No News is Good News

When I first started learning about computers in 6th form it was all about flow charts and binary (yes I'm that old) our teacher was about half a step ahead of us and was fond of using wise sayings to help us learn how to get a simple line of code to run. Her favourite was "garbage in, garbage out", she didn't teach me much about computers but her pet saying stayed with me and these days I like to use it when helping people work with stress.

Stress in - stress out. This quick post looks at one of the main ways we take stress in via the media and how to replace negative stressful input with inspiration and motivation so that we can output positivity instead of garbage. Thanks, Mrs Patello.

To Cut Down on Stress Take a Media Break

Give the TV, radio and newspapers a miss for a while. You are not going to find good news in the media, it's not their business. What you will hear is the same worries and dramas churned and regurgitated over and over again. And there's nothing you can do about it. Any of it. 

So you listen and you read and you feel sad or stressed by what's going on in the world and all the while you are powerless because you are focusing on things which you cannot change.

Why do that when, in truth, you are powerful and there is so much you can do each and every day of your life to make a difference, to you, and to others. 

When you pull back from the media you free up mental space to invest in quiet, in introspection, in learning, in service - in whatever you want to do with that time and that expanded space that is there as soon as you stop letting external bad news push in on you.

Choose Your Inspiration Station

Instead of listening to the news you can switch to listening to inspiring and motivating people, like: 

Zig Ziglar's Inspiring Words of Encouragement, or Miss Inspiration - Wamnui Bahati  to mention just two of the many positive podcasts available.

Instead of reading the news how about reading some of my upbeat blogging friends like Positively Present, Life Optimizer, or Rejuvenation Lounge

By choosing news that inspires you, you are not only reducing stress but also working on your personal growth. It's a win win thing.