Media Cleanse
As women, we juggle a lot in our daily lives and in doing so, there is often some stress involved.
Stress occurs for a variety of reasons but these reasons can really be grouped into 3 broad categories:
Judgement / Not accepting what is - we all do it. We don’t like something someone else does or says and we judge. We’re human.
Future-based stress - we worry about something that needs to happen in the future or something we can’t control that will be happening in the future, and
Past-based stress - we think about something that happened in the past that didn’t go the way we wanted it to. We may have said or done something we regretted or someone else did or said something we didn’t like (back to judgement).
The bottom line is, we are NOT present and it’s really hard to stop judging the things that are happening around us
There are many things we can’t control but here’s one you can. The news you watch, read or listen to is often a generator of stress and judgement.
Several years ago I stopped watching the news, and many people judged me.
They said things like “Don’t you care what’s going on in the world?”, and “How will you stay informed on the important issues that are happening?” etc.
Here’s the reality:
Anything that is going on in the world that is important is going to be talked about and I will hear about it. It always happens (and I know this because I live with someone who stays up to date on the news and I hear about important issues from my clients).
I live with far less stress from not knowing every minute detail or the bad behaviours exhibited by others.
When I hear about something important or need information related to issues (e.g., voting) I look them up online.
We get slightly addicted to the news and “knowing what’s going on” and subsequently, we get a little bit addicted to the stress that inevitably occurs from hearing the news all the time. It’s bad much more often than good and we end up talking about the bad things that have happened repeatedly, which causes more stress.
So here’s my challenge to you …
Action Step:
Take a media cleanse for one week. Don’t listen to, watch, or read about any news for one whole week. I know, it sounds really hard and WHY would you want to do that??
Try it and see how your body and mind feel while not hearing about bad news for the week, and notice how you hear about the major events that are occurring in the world despite your lack of news.
Try out a Good News channel instead. You’re not likely to learn about these events from others and instead can be the one who shares stories of inspirations and joy in the world. Two options I’m aware of are:
CNN’s The Good Stuff The picture below was the latest story from this site.
Feel good for a week and take the challenge!
