“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”—Arthur Conan Doyle

“Really, weren’t these facts just placeholders until the long view could really assert itself?”—David Levithan

I’m a journalist, trained, degreed, the whole nine yards. In fact, I stated my illustrious journalism career at the Kansas City Star, the same newspaper where Ernest Hemingway and Walt Disney started their road to fame.

The last few years, however, I’ve begun to alter my beliefs about “the facts” I’m sworn by my profession to seek.

I’m not so sure that “just the facts, ma’am” is helpful anymore. In fact, these so-called “facts” create a negative energetic momentum that I no longer want to perpetuate.

The “facts” I now choose to report are that happiness is our birthright, that love is the only reality and that the only reason the “facts” sometimes look otherwise is because that’s what we’ve spent so many years focusing upon.

I now know that it’s unproductive to talk, report or give attention to anything I don’t want. And anytime I don’t feel joyful and at peace is because I’m giving attention to something that disagrees with Source.

To use the old radio analogy, I’ve tuned into an “oldies station” that still believes in pain and suffering.

I’m now committed to bringing a different energy to the party. An energy of love, an energy that sees only beauty, an energy that recognizes the Truth (and there is such a thing as truth with a capital “T” which is different than “facts”) in every person.

I believe that’s what Jesus meant when he said, “Turn the other cheek.” He wasn’t suggesting that we should walk around with bruised cheeks and black eyes. He was saying that we should begin moving in a different direction, turn our cheeks, so to speak, to a higher, brighter, more pleasing reality.

“Facts” are simply habits of thought we’ve been thinking so long that they now seem normal. When we invest in them over and over again, we validate them. We create more of them. “Facts” fill in around those beliefs.

Quantum physics has proven it’s impossible to observe anything without affecting it. Sadly, we’ve been seeking (and therefore affecting) things that no longer serve us. We’ve been seeking “facts” that were perpetuated long before we evolved to the place where we realized we have the power to change them. And, yes, they’ve picked up quite a bit of momentum.

But at any time, we can “turn the other cheek” and look in a different direction.

As for me, I’m turning my cheek towards joy, towards peace of mind, towards the idea that all of us can be free and abundant and living lives of insatiable well-being.

Pam Grout is the author of 18 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the recently released, Thank and Grow Rich: a 30-day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy.