A controversial title on a website about finding inner peace and mental wellbeing deserves a thorough and careful explanation of why it is on a site like this.
When in a place of deep depression and anxiety your thoughts all tend to be negative, things feel that they have all gone wrong and it is possible that the way your life has CURRENTLY turned out in your present situtaion has made you dispondent about life in general so, may I ask, would watching the mainstream news make you feel better or worse about life?
If you really observe what is on the news you will find that the majority of the content reports negative things happening around the globe.
Murder, war, riots, rape, poverty, starvation , corruption, economic greed but all topped off with a sprinkling of a happy story about a fireman being honoured for his hard work. Now the world is sunshine and rainbows again…isn’t it?!
If you already think your perspective of life is bad then watching the news will only reenforce your belief.
The truth is the world is more beautiful than it is dark, I went to Colombia and its only when you start to travel for yourself you see that for yourself and why I believe it should be a goal for every person to try to achieve and strive towards.
If your situation is negative already what is the news doing to your healing process?
My point is that if your mind is already distrubed by negativity watching something like this will make you feel worse and will also program your mind to be fearful of the world, people, the future and things that seem so horrific that the only feelings from watching it will make you feel worse and not better about YOUR current situation.
Be careful what you allow your mind to feed upon
Being aware of the information you allow your mind to process is an important part of your healing process.
If you are filling your mind with positive ideas, laughter and enjoyment you are going to start to notice a change in your wellbeing. Watch comedies, see youtube videos that are joyful and show human nature at its best.
Alternatively fill it with negativity, what is wrong with the world and another person’s negative opinion about a current situation you are not going to improve your health.
Try it out, switch it off for two weeks
Don’t take my word for it, switch the news off for just two weeks, change the channel when it comes on tv, go outside into nature or do something else that you find enjoyable and see if you notice a difference in your overall wellbeing.
You may notice others talking about current events and how terrible they are. Are they really so terrible? Are they really affecting your life? Do you really need to know about horrific events if you can not do anything to improve the situation? Once you are in a better place maybe YOU CAN change something that upsets you (for example, I want to make information about self healing of the mind easier to access and thus this website was born.)
Is the news bad for your mental health?
Once you have tried it out for two weeks and replaced the news with something positive please comment in the box below and tell me if it has had any improvement on your way of thinking.
I stopped watching the news about half a year ago. The inundation of terrible events happening literally everywhere does awful things to the psyche and makes us feel utterly powerless to help.
I continued reading newspapers occasionally, but that irritated me too. In Ireland, some Garth Brooks concerts were cancelled and this took the spotlight for about a month. This was at the same time as the worst part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; I was really bothered by how news of some stupid concerts took precedence over the conflict.
Anyway, I’ve entirely stopped engaging with mainstream media and I feel much better for it. But I do wonder if it is selfish to ignore everything happening around me?
Hi Enda,
thankyou for your comment and congrats on being the very first one too! 🙂
I would never say it is a selfish thing to think about your own well-being. In a tough world you have to put yourself first and then when you are strong enough reach out to others.
I know this is a really really difficult thing for people who are considerate of other’s feelings but until we are in a position of authority I realised there was nothing any of us could change and all that was happening was it was imploding my reality of suffering.
There are people that work on trying to keep the world safe and that is there job so it doesn’t matter if it is not in our consciousness or not really, it is being dealt with. When we are strong and we have healed our wounds only then can we really benefit the welfare of others too.
I know there are websites that allow groups of people to make change happen like 38degrees and such like which I do tend to sign when there are good causes to support and I know of them but all in all, I don’t want to see news about murder and such like that I can’t change I want to see positive change happening. I don’t think its selfish if suffering with depression or negative thinking to block the most horrific stories out of your mind whilst you heal really…
Thanks again for your comment, hope you are having a good weekend 🙂