If bumper stickers reflected the way people really think (comic)

(NaturalNews) They won’t admit it in person, but most guys think war is fun to watch on TV . That’s why wars are packaged as entertainment. There’s even a documentary on the topic called “Militainment, Inc.” by Roger Stahl that can tell you more (http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=135). Most people don’t really do anything to prevent cancer or cure cancer, but they want you to think they care about cancer by posting pink-ribbon bumper stickers on their cars or buying gimmicky “pinkwashing” pink products. Most people say they support individualism and independent thought, but when it comes down to it, they really just want you to fit in and follow the herd. Similarly, people claim they want to protect the environment — just not right now. Let the next generation protect the environment. We’ve got more mining or drilling to do! What people really believe may surprise you These are some of the provocative topics in my CounterThink Cartoon entitled If bumper stickers reflected the way people really think . As mid-term elections are nearing in the U.S., I thought it would be interesting to explore some of the real beliefs that people hold when they go to the voting polls. For example, while they won’t really admit it in public, most people strongly support increased debt spending because it benefits them today while shifting the debt burden to their children. So why not have a bumper sticker that just tells the truth? Other people believe a larger government will somehow solve all their problems, as if sending your hard-earned money to a bunch of bureaucrats ever solved anything. This is the thinking behind the recent health care reforms which, as people are beginning to notice, have so far only caused health insurance premiums to sharply rise, costing employees yet more money for a system of “sick care” that has proven itself to be an utter failure. Now, the good news is that these bumper stickers don’t represent everybody — they only speak to the beliefs of the masses. Among those of us who are more aware, there are sharp, educated individuals who understand and follow principles of personal health responsibility . (Most NaturalNews readers share that belief.) There are some who understand the importance of fiscal responsibility and paying for our expenses rather than burdening future generations with our debt. Many people are actively working to protect the environment right now, either through activism or public education, because they recognize and understand the importance of keeping our planet a viable biosphere for abundant life. Some people, similarly, recognize the need to protect our freedoms rather than surrendering them all in the name of “increased security.” You’ll notice, by the way, that these issues cross all political boundaries and speak to the key topics of Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and other parties. This is not a pro-party political cartoon, it’s a pro-thinking political cartoon that challenges us all to think about what we truly believe and why we vote the way we do in the polls. Short-term thinking is bad for humanity Sadly, the voters in America (and most other countries) are dominated by short-term thinkers who want the benefits right now without having to consider the long-term consequences of their actions. Our outrageous national debt parallels the “ecological debt” that has been placed on the planet through pollution and habitat destruction. Both will require a very painful long-term payback that people won’t want to face. Such is the nature of truth and consequences. Both economics and environmental chemistry follow certain laws of nature, and those laws have a nasty way of biting you in the rear if you ignore them for very long. By the way, mathematicians and physicists will recognize the license plate number in this cartoon. It is an approximation of one of the most important numbers in our universe, and it signifies that what goes around comes around . I have a feeling that the voters in America aren’t going to like what comes around in the next couple of decades as the issues we’ve all tried to circumvent start to come due. I’m just happy that there are so many intelligent, informed and caring people still remaining in the world who visit sites like NaturalNews and who are working tirelessly in various non-profits, websites, video campaigns and other efforts to literally help save the world. We need more activism in our world on the really big issues. But most of all, we need people to improve the way they think and learn how to take a longer-term view of the consequences of our present-day actions. Any civilization dominated by short-term thinking is doomed to destroy itself. Only a long-term view (as in centuries) and an investment in a brighter future can rescue us from the pitfalls of short-sightedness.

Heal yourself in 15 days with the "Attitude of Gratitude" (part twelve)

