Is it Human Nature to Seek Bad News?
Can That Change?
Dan Gardner, a columnist with CANWEST, concluded a recent article with the statement that humans pay more attention to bad news than to good news. He attributes this to the historic need to be on the look out for danger. The argument for genetic determination makes limited sense in present times. And yet humans are drawn to read about death and destructive behaviour, and fascinated by it.
Bad News Affects the Body
Bad news generates a series of emotional and physiological responses leading to fear and stress. It is well known that constant fear and stress can be linked to disease, depression and potentially addictive behaviours. So why would a person choose to read bad news, believe the worst, and perpetuate stress?
Choosing to Change the Way You Perceive the World
A small group of men and women just completed the first Conscious Coaching Certification offered in the Journey program. Their training required that they
- Face their worst fears and not run away from them
- Face catastrophic failure and follow the worst-case scenario to its ultimate end
- Uncover and acknowledge the games they have played to avoid facing fear and failure
- Uncover the rules and labels they had hidden behind in order to stay “safe”
The purpose of this training is to free them from the unconscious behaviours that continually lead to fear and stress. They are trained to identify it in others and offer them the choice to turn and face what they are afraid to face so they can be free of it too.
An Ex-Marine Leads From a Place of Consciousness and Finds Freedom
Joe Doyle is a veteran of the war in Vietnam. At the end of the training he stated that when he was a Marine, he led men into a battle for freedom, and then spent the rest of his life running from it. This work showed him he was still a leader, and could lead veterans out of the jungle of despair, depression, and addiction, toward a different kind of freedom. Joe discovered that there is a different kind of leadership that comes from turning and facing the enemy inside the self and making it your best friend.
Choosing Good News Over Bad
It is possible to choose good news stories over bad. Healthy, happy children do it all the time. When children have a spat, they will tell each other how they feel, exchange "sorry’s" and okay’s and the playing will continue. It’s when the feelings get tamped down that the bad stories begin. The stories get solidified, and that can fuel other behaviour. This is the cycle that needs to be broken.
Conscious Awareness
Perpetuating the culture of fear is an unconscious tendency. If it is instinctive to be on the lookout for danger, conscious awareness offers alternatives. True consciousness reveals that the concept of safety is an illusion. The feeling security engenders is a feeling of being protected, loved, “home”. That feeling is the essence of who you really are. It is accessible at all times, even within the chaos of market uncertainties and political upheaval.
The group of Conscious Leadership coaches would testify to the truth that facing your worst fears is the only way to find true freedom from fear and accompanying stress. This does not mean that challenges go away. On the contrary, these coaches see each challenge as an opportunity to strengthen in their awareness of who they really are – connected, authentic, loving and at peace. This is good news indeed.
Vision
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