Is the Presidential Campaign Causing You Pain?
With all the negativity in the news related to the presidential campaign, among other things, it can be easy to feel frustrated, angry, or depressed. The headlines in every media outlet are bombarding us with terrible things people say and do. They know this gets our attention and draws us in. It’s helpful to remember that the success of the news is about the number of people they can get to tune in, so the media have become exceptionally good at taking advantage of our survival instincts.
They know our brains are on high alert for anything potentially bad so we can prepare to take action to keep ourselves safe.
Sure, it’s important to keep in touch with what’s going on in the world around us, but we each have to find our own balance. I’ve heard some people say they’re terribly worried and anxious about the election. They dwell on it at work, at home, and when they’re trying to sleep. This is NOT a good balance! We each have to know our limits. If the negativity in the news is affecting your life, you need to make a change. This could include adjusting your mental nutrition by cutting back on how much news you’re feeding your brain and/or increasing your diet of positive information. You may need to pay closer attention to your positivity ratio and add more good things to your day (both externally and internally). Maybe you need to reflect on the things you can control and recognize the things you can’t.
Let’s be honest – there are lots of bad things happening in our world. It’s out there. You’ll find it. The news media are happy to keep feeding us a steady stream of it. But can you also notice the good? The good stuff is out there, too. In fact, studies show there’s way more positive stuff than negative, but our survival wired brain is trained to IGNORE the good stuff. It’s boring! There’s no need to take action because it doesn’t threaten our safety.
Take charge of your mental nutrition! Find a healthy balance with your media intake. What are a couple of changes you can make today?
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Tina Hallis, Ph.D. is Chief Positivity Officer of The Positive Edge, a company dedicated to helping people and organizations increase their positivity to improve the quality of people’s work lives and the quality of company cultures. She is certified in Positive Psychology, an authorized partner for Everything DiSC®, and a Professional Member of the National Speaker’s Association.
