31
August
2006
Maybe you’re like me, after a days work you like to plop down in front of the TV and watch a few hours of shows. I’ve been watching a few hours of TV everyday for most of my life. When I think about how much time I spent there, it blows me away. Probably a quarter of my viewing is spent on commercials. I see funny commercials from Budweiser which show thin men getting hot women. And these men will do anything for a beer including screw over their friends. And yet I laugh at the commercial. I watch McDonald’s commercials enticing me to eat the most unhealthy food imaginable.
The daily news, without fail, shows me a tragic crime, a victim story, or a serial killer on the loose, leading me to feel afraid or depressed. The news always focuses on accidents, murders, rape, etc. So this makes me feel that the world is a scary, negative place just waiting to kill me.
And now reality shows have taken over primetime. Now I can watch other people, in bizarre circumstances, get humiliated and be a loser or overcome the odds and win. I can watch 50 different reality shows in one day and not have to be in my own reality.
One thing I have learned is that we are what we eat. This also goes for feeding our brain information, garbage in, garbage out. I stopped watching the news and cut down my TV consumption. I’ve replaced half of my TV watching with reading. And when I do watch TV, it’s usually something to uplift or teach me. No more Jerry Springer fights, or 10 o’clock news, or stupid commercials which I mute out now. I get my news and weather by going outside. One day, I think I’ll take my TV out to the desert and shoot it, or maybe blow it up. I’ve allowed it to feed me useless and negative information for so long. If you figure, 2 hours a day over 35 years is equal to 1,064 days of CONTINUOUS TELEVISION. Imagine if I spent that reading, I could have read a couple thousand books and have some serious knowledge. I could have spent that time volunteering and would have given back to the world in a serious way. But that is the path I chose, no sense fretting about it. I am aware of my past and that path got me to where I am today, and that is a great thing…
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Greg Hankerson 
Happiness 
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30
August
2006
“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of one’s family grow up under the same roof. “
This is a quote from the book Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. My Aunt and Uncle loaned it to me and it was an amazing read. So many people, including myself, want their family to be there for them. And when this doesn’t happen, they are crushed. And they spend their lives wanting to be loved. The thought of knowing some or all of your family doesn’t agree with you, or respect you, or love you can be devistating. It’s the most basic of all desires. But odds are there is somebody in your life that fulfills this request, somebody that respects and fills you with joy. Somebody that is there for you.
I’ve seen friends and family longing for love and approval from their parents. Here is some news for you, all parents love their kids. They just have different ways of showing it. My Father shows it by providing financially, just as his Father taught him. For years I fought this, I wanted love on my terms. Well grab a pen and write this down, you can’t make people do anything. Sure you can physically force them. But I’m not talking about that. People do what they were taught over their lifetime. Change is difficult. Rewriting years of programming is extremely diffifcult, but it can be done ONLY IF YOU DESIRE TO.
Back to True Family, does some of your family drive you crazy? Well you are not alone. The term disfunctional family encompasses everybody now. And some or all of our family has their own agenda when it comes to our happiness. They do not respect our beliefs or wish true joy upon us. And that is fine, I just don’t recommend spending a lot of time with them. Just because they are blood does not give them the right to continually bring us down. We need people that lift us up and believe in our limitless potential. Who in your life fulfills this? Who are you close to that you respect and honor and who do you lecture and pull down? And who do you spend your valuable time with day after day?
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Greg Hankerson Happiness, Relationships No Comments »
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29
August
2006
Could happiness be against public policy? When we are very young, we express ourselves perfectly and are success machines. If we want a toy, we grab it. We get what we want. If we are sad, we cry. If we get angry, we show it immediately and minutes later we are over it. Then as we get older, we are told to stop our crying, stop playing around, stop getting angry. And we gradually hide our emotions. Anger gets bottled up, sadness builds, and our childlike playfulness dwindles.
In kindergarten, we are first taught to draw inside the lines. Later in school we get our first F and are told we’re no good at math. And now we believe it and it follows us around for the rest of our life. In class, we were daydreaming and our teacher called on us, only to humiliate us and give us detention. So now daydreaming is out of the question. Throw that imagination out the window and think inside the box. Conform, get a 9 to 5 until retirement, move to a retirement community and die.
Does this sound happy to you? Not me, it sounds like a recipe for disaster. It seems that America has lost it’s spirituality and has turned to medication to numb our problems. Psychotherapeutics, which include antidepressants, are the second most dispensed drugs in the country, behind heart drugs. But drugs just mask our symptoms and line the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies.
What can we do to combat the situation? Well, think for ourselves for starters. Question everything! And question everything you do. Question everything I say, I might be wrong! THINK FOR YOURSELF!
Do you remember a time when you hugged everybody, when you laughed at least once everyday until you cried, when you climbed trees and looked up at the stars, when you looked at everything with new eyes, when you loved people unconditionally and when life itself gave you butterflies in your stomach? Believe it or not, those feelings can come back. I know, I found them again on my journey over the last 2 years. But you have to start searching because life has so much to offer!
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Greg Hankerson Happiness No Comments »
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28
August
2006
When I think about what is most important to me, my own happiness comes to mind. Sure, money, love, success, wealth, etc., seem important, but if you are unhappy what good is all of that stuff? I know a person whose main life focus was career and money accumulation. This was achieved, but at the expense of health and family. Recently I found a book while I was in Alaska called The Art of Happiness written by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Culter M.D. It sounded like a great read and I am half way into it. According to the Dalai Lama, a more reliable method for inner contentment “is not to have what we want, but rather to want and appreciate what we have. ” Chew on that one for a minute…
When asked if the Dalai Lama ever gets lonely, he simply said no. That blew me away. I’ve never heard of a human that is not lonely at one time or another. He attributes this to the fact that he looks at all human beings from a more positive angle which immediately creates a feeling of affinity, a kind of connectedness. If you are connected to everybody, it would be hard to get lonely. He encourages compassion for everybody which is a main factor of happiness.
“And once you encourage the thought of compassion in your mind, once that thought becomes active, then your attitude towards others changes automatically. If you approach other with the thought of compassion, that will automatically reduce fear and allow an openness with other people. It creates a positive friendly atmosphere. With that attitude, you can approach a relationship in which you, yourself, initially create the possibility of receiving affection or a positive response from the other person. And with that attitude, even if the other person is unfriendly or doesn’t respond to you in a positive way, then at least you’ve approached the person with a feeling of openness that gives you a certain flexibility and the freedom to change your approach as needed. That kind of openness at least allows the possibility of having a meaningful conversation with them. But without the attitude of compassion, if you are feeling closed, irritated, or indifferent, then y you can even be approached by your best friend and you just feel uncomfortable. ”
Understand and appreciate the other person’s background. People do things for a reason. If you were them, believe it or not, you’d do the same thing. Once you understand a person’s background, you will feel more compassion towards them. People are all basically the same. We are born and we all die. We have a mind, physical structure and emotions. We want to be happy and we don’t want to suffer. If people are seen as being like us, we have something in common. Having something in common means we are not alone and maybe everybody can be your friend.
118 pages into this book and I feel different! I am looking at all people as my friend who has things in common with me, instead of a stranger. The word compassion flashes in my mind all day long now. And my conversations with people have more depth and feel real, not shallow like they used to.
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Greg Hankerson Happiness No Comments »
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