Switch Off the News

Happiness, love, gratitude, smile, emotional, glee, confident, excited, powerful, strong, hope.

These are just a few words that can represent positive self-enhancement and heightened feelings of positivity. They are empowering words. The language we use and are exposed to has a significant impact on our emotions and overall wellbeing.

When we use empowering words, we feel more alive, energetic, positive, confident and this has a greater flow-on effect to the impact we have on others and in our own lives. These words tend to create a positive outlook in life, a positive mindset. People who have this kind of mindset I have no doubt have more abundance in their lives across the board.

Now try these. Hate, anger, shy, nervous, murder, uncertainty, lonely, disappointed, fear, dangerous.

While there are many more negative words that we could use, I use these to highlight and differentiate empowering and disempowering language. Consumption and use of disempowering words can lead to a bleaker world view. They don’t motivate, they discourage. They are limiting to one’s self-belief. They create tension and unease in life, both internally and externally.

if choose to surround ourselves with the positive, we live with the positive. If we choose to surround ourselves with the negative, we live with the negative. We may not always be able to escape the negative, it’s a natural part of life that sometimes we must embrace. However, it doesn’t mean we need to be, do or have more negativity in our lives unnecessarily.

A free, fulfilled and happy life is one that is positive and empowering, not negative and depressing. The type of language we use is but one example of the pros and cons of positive and negative consumption. Daily news is tailored towards the negative. It sucks us in and the detrimental effects news consumption has on the positivity of our lives is huge.

Switch off the news!

Do you want to live a meaningful, happy and fulfilled life? Of course, you do! I do not suggest those that watch the news have unhappy or unfulfilled. However, after turning off the news, which I watched daily morning and night, I witnessed some huge positive shifts happen in my life.

My objective is not to ridicule or criticise others as to how they live. If you like digesting nightly news, do it. My objective is to inspire those who by reading this will see how the news might be worse than good for their lives and to encourage a 21 day “No News Challenge.”

You may read this and feel that the news and its effect on your life are neither bad or good but perhaps wasteful and therefore another good reason to switch it off. What if it could help improve your life beyond what you thought imaginable. I believe it can!

The news is not just on the TV, it’s in the papers, magazines and even comes to us through the people we associate with. We go back to it because it’s designed to hook us in. The negative news may make our life someone seem better. It may be entertaining to some degree. And it’s all-consuming.

We may think it’s good to stay tuned in with current affairs but what do we do with that information we consume. Do we use it to make a difference? Do we learn from it? Do we believe that if we are up to date with what’s going on in the world we are somehow better off? More educated, informed and therefore better able to make important decisions about our lives? Do we consume it and do nothing but feel shitty and carry that negative information with us throughout the day?

What is the purpose of our time spent watching the news?

Do you rely on the news to live your life? Does it help you in your career? Add inspiration to your day? Does it support your family? Help you learn? Fulfil desires or help uphold some of your passions? I suppose if you are a news reporter than staying up to date with the news would be pretty important, you’re excused. 

Let’s be honest. Most news is not good news. It doesn’t inspire us. It doesn’t make our lives better. We don’t go out and act on it to try and make some positive change. And regardless of how much things improve it is human nature to find more negative news stories to latch onto these.

Life across many categories, if not all, is much better than ever before. Yet, turn on the news and you wouldn’t think so. Disasters, murders, tragedy, greed, corruption, whatever, those news people will find a way to bring a little negativity into our daily lives. It does us no good. Switch it off. 

The news is a fear medium. It’s the kind of medium that generally does not excite us but rather upsets us. The news is generally full of rubbish and negative shit that is not positive or constructive to how well we live our life. If anything, it’s detrimental. 

Like those negative words I started with, the news is disempowering and will, without a doubt in my mind, be reflected in the way we live our lives. When we watch the news we absorb all that negativity and this directly reflects in our thoughts that in turn how we act.

We may watch the news about the struggles being faced in a war-torn foreign country. It’s nice to care but what are we doing about it to make a change. Sure, some people take action but for most of us we don’t and the resulting negative impact that this can have on our lives and others around us are not favourable.

It is great to care but caring is only as good as the action you are willing to take. I can go on caring all day but if I don’t take the appropriate action all the caring in the world won’t mean shit.

How many people do you think after watching that snippet of news on the war get up and say “that is it, I am taking the next plane there and going to help out”? Not too many I am sure. And what do we do instead? We dwell on this negativity that exists in the world. For some it produces emotions of sadness for others anger and hate, for some of us, it paints a bleak outlook as to the future of the world and where it’s heading. For some, it may lead to depression.

This intensifies as we go into our day, as we chat to others in our lives, spreading the negativity, like bees spreading pollen. Hate creates more hate! Love creates more love! And I believe life is all about love, not hate. The news is a good source of hate.

Still not convinced? Then I’d like to suggest a challenge. Try not watching the news for 21 days. You could even go so far as to going without TV entirely. Personally, I still enjoy a good movie, documentary or Netflix series but I avoid regular TV and the news as best I can.

Why 21 days? I’m not entirely sure but I believe some habits can be changed in 21 days and 3 weeks in the bigger scheme of things is not a heck of a long time. It’s achievable.

What to do instead? Go join a group, do the Zumba, join toastmasters, go to the gym and work out in a group, have more lattes with mates. Read a book, read something inspiring, read a novel. Just do something that won’t affect your emotions, thoughts and actions in such a negative way.

Spend time with family, play a board game, go for a hike, go for a walk, paint a picture, write, I like to write. Whatever you do stop watching the news because all this does is lead to more negativity in a world already full of negativity. Instead, spend your time searching for the positives of life.

Are you up for it? I wish you the best.