Do You Listen To The News, And Notice How You Feel? I began noticing how sad I would get after listening to the news on TV or on the radio. I did an experiment. I stopped listening to the 10 O'Clock news program before retiring in the evening and stopped reading the front page of the newspaper, for one month. My husband thought I would fall out of knowledge of what was happening in the world and guess what? I knew it all. I realized that whenever I read bad news, it somehow stayed in my mind and my body for a long time.
The only way I noticed my reaction was through avoiding the media for a month. I still knew what was going on because every one of my friends had to discuss the bad news. I began to see that they had to talk about what they heard from the news. The stories seemed to stay with them for days. They were usually in disbelief of what they had heard and needed to discuss the information in order to digest and assimilate it. It seemed to go around and around inside of them until they were bursting with the news themselves.
I told my husband not to tell me the really bad stuff anymore, as it would make me cry. He thought I was losing my grip, with current events and that I was going to "grow potatoes between my ears." I realized that he had to tell me the stories so he could get them off his chest. He was always astonished at the degradation of human behavior and would continually walk away scratching his head (and other things) as he constantly wanted to ruminate about what he had heard.
You see, I think we are always affected by what we hear in life. Somehow, what we learn, stays within us until we can make sense of it. Much of what is heard is impossible to accept, as it is usually sensational. That is what sells news...titillating, sensational...at least that is what the collective thinking about choosing the lead news story. One of my professors told me that stats show, people like to hear bad news because it makes them feel better. "They can say, phew, I am glad that is not happening to me." Have you ever stopped to think about that???
After my experiment, I decided to look for good news stories. I thought stories about people helping save each other would have a greater effect on me, by raising my spirits instead of dampening them down. It was hard to find good news. Sort of explains why the community used to gather to watch a lynching or a guillotine victim die.
I refuse to give in to that basic human instinct. I looked for the good in life, simply to balance out the bad. I am writing this blog to further my goal of seeking out the good in life so I can feel better about who I am and what is happening in the world. I feel better about my life when I know there is good being done in the world every second of the day and it is offsetting all the bad.
Here is some good news: When a doggie paddle can save a life
AP – They leap from helicopters or speeding boats, bringing aid to swimmers who get into trouble off Italy’s popular beaches.
For these canine lifeguards, the doggie paddle does just fine.
Hundreds of specially trained dogs from Italy’s corps of canine lifeguards are deployed each summer to help swimmers in need of rescue.
These “lifedogs” wear a harness or tow a buoy that victims can grab, or a raft they can sit on to be towed back to shore, and unlike their human counterparts, they can easily jump from helicopters and speeding boats to reach swimmers in trouble.
With millions flocking to Italy’s crowded beaches each summer, the Italian Coast Guard says it rescues about 3,000 people every year — and their canine helpers are credited with saving several lives.
Hope you will think it over and witness your own media diet and how it is affecting you and your loved ones. More later...
The Radiogirl
