Latte: Input Begets Output

“For every action in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.” -Newton’s Third Law

Everything we do has consequences. Every action we take leads to something else. This includes what we choose to take into our body. Whether it be food, drink, music, podcasts, movies, shows, or social media, everything we put into our body produces something else. I remember being asked in my middle school music class, “does the music we listen to effect how we think and act?” My answer back then was no, but today I would say without a doubt yes.

The world is starting to develop a concept about the power of our thought life. Scores of books, podcasts and motivational speeches are being made encouraging the idea of positive self talk or “manifesting” your dreams and goals. We are realizing there are consequences to what we focus our thoughts on; however, I don’t think we’re realizing that the things we take in through our senses produce consequences in our thought life.

Turn on any reality TV show and it will be full of drama, relationships, heartache, backstabbing, etc. Yes, these things do happen in life, but being constantly inundated with them through programs called “reality” TV make us subconsciously think that these are unavoidable parts of life. Without realizing it, we make it a reality that these things happen every day in our own life. Everyday is filled with drama, heartache, backstabbing, and all the other things we see in these shows. Our solution has become positive thinking, but this is nothing more than a weak band-aid that doesn’t address the big problem. The problem is input begets output.

"Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure."

-Proverbs 4:23-26

My wife and I watch shows like Big Brother and Survivor pretty regularly, and it’s crazy what people say and do in these competitions. If we aren’t careful and aware of the impact these shows can have on our life, we can start to see these crazy situations manifest themselves in our marriage and other relationships. What we take in through our senses trains our brain to react. If we are constantly taking in shows that are about backstabbing and betrayal, suddenly we find ourselves questioning the motives of everyone around us. The moment that they do something remotely untrustworthy it starts a cycle in our brain that paints them as an untrustworthy person thats going to stab us in the back just like in the show. In reality, they have no intentions of doing so, but our brain is creating its own reality based on what we’ve trained it to do through the inputs we’ve given it. Now they are in a box in our brain labeled "untrustworthy." When we put a label on someone, it becomes very difficult to change that label.

If you think there is no way this can be true, and you are the master of your own thoughts and reality, try taking a one week break from social media and tv. Make note of your mindset and frequency of negative thoughts before and after the fast. I guarantee you will notice a big change unless you are just replacing these things with other inputs of the same quality. However, if you replace them with inputs of quality time with friends, nature walks, or learning a new skill, your brain will literally start to change how it perceives everything around you. If you don’t like the outputs happening in your life, you can’t simply choose to change them; you have to change the inputs that are causing them.

"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"

-Matthew 6:22-23