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By Dan Harkey

Most people have a place they go to or an activity they engage in that helps them move into peacefulness, serenity, and resolve. They can spend time happily away from exterior societal pressures. I refer to that state of being as their Mental Hobby Shop, which will help them to exclude all the extraneous life pressures and extraneous violations of their sovereignty. Each of us needs to define where our mental hobby shop is located and conscientiously try to spend more valuable time there.

Here are a few examples of preferred hobby shops:

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  • Garage tinkering: Time spent in the garage with things like bicycles, cars, or motorcycles. There is nothing like washing and waxing a bike to take you into another world. How about repairing something, organizing useless stuff, or inventing something useful?
  • Golf and active sports: Time spent on a golf course, tennis court, or workout facility. How about riding horses or cruising on a street bicycle or mountain bike?
  • Personal activities: Time spent with individual activities such as painting, scrapbooking, reading a good novel or playing a musical instrument.
  • Family: Time spent with family and pets at a picnic or outing where life’s daily pressures are minimal, and enjoyment is paramount.
  • Outdoors: Time spent walking on a trail, park, or beach. Being outdoors has excellent therapeutic value. Getting close to nature is always rewarding. I have enjoyed walking in the rain on the beach with a raincoat.
  • Vacations: Great time to explore, whether at local parks, national parks, or leaving on a jet plane. How about a local harbor getaway or an extended cruise ship vacation?
  • Camping retreats: Time spent camping, with a BBQ, or RV with friends and family.
  • Tranquility: Reading books, listening to tapes or videos that reflect positive thoughts rather than anguish, disgust, or pain. There is no need for intensive inquiry or into searching for meaning. That includes avoiding watching news that portrays our circumstance as an inevitable Armageddon. Just positive thoughts!
  • You are helping others: Volunteering for various activities that help others without expecting a financial return.

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My Mental Hobby Shop consists of the activities.

  1. My garage: Time spent tinkering in my garage, maybe even having a beer, and listening to classic rock or country music.
  2. Out on the road: Time spent with my motorcycles and electric bicycle, washing, waxing, checking the tire pressure, or riding out on the road. Just head out on the highway, looking for adventure. Where have I heard that before? Much like being in the movie, Born to Be Wild, only with much less wild at my age. I may head out for a destination to meet my buddies who belong to the 4-B Club. 4-B stands for bikes, buddies, beer, burgers, and discussing buddy things.
  3. Walking: on the beach, around the harbor, through a delightful park, or around the neighborhood. 3 to 4 miles is my goal. I get sunshine, vitamin d, exercise, a nice breeze, and peace of mind. After a shower, I feel great.

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Identify where your Mental Hoppy Shop exists and conscientiously spend more time there. Life will be more rewarding where your state of happiness dwells. Happiness creates renewed energy and motivation, stimulates creative thought, and feeds overall physical and emotional health. The key is to detach from work-related issues and societal pressures and stop reading and listening to mainstream news propaganda.

News media outlets spew news full of sensationalism followed by a barrage of advertisements. The news is designed to sell you something and to create strife about how terrible everything is. Of every one-half hour segment that someone watches mainstream news, only about thirteen minutes is considered news, although the content is always filtered through an ideological kaleidoscope. Then ad nauseam advertising segments follow for about seventeen minutes.

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Within mainstream news, the commentators and the guest experts consistently deliver the narrative as subscribed to by the media company. FOX, MSNBC, AND CNN present material from an opposite perspective. Experts will work within an approved framework for acceptance and consensus-building, rather than seeking truth. Experts will act to ensure job security, cultivate kindred relationships, expand their careers, and seek more notoriety.

Little independent critical thinking and unbiased scientific analysis can be found in the mainstream media. Those who want actual and truthful content can find alternative news sites and information sources online.

Yes, turn off the toxic tube and cell phone! Yes, turning off is difficult to do for a few of us who are extroverted, outgoing and task oriented. Those folks tend to be direct, decisive, driven and demanding. But they can also become addicted to staying connected and watching 24/7 biased propaganda news.

This article is intended for educational purposes only and is not a solicitation.

© Dan Harkey. This material’s unauthorized use or duplication without express and written permission from this author or owner is strictly prohibited. The article may be used in marketing efforts, provided that full and clear credit is given to Dan Harkey. The credit displayed when you forward any article must include Dan Harkey, Business & Finance consultant. You are not authorized to modify the articles title or the content.

This article is an overview for a general educational purpose only. The information presented should not be relied upon without the advice of counsel.

Dan Harkey is a contributing author to Weekly Real Estate News and is a Business & Financial Consultant. He can be contacted at 949-533-8315 or [email protected].