We can not filter out what we see unless we close our eyes.  We can not filter out what we hear unless we plug our ears.  So the only pure filter to use to manage the chaos entering our minds is to be deaf and mute.  Do we think that any answer exists?  In order to remove the evil and wicked in our world to go to extremes.  One of the greatest filters to use is knowing our boundaries.  The boundaries you develop and set are the limits from which you allow no one to cross over.  Those guides that you hold close, about how people should treat each other, speak to each other, how people treat and speak to you or your family.  What if someone opposes our values and morals so intently?  Do we assume that they are right and we are wrong?  Someone else’s title or position should never be prioritized over ours.  We end up saying things like ‘I must be wrong’.  Allow others to believe as they believe, and yet hold onto your core values.  Your code of morals and values, don’t need to be argued with or debated.  They don’t need to be justified to anyone else.

Learn to filter out, the reactions some people and events provoke in your life.  Your reaction and your response will diminish bullies, and irritate the narcists who think they are the only ones who have the answers.

~A wise man never knows all, only fools know everything!  -   African Proverb

When we see or hear something that is not appropriate, counter-productive, and/or hurts other people, what is the hardest thing to do?  Is it learning not to react in an irrational way?  Some things demand our immediate and first reactions.  Some issues need us to step back and re-evaluate the situation for what is truly going on.  Children are our greatest example.  When a child has a problem it can become the highest DEFCON(Defense Ready Condition).  Their level of threat and fear is a priority 1, but in reality is small.  There are times when you need to play detective to truly find the problem or the source of the problem.  Their first reaction to what they see or we see and hear may not always be fact.

As adults, depending on our physical or emotional depletion; lack of sleep, lack of nutrition, and too many other fires in our lives.  Will we react as a child does, and take a simple problem and blow it out of proportion, or we can manage ourselves by removing ourselves from the challenge?  Give yourself a break and find someplace that you are able to breathe, and relax then head back into the issue, to actually see some of the underlying facts.  Maybe we will determine that we have no course of action because it doesn’t really affect us.

Some of the greatest evil in the world will make a problem seem life-threatening just to see our lives turned upside down.

​Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it! – Charles Swindoll

One of the most profound words we utter, when we are too busy, is “I am overwhelmed”.  Congratulations, for having too much information thrown at you when you are not ready.  There is a saying that an idle mind is the devil's playground.  It is true, that you can get into so much mischief when you are idle as opposed to being busy.  An abundance of information from what is seen and heard can be too much to sort through.  So what should be done to prioritize responsibilities?  First, do you know what is life-threatening and what is not?  Do you know what needs a decision today or what can wait until tomorrow?  What can be postponed till tomorrow, next week, or indefinitely?  Does this decision to put out a fire belong to you or someone else?  Are you someone who can look at what is seen and heard objectively?

Just because it is something we see and hear does not mean that this is something we need to act on.  Imagine filtering through everything you see and hear as a priority 1, every day.  There is so much random noise in our lives that one of the best things we can do for ourselves is to prioritize. Remember that someone else’s priority is not necessarily our priority.

​Learn to say no!  Sometimes it is for their growth and not yours!

For both of these senses, a balanced attention to both is best.  However, of the 2 senses filtering out what we see might be the hardest.  Our eyes pull in so much information, that by the time we analyze what we’ve seen, we have already moved on to 100 more frames of information.  People who specialize in marketing know all of the tricks behind color, shapes, and fonts that capture our attention.  Most of it has been targeted at our subconscious.  It could be sound is the hardest, to make things even worse, marketers add in sound.  Pleasant noise, from a woman's voice to music, beautiful animals purring, and barking, to the sounds of rainfall or ocean waves included in the background.  Once you’ve been moved to a ‘sigh in relief’, even for a moment, you’ve been captured by their products that loom in the background.  To test this, watch TV, see a commercial, then see that same commercial with the sound off.  Notice the huge difference that sound plays.

​Knowing that people are deliberately putting sales information in your sight and sound, now becomes your filter.  Use this filter with what you see and hear about information around you as well as from the people around you.  Protect yourself from being talked into things that are harmful.  Those things that trigger your need for more!

All of our lives we have to filter out, what we see and hear.  Most of the time we are trying to filter information - from outside sources that are intentionally trying to sell us something.  They are attempting to work their way into our minds.  Marketing ads are one source where, very smart people, are trying to manipulate our opinions.  What internal filters do we have, as barricades or guards, to protect ourselves?  Understand, that when you have no experience or knowledge on a subject, you can fall prey to misguided information.  Our filters were developed from the day you were born.  The people assigned to our growth and protection were the ones who helped us to develop, right and wrong, - good and bad.  BUT, that is only a portion of who was responsible.  If your teachers were poor in teaching you and explaining the difference between good and bad, they were contributing.  Eventually, it will fall on us to question the choices that were shown to us.  Eventually, the older you get, the more responsible you become.  With age, you develop your own right and wrong by gaining a moral perspective, that helps not just for yourself, but others.  You will become the influencer.

When searching for information on computers, the personal opinions published only discern themselves with what they believe to be right and wrong, not what is right or wrong for us.  What once was believed to be the truth on the internet, is now being flooded by misleading information.  People are hoping that their titles alone bring them notoriety, instead of the task.  They will lay out an argument that chooses their answer.  One of the greatest gifts we possess is the gift of free will.  We can choose to repeat bad decisions, just as we have the free will to make better decisions and keep questioning any decision we make for the future.
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True freedom of choice comes from the lack of intimidation from outside sources.

Out of all of our senses, which ones affect us the most?  Sight and sound influence us the most.  Sight, we process 120 bits of information a second, or 34 Gigs of data a day.  We hear and follow about 125 words a minute, while our brains can process 800 words a minute if allowed.  With that much information, we are being influenced every second of every day.  Sights and sounds are all around us, color and noises dominate.

What we allow to populate our very thoughts, contributes to the very things we hold dear and true to ourselves.  Going unchecked they become the information that we allow to mold us.  Our eyes and our ears can’t block sights and sounds that are harmful to us.  Everything we see: books, pictures, movies, signs, or commercials contribute to our growth.  Everything we hear; music, audible books, podcasts, and people contribute as well.

What are you actively doing to filter out the bad and distasteful, and living intentionally putting in those sights and sounds that build us up and not tear us down?
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What you see & hear
              Become your thoughts
Your thoughts
              Become your words
Your words
              Become your actions
Your actions
              Become your habits
Your habits
              Become your character
Your Character
              Become your destiny

In a world where every moment is a chance to grow, the ability to uncover deeper truths and broaden our understanding is a powerful gift. What we see and hear shapes our reality, yet there's so much more beneath the surface waiting to be discovered. Learning to control the information that is flooding what we see and what we hear is crucial.
 
Come back daily to read more from this blog series.
Day 1:  Sight, Sound Dominate
Day 2:  Sight, Sound - Responsibility
Day 3:  Sign, Sound – Which dominates
Day 4:  Sight, Sound - Prioritize
Day 5:  Sight, Sound - Reactions
Day 6:  Sight, Sound – Standing Strong