personal belief that there is a great value in purposefully cultivating joyful thoughts and emotions in yourself and others. I believe in purposefully adopting hope in the face of hardship. I believe in the pursuit of goodness in all of its forms. I do not believe in bowing to cynicism in the name of “being realistic.” My belief is that we are creators because we have free will and choice, and our responsibility to choose what we create starts in the mind. What kind of habits and inclinations do you want to cultivate in the garden of your mind?
Any of you who have studied my materials, or followed my blog for long, know that joy and positive energy are factors that strongly attract high-quality men into your life. So the goal of pursuing joy through mental saturation is particularly relevant to those seeking better romantic relationship outcomes.
Today I will leave you with just one tip for taking charge of the things that saturate your mind. Make a list of several things you really enjoy in this life. Now take that list and look for ways to tune the various channels of information that flow into your life.
For example, you could drop your magazine subscription to “People,” with its constant stream of good-looking people and gossip, and switch it over to some kind of travel magazine that saturates your mind with pictures of beautiful places that lower your blood pressure just by looking at them. If you really love gossip magazines about celebrities, I’m not trying to control your choices there. It’s just an example to show you how to put the concept into action.
There are literally hundreds of methods for making small changes to your environment and routines that lead to a mental saturation of the sort that you would choose, if you had purposefully engineered your life with this concept in mind from the start. Share your own ideas for positive mental saturation for others to borrow. Leave your ideas in the comments section below.
James, you are absolutely correct! People are being manipulated by the rubbish they are fed in the media. (And here I have Grammarly trying to turn what I write into a total facsimile of how it would like everyone to write – pathetic!) If people really discipline themselves, they can get rid of all the negativity on TV and the news, and start to live in an atmosphere of their own choice. That’s how it should be. Most of what’s on the news isn’t vital information anyway. I believe we should guard the portals of our minds – sight and sound – because what enters through these portals can have the most diabolical effect on thinking and life choices.
When my husband was alive he watched the news constantly. When he passed away 3 years ago, the TV stayed off. Alexa offered to give me the news head lines one time, and within a minute I had asked her to stop.
Thank you James for the visual, great idea. I live close to the beach, so that for me is a source of joy. Blessings.
Thank you!!! Great article ššš
We just need to take more time-out for ourselves to be the best āmeā you can be.
Donāt need to be constantly surrounded by people.
Be kind & love yourselves, thatās where you gotta start š
Less screen time and more human interaction ~ I love talking to people about things that matter, not just surface talks or googlelable data.
I’ve always been a positive joyful person. One way I keep that perspective is engaging in activities that feed my soul. I paint, take art classes and learn and read from other artists. I sing in a couple of choirs… it raises the serotonin levels, and listen to beautiful music. I accept everyone but choose to spend my time with positive uplifting people. I find others of like mind are drawn to me so I have a wonderful circle of great friends. Iām 75 and retired, widowed as well, and living a wonderful life. I am blessed. You can be too.
Wahtsoever things are lovely, think on these things. Philippians 4:8
Amen
I totally agree with this concept of mental
Saturation of positive energy and hope. The people in this world need more of that nowadays
Llike air pollution, water pollution, toxic foods, prescription drugs, mind pollution increasingly calls for making clearer choices about what we are āconsuming.ā We are bombarded with appealing images of toxins in imesmerizing, shiny disguises. Identifying and avoiding these things can sometimes seem like an impossible task. It feels like ANOTHER full-time job we donāt have time for. Often itās not until we have an emotional, physical, spiritual, job or relationship crisis that we realize weāve been duped. There are more and more voices like yours pointing the way. Your perspective, freely shared, really does ground me, and give me the support I need to find my way. Thank you for being a beacon of light in these bewildering times.
James,
Your articles are the absolute best for relationship tips and general life inspiration. I feel very lucky to have stumbled on your blog. Youāre the only one I routinely follow. Itās a shame that mainstream media outlets choose to spread worthless crud rather than uplifting and beneficial life lessons like you do. AND your words of wisdom are FREE! Mostly. Thank you for sharing them and making the world a better place.
Kris, I will carry your words with me through the day as I work. Thank you for encouraging me. It means a lot.
How absolutely true. When I find myself being negative I consciously make myself go into another direction. I consciously think of something pleasant to get out of the negative rut. I try to be around positive people but that can be very difficult to find there is a lot of negative evergy in the world. By trying to be a positive person I only hope that I can help to make someone elseās day a little brighter.
To bring positive vibes, if I am to choose between soap operas and comedy sitcoms, I would pick the latter. I would rather laugh to my heart’s content than be stressed by the soap’s villains or the way how predictable is everything.????????
Thanks for this post. I totally and utterly agree. I stopped watching the news and watching tv a couple of years ago.. I joke that I won’t know when WW3 starts (but of course I won’t think about that!)
We create our reality by through our thoughts (Bentinho Massaro is totally on track with this-check him out) and what enters our minds through various disguises within our awareness or not, has a tremendous impact on our experience. Choose to fill your conciousness with amazing, beautiful, incredible thoughts aligned with your true nature and spirit ..and it is a choice. We need to take responsibility for our creation of reality and it’s a very good feeling and very empowering once you start recognising you are the creator, quite literally š Just do it.. In each and every moment
e all need to remember that we are whole from within ourselves, no one or thing can complete us or make us whole. You have to be happy from within & truly love yourself first. then open up & let love come in.
Funny how most of us givers do so much for everyone else but forget about ourselves. Most givers also find it hard to receive, but you can’t give what you don’t have. An odd twist hum?