If you are truly pressed for time, just read the bold, italicized, and underlined sentences. That won't take you long at all!
Another year has passed and if you are reading this, a new one is getting ready to start (or has started) for you. New Year’s celebrations are a time for reflection on what has happened and also a chance to start anew. New Year’s resolutions are a manifestation of this. Weight loss plans, gym proprietors, exercise equipment makers, and others know this. If you have watched any TV, gone online, or read any magazines or newspapers you know that the people that make their living selling and signing people up for those things are hitting it hard. We like new beginnings and the chance to reset and set new goals. Losing weight, stopping smoking, cut back or stopping drinking, and other things a lot of folks see as improvement are at the forefront of our collective thoughts and efforts this time of year.
Although not a real advocate of New Year’s resolutions, I too am looking to the new year to work on some things myself. For example, this post. I am going to try to get back to writing my blog with some regularity. It may or may not take, but here is a start. I also want to work on my health in 2024 by losing some weight and exercising more. Those may be almost cliché they are so common, but they are among goals of mine for the coming year. Now to the real point of this post. Among any self-improvement you may have among your resolutions and goals for 2024 I have one I would like to strongly recommend.
In the coming year, and I would hope then going forward throughout your life, spend time reflecting on and spending time with things that make you happy and bring you some type of inner peace.
Over forty-three years ago we the people were introduced to all-news all-the-time when CNN started. Those of us that had cable were able to get our news anytime we wanted. Around two years after that we got Headline News. Twenty-four hours of the world’s headlines were now also available when we wanted. These programs and networks are mostly advertising supported. To interest advertisers you have to get people to watch and keep watching. That is contrary to seeing the news and especially the highlights of the news. It became an ongoing problem of how to keep people tuning in and continuing to watch. This is a running societal meme with the “more at 11” or “up next a local man adopts a pet lion” type ads and promos that local stations run with.
News organizations were/are famous for the line “if it bleeds it leads”. As gross as that sounds it epitomizes the fact that sensationalism grabs people’s attention. CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News, and all the others came along over the next decade or so, and they all needed viewers to survive. (although the numbers some of these networks draw are so low that one wonders how much viewers really matter!) They all started sensationalizing and promoting the “bad” news. The real issue is that this works! Some of that is what I am asking you to avoid in 2024. Watching suffering that you can do nothing about is not conducive to mental health. You can donate time or money, so that can help. If you are in a position to do so, do it. Then move on and avoid the drama.
Spend at least the same amount of time with what makes you feel good as what upsets you. Actually, double or even quadruple the amount of time would be better. The more you concentrate on the good the better for your mental health.
“How can I do this?”, you ask. “The world is going to hell and that is all I can think about”. One of the reasons that is all you can think about is that you immerse yourself in the mire. Social media is very bad for this for some of the same reasons. Algorithms built into these apps are designed to keep feeding you what keeps you scrolling and clicking. They want your eyeballs to stay on their feed and thus viewing their ads. That is how they make money. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others all need you scrolling through their sites to make money. If you click “like” on a meme on something or someone you will get more of the same. So, back to the question – how do I cut out the information that upsets me? Turn off the media, or at least look at cat videos or whatever else makes you laugh vs what agitates you. Put down the screens and read a book. Watch a funny movie (although all media has learned that putting some controversy in can add to “buzz” and get more press and hopefully more viewers.) Take a walk, meditate, talk to someone you love (or at least like a lot!). All of this can help bring peace and calm.
I am not trying to keep anyone from trying to make the world a better place. But, to worry endlessly about things you have very little control over and ignoring the good that is around you is not fair to you. Support whatever cause you feel passionate about with your time and or money. But make sure you step away and reflect on the things that are right with your world.
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