Did you know that 64 countries are meant to hold national elections this year? Elections, along with other current events, are well-known sources of stress and anxiety. For expats, the impact can be especially high, wanting to stay informed about events happening in their country of origin and their country of residence.
While it’s important to stay informed about events affecting you, there are ways to consume news in a mindful and healthy way. Here are a few interesting facts about how the mind works in relation to news:
- The mind has a negativity bias. This refers to an adaptive evolutionary function of the mind to “attend to, learn from, and use negative information far more than positive information” (Vaish, Grossmann, & Woodward, 2008, p. 383). Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki has recently written a book called ‘Hope for Cynics’. In the book he describes the health risks of being cynical, encouraging readers to practice what he calls hopeful skepticism instead of cynicism.
Besides reading his book, another way to fight the negativity bias is to seek out evidence of things going right. Here are three news sites that focus on positive news that you might want to try out:
- Good News Network: www.goodnewsnetwork.org
- Positive News: www.positive.news
- The Optimist Daily: www.positive.news
- Emotions are contagious. You might have heard that laughter is contagious, but so is fear. As a social species, we humans are naturally empathic. This means we can easily feel the emotions of others. It’s no surprise then that reading about certain news can affect us strongly, even if the event itself has no direct impact on us. While numbing ourselves is one way to cope with overwhelming information, there’s a healthier alternative: to set boundaries around the content we consume. Just like you are mindful about who you let into your house, so too you can consciously choose what kind of information you let into your mind. Here are a few practical tips:
- Limit your news intake: Be honest with yourself about how often do you really need to read/watch news in order to stay informed about essential occurrences. Remember, everything you read or see impacts your mind in some way.
- Notice how you feel when you consume content: Whether it’s news, TV, or social media, notice how your body feels when you are engaged with it. Pay attention to what makes you feel good and what doesn’t.
- Set boundaries in conversations with friends, colleagues, family members, and relatives. How often and with whom do you want to talk about politics?
- The mind is the most susceptible and vulnerable right after waking up and before going to sleep. This means that if you engage with anything negative or discouraging first thing in the morning, it has a much stronger impact than doing the exact same activity around noon. The same applies to the last moments before going to sleep. Therefore, my recommendation is to:
- Practice digital detox for at least 30 minutes after waking up and before going to sleep. This time window is excellent for doing something uplifting in the morning or relaxing in the evening. For example: practicing gratitude, stretching, playing with a pet, or reading an inspiring book.
Our brains were not designed for the amount of information we are currently receiving, and thus it takes some effort to protect our mental health. There are so many things happening that are beyond our control, but one thing we can consciously affect every day is our own balance and wellbeing. Remember that you deserve to feel well, even when there are unsolved problems in the world!
For a related blog post, check this out: https://compasspsychology.fi/2024/02/23/what-to-do-when-current-events-affect-your-mental-health/
References:
Carretié, L., Mercado, F., Tapia, M., & Hinojosa, J. A. (2001). Emotion, attention, and the ‘negativity bias,’ studied through event-related potentials. Cognitive Brain Research, 11(1), 75-85.
Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1994). Emotional Contagion. Cambridge University Press.
Steriade, M., & McCarley, R. W. (2014). Brain Control of Wakefulness and Sleep. Springer Science & Business Media.
Vaish, A., Grossmann, T., & Woodward, A. (2008). Not all emotions are created equal: The negativity bias in social-emotional development. Psychological Bulletin, 134(3), 383-403.
Zaki, J. (2024).Hope for cynics: the surprising science of human goodness. New York, GCP.