I have been thinking about the role of the media and the responsibilities that it has to the citizens of America. I have repeatedly, and for the past several years, been hearing the words "fake media" and "fake news". I want to preface this with the statement that I am not striking out towards politicians alone. These are phrases that I hear daily from a multitude of people. I am not sure, however, if we are truly being misled or that we simply are being made aware of things that we do not want to admit are real. We have trouble accepting things that we cannot visually see. While it is the job of the media to be a watchdog of sorts, the media is also free to choose stories that they wish to enlighten us with. With an entire legion of news outlets at our immediate disposal, it is ever so hard to find one that seems forthcoming with our concerns at the center of it. This is where confirmation bias rears its ugly head. We tend to lean towards a news outlet that is a ca

Waking up this morning was much like any other day. I made a coffee, turned on the dissatisfying news, looked over my to-do list, and checked my email. My inordinate to-do list controls my every move. It consists of research papers to be written, dinner plans, chore lists, grocery lists, gift checklists, and all things superficial. Absolutely nothing on my list requires me to obtain personal growth, inner peace, spirituality, or intentionality. There has been a multitude of things that have left a perpetual "bad taste" in my mouth as of late and I am left wondering why ridding myself of negativity hasn't shown itself on my grand list. Instead, we put our most important needs on the bottom of that sheet of paper. We don't create time to deal with ourselves and our emotional health. I have continued to be guilty of making excessive efforts to harness relationships that don't fulfill me. We are "friending" people on social media platforms that otherwise wou