Have you noticed that when you turn on the news, you usually hear about something dramatic that has happened?  The anchor person gives you snippets of information, and right before they go to commercial they remind you why you’re watching the program to begin with.

But the hour goes by and they spend 30 seconds on that story, and you have been left unfulfilled.   You feel tricked into watching segments you were not interested in, just to find out more about that one story.  Yet, you haven’t learned anything.

Some of you may disagree with me, but for the past 5 years, I have stopped consuming news.  I’ve noticed there was a huge shift in my thinking and energy once I did it.

It was hard at first because I believed that being well versed in current affairs helped me, but turns out it really didn’t.

Below are 5 reasons why I stopped consuming the news, and I’m much better for it.

5-Reasons-To-Stop-Consuming-News

1.  Doom and Gloom (Negative News)

 

The news usually focuses on the negative and things that happen that really doesn’t concern us, but we’re interested because it’s drama.  Sensational news.  But how much of that affects our mindset?

How many of us really want to start our mornings off with how many murders happened during the night–while we slept?  How many of us like to drink our coffee or tea to all the poverty and sadness in the world, then try to have a productive day?

I don’t, and I won’t.

 

2. Fear Sells

 

Stories run because they work on our fears.  A plane crashed.  A car fell off a bridge.  They tell the story about the people in the car, or in the plane, but not the story behind it.  They don’t talk about cut back in salaries (and number of jobs) or funded programs that would prevent these things from happening.  They don’t talk about the fear of losing a job that would cause a person to work longer hours than they should in order to keep their job.

It’s easy to do this because most us are reactive instead of proactive.

But did you know it is harmful to our bodies to keep feeding our minds material that is fearful?  Why put your body through a constant state of fear, when you cannot do anything about the stories you are hearing.

[Tweet “Why put your body through a constant state of fear?”]

 

3.Thinking Not Required

 

Most news stories that I used to watch and end up hearing about, required no thinking.  Information is usually presented as “fact” and we are to just accept it.  We didn’t have to absorb it, or question it.  But how many times were people misquoted?  How many times were things presented in a way that was just not true.  These days, may of us do not question the news and what opinion they are trying to push on us.

 

4. Out of Our Control

 

Many of these stories that we hear about are out of our control.  Can we stop things from happening 50 miles away from our home?  Does it really matter which movie star is cheating on their spouse?  How does this affect us?

It doesn’t.

Unless the news concerns me personally, or I’m personally invested in it, I’ll find out what’s going on (here and there) but I will not obsess about it.  Trying to keep up every minute of the hour is not helpful, especially if it’s stopping us from getting things done.

5.  Controlling Our Brain Food

 

If we are what we eat, then  we are what we read, and think.  What we feed our brains are so important because that decides how we think.  One cannot consume and create at the same time.  When you start your mornings with negativity, it is harder to get out of that mindset for the rest of the day.

I believe in order to be positive throughout our day, then we have to feed our minds with positive things.  We have to store positive points to off set any of the negative one that comes our way.  Starting our day with the news already puts us in the red.

[Tweet “One cannot consume and create at the same time.”]

 

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We are truly living in the information age, and we are now bombarded by information all the time.  I choose not the consume the news anymore.

I am happier for it.

Now because I say I do not consume the news that does not mean I don’t know what’s going on in the world.  I believe that you are capable of being well adverse in current affairs and not be swayed by sensational news.  You can know what’s going on, but not through the snippets that television news would give you (and sometimes newspapers).

If I do look up something that has happened, I do it on my time, and only on the things that I’m interested in.

Other times, people around me talk about what’s going on.  Of course I hear about current events around me.  But I choose to not waste my time on things that are negative to me and that does not bring me any personal value.

Do you find yourself spending a lot of time reading the news?  Has it been news that you can do something about?

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