Spending the last month sick I have had a lot of downtime and I have been watching previous seasons of Masterchef Australia. Now I have to be honest I have never watched the Canadian or American versions but simply from the commercials, it doesn’t have the same feel as the Australian one.

Which is why I felt compelled to write this. I know right now in the world it is easy to see all the negative and to feel that humankind is horrible, destructive, angry, and whatever other adjective you want. There is no shortage of atrocities and horror stories but what I have also seen on this show (and in real life) is some of the kindest most compassionate acts of Love, from ordinary people.

I wanted to share this because it has brought me to tears more than once to see how caring the contestants and judges are for each other and the genuine celebrations of seeing others succeed at realizing their dreams.

There are far too many examples for me to share here but I will share some highlights! If you haven’t seen the show a quick synopsis 24 home cooks are competing to win (in the Australia one) $250,000, their own cookbook deal, and some other prizes to help them create their food dream. They compete against each other and within teams depending on the challenge but ultimately there is only one prize winner.

One of the most profound examples of human kindness and compassion was in a semifinal. There were three contestants left and they were doing a pressure test. (Which is they have to replicate an incredibly hard dish (usually dessert) that was created by a professional chef all within a limited time.) To say these dishes, look hard to recreate would be an understatement! So, in this semifinal, the three contestants left were creating an apple dish and they had to use a machine to slowly take off layers of the apple, this was an imperative part of the dish and as usual, the contestant was on a time constraint and in a rush to get everything prepared (thus the pressure). One of the finalists could not get her apple machine to work and the other 2 contestants had completed theirs already and had moved on. The one who was stuck Laura was distraught she tried several apples and could not get the machine to work for her, she was frustrated and devastated and was on the verge of tears, she saw her dreams slipping away. It was at this point not one, but both fellow contestants stopped what they were doing and went to assist Laura. They sacrificed precious minutes needed to get their dishes done to help her! I was brought to tears at such an amazing act of love from both of those competitors. They didn’t have to, they easily could have let her struggle and lose more time, thus guaranteeing they would make it to the finale.

The sad thing is I went on YouTube to find a clip to share in this blog and there is ONLY one and it is short, buried among thousands of other videos. I feel this is something that should have been a bigger deal and more publicized!

Throughout the show, there are so many more examples of fellow contestant cheering, hugging, high-fiving and celebrating other competitors’ wins and successes. And there are just as many hugs and words of support for their losses and heartbreaks.

Another significant one that sticks out in my mind was a team challenge where teams of competitors compete. The tasks are difficult, usually requiring the team to provide a 2 or 3-course restaurant service meal. Time is always a problem on these tasks and getting it ready and set for service is always daunting contestants are always under pressure to complete the challenge.

In this episode, at the beginning of the challenge, one of the team members slipped and badly cut his hand, so bad he had to be taken to the hospital. As the medics were determining the severity. Several of his team members stopped their tasks to check on him and support him, they tied to keep him calm and distracted from looking at the bleeding gash on his hand that needed 12 stitches. When Brandon the injured contestant was taken off to the hospital, instead of being annoyed or upset that they now had to complete the task with one less set of hands, his teammates began cheering and motivating each other by saying ‘we have to do this for Brandon’. Throughout the whole episode, they used this mantra as motivation. They won the challenge and when they were discussing it they stated they just had to do it for Brandon!

You can watch it here if you are interested. https://fb.watch/iRQu0LBP2t/

Again, I was brought to tears by the compassion of the contestants. I have to admit it is not uncommon for me to get emotional while watching because each episode shows ordinary people being compassionate more times than not, showing such sincere, genuine acts of love. This is why I love watching it!

I chose to write this because as mentioned earlier we can certainly see examples of humanity at its worst and that is where most of the media attention goes to focusing on fear, anger, and acts of aggression. I have long said there are far more good things happening in the world we just don’t hear about them as regularly.

I also wanted to write about this because you get to choose what you consume. When you choose to constantly bombard your senses and subconscious with negativity, it affects your energy!

Our subconscious mind takes in far more information than our senses can even detect and it stores it all. Therefore, if you are watching and consuming endless amounts of negative information it is definitely affecting your mind, your emotions, and your energy. I am not trying to tell you what to watch, (I love a good police drama and murder mystery too), but what I am saying is to be mindful, and pay attention to how you feel when you are watching. Notice if what you are watching is making you feel anxious or fearful. Also, pay attention to your dreams as this is where your subconscious purges and purifies itself. If you are having disturbing dreams you can bet you are taking in too much!

Your subconscious does not evaluate and discern what we watch, it simply just collects and stores information (it does some other stuff too, not relevant to this blog).

Therefore, if you consume a lot of negative images your subconscious will actually shape the way you view reality. This means if you are filled up with negative images you will see life from a negative lens and focus on the negative. You will be keenly aware of it and almost seek it out in a way, bypassing all the positive that is also readily available. This is why you can feel like you are seeing a different reality than others! Your reality is being determined by your subconscious which consumes what you feed it!

So again, all I have to say is, be aware of what you are consuming. You get to choose, so choose wisely! Life can feel hard enough!

If this resonates for you and you are wanting to help purge and clear some of this negativity from your subconscious there is a great flower essence that helps. The flower essence of chaparral helps cleanse and purify your subconscious. you can find the video here.