Stop Watching the News | One Day Challenge

The news is designed to stress you out! Take a BREAK and take BACK your mental health. (plus bonus video!)

The News is Addictive

The News is Bad for Your Health

There's no "good news channel." The news is almost always bad. And this causes stress.

Let's talk about two types of stress, good stress and bad stress.

Good stress, sometimes referred to as eustress, are things like public speaking or meeting a deadline at work. Essentially, anxiety-provoking activities that you have control over.

Bad stress refers to things that cause anxiety, but where you have much less control. Things like war, politics, and the economy..

All stress produces cortisol, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands to inspire you to take action. When you're stressed, you feel like there's something you need to do.

If it’s good stress, you can dissipate the cortisol by taking action. If it's bad stress, like watching the news, the cortisol stays in your body, because there's no immediate action you can take to solve the problem.

And if you watch the news day after day, cortisol and other stress hormones begin to back up in your body, causing chronic anxiety.

The News is Negative Energy

Think of the news as a stimulus, or a type of energy. Typically, the news is negative, because that's what gets people's attention.

Think of yourself as a receiver of energy. Generally speaking, the type of energy that is sent your way elicits in you a predictable response.

That's why very few people who watch the news feel happy afterwards.

You can try to be unaffected by the news, and this works to varying degrees.

Another way to feel less stress is to simply eliminate the anxiety-producing stimulus.

That's right, you have permission to not watch the news! Really, you do. If anything really serious happens in the world, you'll hear about it, don't worry.

Watch the Video [3:50]

My Suffering and My Solution

The inspiration for this post comes from suffering. My suffering, to be specific. You see, recently, I got caught up watching the news and developed some pretty negative thought spirals.

Luckily I was able to catch myself, but I was surprised at how easily I got baited. This led me to realize how tempting and how powerful the news media is.

Even after realizing this, I still had a strong compulsion to watch the news. I was addicted and something had to be done.

So, I decided it was time for an intervention and I said to myself, "no more news; I'm going cold turkey." It was the only way for me to break free from the addictive grip of the news.

For three days I didn't watch the news. It was difficult, but I did it. This cleared my head and got rid of the stress hormones in my body, because I removed the source of anxiety.

What's more, I proved to myself that I could resist temptation. I skipped the news and I lived to tell about it.

Your Solution: The News Challenge

So, would you like to break your addiction to the news? The best way to do it is to prove to yourself that you can. If you can stop for a day, it means you're in control.

Here are seven strategies to set you up for success for your one-day news challenge:

1. Prepare the night before. Use the following strategies but get them all lined up the night before. That way you won't fall into your usual news watching routine.

2. Have a mantra. Say, "just for today." Repeat this throughout your one-day news challenge to keep you on track.

3. Create barriers. Unplug your TV. Put a sheet over it. Do something to make it more difficult to start watching the news.

4. Use a Post-it. That's right, put a Post-it on all of your TV screens that says "no news today!" With a bit of willpower, this can be enough to keep you from watching the news.

5. Hide your news apps on your phone. This is pretty easy to do and creates an "out of sight out of mind" situation.

6. Get the whole family involved. If you're married, or have kids, make the news challenge a family affair. Get everyone to hold each other accountable.

7. Use self-discipline. Even with all the strategies I've outlined, an enticing video or other click-bait might tempt you. Resist it.

After you complete your one-day challenge, make it a habit to reduce your news to maybe just a few times a week. Remember, if something important happens, you'll hear about it.

PS: If any of you still read newspapers, "not watching the news" means not reading the newspaper too!

The Right Not to Be Stressed

I know it might sound too good to be true, but you have the right not to be stressed out.

You don't have to keep up on the latest news. You don't have to harbor a sense of outrage. You don't have to be hypervigilant.

You can... focus on your own life, your own neighborhood, your own friends, your family, your fitness, your health, wealth, and well-being.

I invite you to try the one-day news challenge. Take a day off, then take another day off. It might just get to be a habit!

If you enjoyed this post, you might be interested in my post on reprogramming your mind for positivity.