What is this world coming to??

I have noticed a lot more lately if everyone around me is always having a bad day or if it is just the world we are now living in? Granted, I work in an oncology clinic, so a lot of my patients are having bad days, and I am not talking about them. The employees, both at the cancer center and at school, constantly complaining and are just generally unhappy. People I see at the dog park; I say hello…nothing. At the grocery store; rudeness. I started to wonder if it was a coincidence that I was surrounded by downers, but then I realized that it might just be everyone. I think society is becoming more and more negative…

As nurses, are we doing our patients a disservice by showing up with all this baggage? Our patients deserve no less than our best and how can we truly help when we are carrying not only our own burdens, but those of everyone else? Other patients, our friends, our neighbors and even those of strangers? We must find a positive outlet to release this negativity. We must at the very least leave it at our patient’s doors.

Then I started to wonder if there is a correlation between more illness in our society and this constant bombardment of negativity. Is it because we are taking worse care of ourselves? Or could it be that our cells are responding to a trigger from the environment we expose them to? Is it really mind over matter? Does our chronic environment have control over the health of our body?

There is an experiment done with water that was exposed to different ideas, sentiments or feelings, both positive and negative. When the water was frozen and pictures were taken of the ice crystals that formed, it was amazing what was discovered. I know it sounds really weird, but the positive and negative was reflected in the ice formation. The “positive” water formed beautifully complex and organized ice crystals whereas the “negative” water formed jagged, random crystals. The experiment is explained and detailed in a book called “The Hidden Messages in Water” by Masaru Emoto.

So, if we are made up of 80% water and we are being bombarded by negativity around every corner from every person we encounter and everything we think and feel, what is our water doing?? And more importantly, what is going on in our cells? Could this same concept be occurring at the cellular level to create disease? I am beginning to wonder if it might have an affect? Definitely something to think about.

I want to leave you with an excerpt from an email I received the other day, quoted from George Carlin. It makes you think a little about what happened to our society and where we might be heading…

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete…