Monday, January 10, 2011

5000 Birds fall from the sky
........... Millions of spot fish die!!!

Lots of sensationalism and fear-filled press about the birds in Arkansas and Kentucky, and the fish in Chesapeake Bay: the earth’s magnetic field is weakening; the end of the world is coming in 2012 and this is a sign; sonic booms are the cause; UFO’s could be responsible.
It’s wide-scale death, so it MUST mean something horrible!

How refreshing to read a realistic explanation:
In Arkansas, “5,000 birds falling dead in people's yards is just weird”, said Kevin McGowan, an ornithologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "But the question is, has this happened before?"
The answer is yes, “but probably in a cornfield. And foxes ate them all”, McGowan said.”

So what Mr. McGowan is saying is: the recent bird and fish events are not spooky or scary, they are average – nothing to get alarmed, concerned, or worked-up about. These kinds of things happen in nature all the time.
These events may be distressing and upsetting, but they are not dangerous in the sense that something of catastrophic proportions is about to happen in our world!

From the mental health angle… for some people it’s easy to become suggestible to the stories out there that spell doom and gloom. And there are plenty of them! They stir up fear and/or anger -- fearful and/or angry thoughts -- and it’s always fear and anger thoughts which cause symptoms.

The solution: Watch what you read. If you find yourself uncomfortable, physically or mentally, switch to more realistic, rational, reasonable, secure thoughts.

Reminder: it may not be the first thing you read that will affect you, but I guarantee, a steady diet of pessimism and fear will influence your mood and your health.



© 2011 Rose VanSickle ~ All rights reserved



If you’re interested in the entire article in the Washington Post online
by Darryl Fear (yes, Fear is his real name - I did not make that up)
here’s the link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/07/AR2011010703065.html?sid=ST2011010703261