100% Proof - Positive
by Molly-Ann Leikin

Every Saturday and Sunday, my next door neighbor, who doubles as a Shiite, leaves her front and back doors wide open so her dog, and White Truck Woman, her girlfriend, whose two eternally visiting dogs, drive me to distraction by barking and howling all day long. Since the Shiite doesn't feel the barking is an imposition on my privacy, and the Santa Monica police are all still busy trying to find a rapist, I created the Molly Mind Militia, and declared war.

While scanning my radio dial for a Korean or Hindi radio station I could blast through my window at 1000 db, I found something that distracted my focus away from the dogs, and turned into something I really like. It's called Positive Affirmation radio. In Los Anglees, it's 1230 a.m. Everything on that station is positive, 24 hours a day, every day, all positive, all the time.

I found that it immediately calmed me down enough to put down all sharp objects, no matter how jangled I was before tuning in. Positive Affirmation radio is a delightful parade of successful, motivational speakers from Zig Zigler to Deepak Chopra to Ellen Kreidman to Mark McCormack, telling us how to think better of ourselves, have better relationships, sell more wigets and excel in our business lives. All of these people sell audio tapes, true, but the excerpts I've heard have been exceptionally motivating for me, without having to buy anything else.

There is no good news in the paper or on TV. They never interrupt a sit-com with bulletins of a healthy baby being born, but you can be sure they'll cut in when a plane crashes and everyone is killed, although they won't announce which plane or where until their next regularly scheduled news program. Most of the time, I can't bear to listen to the six o'clock news, or I'd spend the whole evening grinding my teeth. And all of the time I can't bear to risk the eleven o'clock news, because how do you sleep when you've just heard that a six year old beat a baby to death?

But this positive radio station has been a great gift to me, and helps to turn the bad news barrage around. I assume the Nightingale-Conant people, who seem to be the only advertisers, have a similar radio station in other American cities. If you don't find one where you live, call Nightingale-Conant at 1-800-525-9000 and suggest they add one.

Here were some suggestion I heard on their station yesterday: Ask yourself four questions - why, why not, why not me, why not now? I sailed through my morning. As the afternoon started wearing me down, another speaker suggested I make a list of everything I'm grateful for - I did, and woke up happy for the first time in a year. Another speaker said if you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right. See what I mean?

As sensitive artists, we are as susceptible to negativity and self-doubt as children are to colds. Our first responsibility as artists is to do our art, so to keep our positive energy flowing is mandatory - to give ourselves the courage to create, no matter what is going on around us.

If you don't have access to a positive radio station, then buy a motivational tape or two and listen to a few minutes worth at different times during the day. I know you'll find a positive change in your consciouness and productivity. You may even come to have a marked fondness for your neighbor's pets, although let's not push that one.

© 2000 Molly-Ann Leikin

Go back to column listings