(NaturalNews) So far in this 15-day self healing series, we’ve talked about healing yourself through many innovative methods that help protect you from threats to your health while activating the inner healing potential you already possess. Today, in part twelve of this series, we’re going to explore the power of gratitude in accelerating your healing even further. This isn’t some etheric, touchy-feely self-help exercise, by the way: there is a very real healing effect that is initiated in your body when you express gratitude towards people or things outside of yourself. Some of this effect can be measured biochemically, while other aspects of it are currently beyond scientific measurement. But the bottom line is irrefutable: Expressing gratitude initiates a powerful healing effect in your own mind and body. What do you have to be happy about? Getting to this gratitude, however, isn’t always so easy. Being able to genuinely express gratitude requires you to shift your focus away from the things that are negative and toward those things that you feel thankful for. And as you already know, it’s very easy to forget to be thankful for all the amazing things we experience on a daily basis. Many of us living in western society tend to focus on what we don’t have. We think we don’t have enough money, we don’t have enough time, we don’t have the partner we’re looking for and so on. And in that exercise — which can frankly dominate our day-to-day thinking if we’re not careful — we tend to ignore those amazing things we do have. So the more we can step back and examine what we already experience that’s valuable to us, the more we can focus on gratitude and the more we can accelerate our own inner healing as a result. Here’s a list of some of the things for which you may find plenty of gratitude: • Your health. Even if it isn’t perfect, you may be thankful for the health you have. • Your family. • Your freedoms (freedom of speech, etc.) • Your intelligence, consciousness and awareness. • Your memories! (Life without memories would be bizarre…) • Sunshine and nature — the great outdoors. • Food and seeds, some of the many remarkable gifts from Mother Nature. • Your job, business or career which provides the income you need. • Your inquisitiveness and desire to learn new things. • A spiritual awakening, or realization or philosophy that you follow. • Your pets / animal companions. In fact, if you think about, there are probably a great many things for which you can feel great gratitude — the small plants in your window sill, the knowledge about health that you’ve accumulated through reading, and even the fact that the sun will indeed come up tomorrow. Take a few moments and think about what you are thankful for. You may even wish to take a few minutes to jot down some notes for yourself. Set aside just 60 seconds a day With your list of those things you are thankful for, I’d like to invite you to set aside just one minute per day (or more, if you wish) to review that list, to verbalize your gratitude and to really take in your thankfulness for those things that you do have. Literally say it out loud: “I am thankful for the garden in my back yard and the opportunity to grow a small portion of my own food” for example. In just 60 seconds per day, if practiced daily, you will create an attitude of gratitude which will brighten your mood and uplift your day-to-day experience of life because it allows you to refocus your attention on those things you appreciate rather than those things you might despise. And this, as I hinted at earlier, will result in a very real physiological and biochemical healing effect within your own body. How gratitude becomes self-healing Every type of energy that you express to someone else is reflected in your own inner experience. So if you express hatred toward some other person or subject matter, there is an element of that energy that is also expressed internally in that moment. To hate someone else is to subject yourself to some reflection of that own hate, in other words. At the same time, to love something else — or to express thankfulness towards it — causes a reflection of that positive energy to be felt inside yourself, too. So the mere act of expressing gratitude is a form of self-healing. As a person who has written both positive and negative stories for many years, I am acutely aware of this dynamic. When I write negative stories for NaturalNews (critical stories), the energy that is reflected back is often negative in its tone, especially from the parties being criticized. But when I write positive stories, the energy that’s reflected back to me is very positive. You might wonder why, then, I still write some negative stories. The answer is that from time to time there are some injustices that are so extreme that I feel a need to expose them publicly even though I pay a personal price in terms of reflected negative energy. Even then, you’ve probably noticed a shift over the last several months where more stories here on NaturalNews are oriented toward the positive, because that’s what I much prefer to write about. In fact, when there’s an opportunity to write a positive story or do a positive product review, I actually feel a great sense of gratitude simply from the opportunity to do that. And that makes me feel good, too. So I’m practicing the same gratitude dynamics that I’m describing here in this article. What’s interesting about all this is something the Buddhists will tell you: In terms of self healing, it doesn’t really matter what you express gratitude towards — the positive feedback and effects on your own healing are still present. You could find a rock on a dirt path and express gratitude toward the rock and you’d still receive a measurable benefit from it. You can, in fact, express gratitude towards any thing or any person in the world — even if such gratitude is not necessarily justified — and still experience the benefits of that gratitude in your own mental and physical healing. This even works if you express gratitude towards larger concepts like “life” or “God” or “the universe.” Anger cannot coexist with gratitude Anger is a very destructive emotion because it causes stress, adrenal depletion and tension throughout the body. But you can learn to replace anger (or other negative emotions) with gratitude, and anger cannot coexist with gratitude . In this way, gratitude can begin to nudge out the other negative emotions you might be experiencing. This doesn’t mean you have to run around blindly thankful for everything without discerning times when criticism or anger might be called for, but the more you can find the gratitude in everyday things , the more you’ll activate and support your body’s inner healing processes. So start today and rediscover those things you feel gratitude towards. Express that gratitude either silently or verbally and enjoy the experience of that positive energy being reflected back at you. Previous articles in this 15-day “Heal Yourself” series Part One – Remove barriers to healing http://www.naturalnews.com/028053_self_healing_quality_of_life.html Part Two – Unleash your inner healing potential http://www.naturalnews.com/028060_self_healing_immune_system.html Part Three – You are what you absorb http://www.naturalnews.com/028067_self_healing_digestion.html Part Four – Transform your health by making new blood http://www.naturalnews.com/028075_blood_health_transformation.html Part Five – Experience the healing potential of living plant juices http://www.naturalnews.com/028100_self_healing_fresh_juice.html Part Six – Accelerate your healing with a 24-hour fast http://www.naturalnews.com/028117_self_healing_fasting.html Part Seven – Heal yourself by rejecting the mainstream crowd http://www.naturalnews.com/028136_self_healing_crowd_psychology.html Part Eight – Stop making disease http://www.naturalnews.com/028153_self_healing_disease.html Part Nine – Correct your nature deficiency http://www.naturalnews.com/028203_nature_deficiency_self_healing.html Part Ten – Protect your skin exposures http://www.naturalnews.com/028249_skin_health_consumer_products.html Part Eleven – Eat MORE, not less http://www.naturalnews.com/028298_superfoods_self_healing.html