In my never-ending quest to try to balance my mind, emotions, body and spirit, I came to the conclusion a couple of years ago to never again watch a newscast or read the newspaper, unless I'm looking for a specific article.
You may think that I must be woefully ignorant about current events, and you would be right. If something is important to me, I will look it up, but I simply can't tolerate sitting through even five minutes of a newscast.
It seems that the news is always bad news or completely irrelevent, and I find it frustrating and upsetting. I can feel anger or sadness swell even after the first or second news story. There is so much unpleasantness in this world, and I choose to focus on what is pleasant.
I know that it drives my poor mother crazy that I am not aware of certain current events, or who is who in the pop culture world, but it has helped me enormously to withdraw from that aspect of life.
If something really important happens that I need to know about, I can be certain that I will be informed by my husband, my children, my parents, or friends. I don't need to subject myself to stories about violence, abuse and the underbelly of society. I also don't need to know which pop princess is in which rehab facility.
I rarely even watch regular broadcast television these days, with the exception of the shows I watch with my son, such as Survivor or The Amazing Race. Even the brief new updates that pop up during commercial breaks can be enough to make me want to scream.
I am aware that I am extremely sensitive, so I am definitely not recommending this for anyone else; I'm just telling you about my own strategy to cope in this world.
Oddly enough, I can watch just about any movie without being upset by it. Many others find that movies are too violent or too explicit in some ways, but to me, it's just a movie. It's fiction. I can deal. It's the real world that I find much more upsetting.
Sometimes I see that I am shrinking my world by keeping certain things out of it, but right now I have to do what I have to do. If I have to hear an important news story second-hand from a family member, so be it. If an election is coming up, I can do my research without having to watch the mud-slinging.
Ironically, my husband is in the TV news business. However, he supports my news fast.
I don't know if I'll ever go back to watching or reading the news. I think it's been better for me to live without it.
'Til tomorrow, my friends. Love to all, and extra hugs to anyone who is worried today.
xo
Where I've Been and Where I Am
2 years ago
We hardly ever watch the news either. It is almost always bad news. It would be nice if they had a show that was all good news.
ReplyDeleteWe must have been twins in another life, Franny. I DO NOT watch the news, it always brings me down. This is a "problem" at my house. My husband is what I call a TV addict, he needs to have the darn thing on the minute he opens his eyes in the morning, a habit that I find so annoying, so much so that we have had to make a deal. No TV until I have had my morning coffee (or two LOL!) I even get up very early, before he does, just so I can sit and enjoy my coffee while listening to music and watching the birds going through their morning hi-jinks outside of my living room window.It really is quite amusing because if he gets up before me and turns on the TV and then hears me get up and go into the bathroom, he will have the channel on CMT (country music Television) by the time I make it to the sofa, coffee in hand! He sincerely tries to put up with my dislike of the news.
ReplyDeleteI am so with you on this one. I can't watch news. It upsets me too much. My parents love the news and watch it every chance they get. They really don't understand my attitude.
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