The Proven Health Benefits of Positive News—and How to Deal With the Reality Today

Many people are grappling with this year’s depressing and disturbing news—meaning, they want to turn away, but they just can‘t. The constant focus on partisan politics—as well as murders and mayhem—is taking a real toll on peoples’ psyches.

The surgeon Dr. Christiane Northrop says our nervous systems simply weren’t designed to handle a daily barrage of bad news which contains the worst of humanity, brought to you from every corner of the globe. The inundation is too much for most people. The trend toward sensational bad news on television began in the 1990s. At the same time as the U.S. homicide rate was dropping in that decade by 42%, television news coverage of murders skyrocketed—rising more than 700%, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

During that time, TV network news audiences and newspaper circulation began to fall. We can only guess that this was due to the increased focus on crime coverage.

Instead of gorging on an endless media diet of conflict, some people have taken drastic action, by closing their eyes and turning off the news altogether. (They are also unfriending their angry brother-in-law or friend whose partisan posts contaminate their Facebook feed.)

Completely tuning out the news, however, is not a great solution. To be an informed citizen and voter, we need to know what’s going on. Instead, I recommend that people become “selective sifters”, choosing what kind of news they take in daily. Headline news from the BBC or NPR, or perusing newspapers and magazines is enough to provide the basics.

Most people will need to make a conscious effort not to get sucked into the rancorous trivial debates of the day, like how much Melania Trump’s jacket costs when she travels into a poor neighborhood—and the inference that it should make anyone angry if they are a Liberal.

It’s not enough, though, to just sift through the bad news.

Norman Cousins, a political journalist and 30-year editor of the Saturday Review said, “If news is not really news unless it is bad news, it may be difficult to claim we are an informed nation.”

There is another crucial step that people can take to relieve some of their anxiety around current events. They can write themselves a prescription for a daily dose of good news. Like a “Vitamin G” in their media diet it can provide some balanced nutrition beyond the negative news menu.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/proven-health-benefits-of-positive-news/


More to read on the link and why I often try to post as some others do, good news stories

very true didge,

i love some of your vids, some are really sweet and heartwarming and some are really funny, both of which are much needed in our lives

gelico wrote:


very true didge,

i love some of your vids, some are really sweet and heartwarming and some are really funny, both of which are much needed in our lives

Thanks Gelico, though Syl and Eddie also do

I think I am going to concentrate more on such stories

Didge does post some great uplifting threads. x

Same with music....listen to some good music and it has an effect on your mental and physical well being, surround yourself with sad depressing stories and it brings the mood down...thats why the odd light hearted thread on a forum is good imo.