The News is Not So Good. How About Joy to the World?

By Anne Sermons Gillis

Joy is a master teacher. If you want to tune into joy, then you must attend joy class. Joy is not a serious matter, but being in joy (enjoy) requires attention and attendance. What we attend to, we attract and create. Meditate on the word joy. Contemplate the word joy. Be still and know that I am joy. Joyful thoughts create joyful results. One cannot fill his or her mind with resentment, pain, and disaster and then expect joy to surface on life’s horizon.

Les Brown says that secondhand violence is as dangerous as secondhand smoke. Thinking along these same lines we realize that secondhand pain, suffering, and struggle are detrimental to the way of ease.

The news, Hollywood, and the Internet offer a steady stream of secondhand suffering and pain. All suffering affects the mind and heart, whether it originates from the inside or from an outside source. It’s best to take news in small doses, but if you watch the news on television or read the newspaper, do it consciously. When you see blood and gore in the news, stop internally and see the situation in its perfection, with all grievances healed and bodies in radiant health. You may want to pray for a good outcome from the situation. When we drink in bad news day after day, we begin to feel powerless, helpless and hopeless.

The mind absorbs what it sees as if it is happening to the viewer. The mind records television and movie events as real events. Even what we hear on the radio is indelibly etched in the mind. We listen to the economic forecast or news and go down with the Dow. It’s best to picture the economy as strong. When we imbue what we see and read with consciousness, we are no longer at its effect. Most people think what they hear and see has no affect. This is uninformed thinking. Everything we see, hear, smell, and touch is recorded at some level in our bodies and mind. That television noise we might use to lull ourselves to sleep or to keep us company is programming us to take drugs, eat fast foods, buy cars, and to have heartburn, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and headaches. Only someone who does not know the truth can say, “The TV doesn’t affect me.”

A daily diet of pain and suffering, even though it may not be our personal suffering, leads the way to depression, skepticism or fear. The mind should be our servant. We must use our minds rather than letting our minds use us. Even though simplicity may be difficult for twisted minds, now is the time to lighten up and recreate our lives.

Sing these little songs to brighten your day*:

Joy to the World Tune “Joy to the World”

Joy to the world the time has come to have a little fun.
We frowned and frowned, our smiles are upside down, we’ve been too serious, we’ve been too serious, we’ve been too serious, we’ve been too serious.

We came to earth to have some fun and laugh and sing and dance.
We brought our light to bring delight and not be serious, and not be serious, and not and not be serious.

We lost our way forgot to play, and acted like adults, we worked and worked
Forgot life's perks We been too serious, we've been too serious, we been too serious, we've been too serious.

We choose today to come alive and joke and laugh and dance.
We pledge our light to shine so bright.
And not be serious, and not be serious and not, and not be serious.

Happy Mind Tune “Jingle Bells”
A day or two ago
I thought I’d lost my way
But then my ego disappeared and I began to play
I heard my happy thoughts
and felt a great big smile

And then my ego jumped back out and acted sort of wild.
Oh, ego thoughts, ego thoughts, ego ain’t the way
To have fun in a safe healed mind that does not want delay

Oh ego thoughts, ego thoughts, ego ain’t the way
To have fun in a safe healed mind that does not want delay

Playing with my friends
On this most important day
I feel my courage jump right in
And I just want to say
I like you very much and hope you always know
That I’ll love you no matter what through wind and rain and snow.
Just happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy every day
I make choices with my mind in a very helpful way

Just happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy every day.
I make choices with my mind in a very helpful way.

*Excerpted from Offbeat Prayers for the Modern Mystic © 1998 Easy Times Press

Use your mind as a joy-seeking instrument and bring joy-filled thoughts and ideas to your mind throughout the day.

Aclaim at the beginning of the day:

Today is a great day. It is full of wonderful unexpected surprises. My Higher Power (The Universe, Source, Life) is in charge: therefore I am safe and at ease. I let go knowing that good is her now and around every corner. I am no longer addicted to the drama drug. Ease is honorable safe and available. I chose to allow more and more ease into my life. I turn away from the external drama of the world into the inner stillness of my being. Yes!

Avoid the mental crashes of the obsessive mind. When you travel through life on joy’s highway, you attract and create a life that’s easier and definitely more fun. We’ve been too serious. We strive to be personally successful or bust our guts to make a difference. Both sides of this coin build despair. Striving is heavy. When we do what comes naturally and tune into life’s ever-present joy, the world changes; we become naturally abundant. EZ (pronounced ease) is an idea whose time has come; EZ is our natural state. Joy and ease are an integral part of the same tapestry of life. EZosophy is a philosophy that pulls us into the non-efforting comfort of an organized and friendly universe. Don’t struggle; be at ease, and remember the 8-word EZosophy affirmation: “Everything can be EZ or at least EZier.”