Stop Watching the News… For Your Mental Health
I knew writing this wasn’t going to be easy and the responses most likely weren’t going to be nice either.
I urge you… STOP WATCHING THE NEWS. Yes that includes other people’s negative social media content. For your mental health.
Do you ever spend the day on social media or watching the news, absorbing material which you subconsciously validate with “learning whats going on in the world”? I know I did. I did it for hours and hours per day… It didn’t hit me how much time I was wasting until I met a someone who had removed herself from all of it.
My burning questions for her were:
Do you at least watch the news? But have you seen the latest meme? How do you get your information? How do you stay updated?
Her response was, “if something is important, I will hear it from other people”.
I tried it… and it was true. If something is important going on in the world, you will hear about it from people who absorb content all day long. But why subject yourself to hours of toxic, mind-numbing material that someone can relay to you in 2 minutes flat?
It dawned on me. If I was interested in learning more about something, I could look it up. There are many, many reputable sources of information that are not bought out like our main news stations… you know who they are. And no matter what “side” they are on, their goal is the same: headlines, advertising, and above all, money.
Everything I was watching or absorbing had nothing to do with me, it was all out of my control, and it was all part of an agenda. It was perpetrating so much of my unhappiness. Every click, swipe, or experience with this kind of media content was causing me to:
- negatively compare my life to others
- become fearful over things outside my control
- sell me something I don’t need
- upsetting me to the point of isolation
I wanted to remove myself, so I tried it for one week. No social media, no news, no reddit, no emails, nothing. I was surprised at how much I was missing in the real world… and how much everyone else is too. But you know what? For the first time in my life I actually felt BETTER.
I wasn’t angry, I wasn’t getting worked up over the latest presidential updates, and I wasn’t afraid. I said hi to people passing me on the streets (at a 6 ft distance of course), I found conversation topics that were more positive, I found a new hobby growing herbs on my balcony, and I took my dog for more walks. Most of all, I felt more creative.
Because my head wasn’t glued to a screen perpetrating this mean world syndrome, I was able to think of new ideas for content to share with my health-nut community. Instead of tagging things as inspiration, I was actually inspired.
You are what you absorb. Every little thing you consume impacts your health and your ability to be clear and present. Not only food, but media (in all forms) has the ability to weigh us down significantly. We need to be more conscious of what we consume for our own mental health.
And if that’s not enough to remove you from the dedicated, mind-numbing programming, just pay attention to HOW YOU FEEL. Do you feel better or worse after social media or news binging? I’m sure you’ve had a moment where you put your phone down or turned the tv off, and felt heavy.
We have to remember, that screens, the news, social media content, all has an agenda. What is the goal they are trying to achieve? Attention-grabbing headlines? Fear? Jealousy? To pit us against one another? I no longer want any part of that. I always wondered why powerful people on social media follow zero people… they don’t want to be distracted from their own goals.
That’s just what all of this noise is, a distraction from your goals, from living your own life.
However, I must say there are some (very few) outlets that have a clear intention of educating you from an unbiased perspective, with the intent of helping not harming. And even those can sometimes weigh you down if you aren’t taking breaks.
I get that we are social creatures, but we are not social MEDIA creatures.
I encourage you to take a break, get back in touch with who you are. Clean out your closet, take your dog for a long walk, talk to your partner about how they are really doing, or read a new book!
Absorbing content knowing that it was made with a positive intention for you and your soul, and only allowing yourself to view things that inspire, motive, or make you feel good will directly reflect upon your health and happiness.
You can control what you see and how you feel as a result, you just have to make the more conscious choice.
