Latest / Pathological Positivity / Peace On Earth – Episode #684
Transcript
- This is Live On Purpose Radio, episode 684, Peace on Earth, a Christmas day reflection with doctor Paul. Now is the only time to create and live the life you love. I'm doctor Paul Jenkins, the positivity psychologist. My job is to connect you to powerful positive psychology principles that immediately upgrade your relationships, business, and mental health. Are you ready? Let's jump in. Hello, and welcome to Live On Purpose Radio. Today is Christmas Day two thousand twenty six, and I'm going to open with a phrase that we all know, peace on Earth, Goodwill to men. Turn on the news. Scroll through social media. Look around. Peace often feels far away. The world doesn't seem very peaceful. What if peace on earth isn't about changing the world but changing how we see it? On this Christmas day, which is a holiday that I observe and keep, we remember Christ's invitation. And this is in the Bible, in the New Testament. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth. That is listed in the gospel of John. This is chapter 14, verse 27. And as we get into this conversation, I'm acknowledging that I follow and practice the Christian tradition. I consider myself to be a man of faith, and I honor all other faith traditions. We all have some version of what peace is all about. So as I refer to the Christian tradition, I invite you to consider where this fits in your world, in your tradition, whatever that might be. So when the world doesn't give peace, it actually demands conditions. So the world tells us peace comes after certain things happen. If everyone would just calm down, if the world were more fair, if they'd stop fighting over there... Do you see how this is conditional peace? It relies on circumstances that we don't control. Have you noticed this? Have you been on the planet long enough to see that you don't get to choose what the circumstances are? There are wars. There are natural disasters that occur. There's turmoil all around. And even Christ himself was born into a violent, oppressive time. And yet he offered peace that transcended those realities. So peace isn't the absence of problems. It's the presence of perspective. Now here's where I'm coming from on this because my positivity model... If you've known me for very long at all, you know that I refer to this model often. The positivity model, is actually available. I'm going to give you a copy of this so that you can see exactly what I'm talking about. Just go to Live On Purpose Radio. That's the name of the podcast, liveonpurposeradio.com forward slash the model, all one word, the model. And I will put that right into your inbox so that you can have a full color PDF along with a quick description of what that model is all about. In the model, I share the psychology behind why peace on earth is even possible. And it's a choice, not a condition. The problem is, until you see it as a choice, it's not. And it is awareness that precedes choice. So the model actually raises our awareness to the psychological processes that allow us to claim peace. In the model, there are two modes. And these modes are evaluation and creation. When I say modes, I mean psychological processes that are always going on in the human brain. You cannot turn them off. Remember, I am a professional psychologist. I have thirty years of clinical experience that have taught me this. Our brains, and I invite you to notice this, our brains are always evaluating, and that's because your brain's main job is to keep you safe and also to prove you right. Both of those get in our way all the time. But to keep us safe, our brain has to be constantly scanning the environment for threat, and its job is to keep us safe. So evaluation... Another word for this that some people don't like is judgment. And I invite you to notice that you're constantly judging. Aren't you? Yes, you are. And so am I. This is not a condemnation. This is an acknowledgment. This is an observation. We are constantly judging. And so our brain is always asking, is this good? Is this bad? I don't know. I'll check. And then to check, our brain has to compare it to something. The the word evaluation itself implies comparison with some standard. And if you don't have a standard, you will make one up, and you've got a really good imagination too. So you take what it is. Let's say that you're living in an area that has a very high crime rate. And I invite you to notice, even as I say that, that a high crime rate is a judgment. Is there any place on the planet that has a higher crime rate? Well, compared to that, how does yours look? Well, it's better. Right? Is there any place on Earth that has a lower crime rate? Yes. And Vicky and I visited Israel. You know, I said that Christ was born into a violent, oppressive time. That part of the world has not experienced much peace at all over its entire history. There's always some war going on, and there is currently a war going on in the country of Israel and the surrounding areas. Is that a violent place? Well, compared to less violent places, yes. Compared to more violent places, well, it looks better. So I invite you to notice that. And notice that you are constantly judging your circumstances. When we judge our circumstances to be bad, we experience what I would define as the opposite of peace, and the clinical term for that is depression. Now as a professional psychologist, weight my words appropriately, depression is the opposite of peace. And sometimes people think depression is sadness. It's not. It includes a lot of emotional energy that comes down to a lack of peace. It's a disruption to the peace that we experience in our own heart and mind. So when Christ says not as the world giveth, I'm thinking he was onto something that I have described as the positivity model. And I also use the positivity model to describe what the religious concept of faith is all about. So when we realize that our brain is constantly judging and we see that we're doing it... See, awareness precedes choice. So that means once we become aware of it, we can choose an alternate position. Choosing the positive evaluation gives us access to peace immediately, on demand, regardless of what our circumstances are, even when what it is isn't ideal. Especially then, this mindset shift moves us from resistance into acceptance and ultimately into peace. So peace begins not when the war ends, but when the mind chooses to stop fighting reality. Peace on Earth begins as a personal project. Now this is really good news. We don't have to wait for the world to change. How long are we willing to wait? Peace becomes a personal project, a choice we make in how we see and respond to life. That that means peace on earth isn't just a wish. It's a practice. We start from within. Now there's a very practical way that we can approach this, and I would invite you, on this Christmas Day episode that I'm sharing with you today, to make peace with your past. That's a tall order for some because we are convinced that it's not the way it should have been, that we were mistreated or abused or wronged in some way, and we are at war with our past. Make peace with the past. The model will help you with that. And I'm a big fan of coaching too. I invest heavily in my own coaching, and I provide coaching, some of which is available to you as well. Please reach out to me if you'd like to explore that because we have some amazing coaches that can help you to make peace with your past. We're not gonna change anything about the past. We can't even go back into it. Some of my therapist colleagues talk about, well, let's take you back into your past. You can't. It's gone. The only place your past exists now is in your current thinking about it. Let me say that again. The only place the past exists currently is in your current thinking about it. A memory, a recollection. When you remember something, that word literally means to put pieces together again. To remember something. Make peace with your past and do whatever is required. Next, make peace in your home. I've told many of my clients this as I'm coaching families. There is no reason to fight. Think about what I'm saying here. Because fighting is a protective response that we have when there is danger. How many of you listening, maybe you personally, are you married to a bear? Now, don't raise your hand too quickly. You are married to a human. What about your children? Are your children wolves? No, they're children. And they're humans. And you love them, then why would we fight? Fighting is our brain's protective response to threat. It's your brain's job to keep you safe, but you're not in danger. You're with someone you love. Make peace in your home. There is no reason to fight. Again, get whatever coaching you need to to get on top of that. Because inside of our own brain, the biggest error we make as humans is that we know that we're right. We believe what we think. That's a problem because it has us treating each other terribly. Make peace in your home. And then it extends outside of your home. Make peace with others, especially when they refuse to change. Do not require a change in any other human for you to claim your peace. Now let's call back to that Christian ideal because Christ also said, Blessed are the peacemakers. Not just the peace wishers, but those who actively make it. Understanding this model is how you can do that. So this Christmas, would you take a moment to reflect, Where am I waiting for peace to come to me instead of choosing to bring it with me or to create it and to actively make it? You have the tools. You have choice. You can live on purpose even when the world isn't peaceful, and that's when it's in in... Especially important. Again, go grab your free download of the positivity model. I've just made that available to you at liveonpurposeradio.com/the model. I'll put it into your box because you'll need this tool in order to experience peace on Earth. This is a way that we can actually claim it through being a creator of it. I wish you a very meaningful, intentional, and peaceful Christmas. We've talked about it. It's time to go do it. Live on purpose. Did you get what you came for? Give yourself the gift of taking real action on what you realized today. Please share this episode with someone you know would value it, and leave us a rating too. It's time now to live on purpose.