My Liberation From The Static: The #1 Thing That Changed My Outlook

If you’re old enough, you might remember the static TV screen that appeared after the station has turned off for the night.  Or, if you’re from the MTV generation, you’ll remember the static TV screen on their logo.  

Have you ever closed your eyes and paid attention to what you were looking at?  Sometimes it’s darkness, sometimes it’s a picture of whatever you are imagining.  There was a time in my life where, when I closed my eyes, all I saw was TV static.  The Oxford American Dictionary defines static as “force acting by weight without motion; stationary, unmoving.” And that’s exactly what living in static felt like:  burdened and unable to make progress or escape our circumstances.

Hubby and I were going through The Dark Ages.  Everything was going wrong—some of it was our fault, but a lot of it was not.  It was just one of those periods where life sucked.  When I would close my eyes to try to concentrate, I would get a static TV screen playing across my mind.  I know, weird, right?  I was so entrenched in the despair of everything falling apart at the seams that I couldn’t see anything else. 

But one thing caused The Change.

How did The Change happen?  It was one thing: a friend told me about appreciation stories. The first time around it took me awhile to get the hang of it--I pretty much flunked Appreciation Stories 101. The first (and second and third…) time I tried to tell an appreciation story, I told it through clenched teeth, because it was so unnatural for me.  I did it because I was desperate to get out of the static.  But with persistence, I slowly started to come up out of the drowning water--- breaking free into the air, gasping in new life.  

Okay, so what’s an appreciation story?  The concept is simple, but so very hard if you are in the static.  An appreciation story can be one or all of the following: 

You tell someone about a time in your life that:

• Someone did something nice for you

• Someone made you feel like they were happy to be with you.

• Someone made you feel loved and affirmed for who you are, and this person made you feel very grateful for them. 

The appreciation story is about you, what another person did for you, and how he/she made you feel.  Allow yourself to smile and feel joy when you remember this person and how your life was enhanced by their words and deeds.

By telling appreciation stories, it literally changes your brain dynamics, developing a different pathway in your brain.  Instead of always traveling your brain path of “what’s wrong now”, it’s building new pathways to appreciating the good in people or situations.  The amazing thing about making a practice of telling appreciation stories, is that the more you do it, the more capacity you will have to handle the pain in your life!  Training your mind to focus on past positive moments produces resiliency --- an attribute that is essential to living and thriving when times are tough.

I am a living testimony to this.  The more I focused on telling appreciation stories, little by little, I got out of the static and pain and returned to a state of joy more easily each time!  

By no means have I got it all together with this Joy-thing. But this, my friends, is why I started Joyopolis.  I wanted to share life with you.  I wanted share with you what has helped me. 

Life is hard, with plenty of static and pain getting in the way of all the good things the Lord has provided for us. You might be married to a real jerk.  You may be in need of a best friend and there is no one who seems to care.  You may have lost your job during the pandemic and the outlook is bleak.  But I have found that looking into your past or present and telling appreciation stories keeps your mind focused on the good that you do have in your life.  

Are you ready to turn off The Static in your life?  I’ve always said it’s easy to answer “yes” to those questions, but HOW is the real question.  An appreciation story is a tool that will help liberate you from all your static.  We care about you and hope and pray this will become a vital part of who you are! 

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Philippians 4:8, New American Bible (Revised Edition)

Please comment:  We would LOVE to hear your appreciation story below!