A year or so back, my wife and I tried and experiment. We stopped watching the news. I had just read the book 4 Hour Work Week in which one of the suggestions was to stop seeing the news. My first reaction was-crazy thought. But I decided to think about it some more. In watching news you are bombarded with horrific images, terrible tragedy, death, and as Chicken Little would say "the sky is falling!". Think about it-what does this do to IMPROVE your life? Does knowing this help you in any way be HAPPY or lead the life you want to lead? The kicker in this was that after 10-12 minutes of this you go to a commercial-trying to get you to feel better (and empty your wallet) by showing you something you must have. In getting this must have item-use your credit card-putting you more in debt.
This is a Media Overload spiral. In order to stop the spiral, you must first stop watching the news. Now I will try and catch the weather, then shut the news off. Any headlines that might be of importance I can see on any mainstream website or newspaper. But the caution here is to not get sucked into the media spiral at all-take a break from reading news at all for a week. See how you feel when you mind starts to get freed from the news media.
My wife and I tried this experiment--What was discovered was quite surprising. We started to feel better. Our minds became less cluttered with the media overload, putting us in better overall moods. In this one experiment, what was discovered that by gaining control over one little part of life-what news is watched-you can start to lead a better life and move on to designing your life the way you want it-not one controlled by thoughts that are shaped by Media outlets.
So my challenge to everyone is this. Stop watching the news, just browse the headlines for a week--see how you feel. I have been doing this one simple step for over a year. I do not miss the media bombardment at all. Let me know how you do.
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