Take a break from bad news
Earth Points30 
EaseEasy
Summary
Staying informed should not come at the cost of your mental health. Regularly take a break from bad news to re-charge and keep yourself from burning out.
Description
The world is full of doom-and-gloom news stories, including the state of the environment. When we are constantly bombarded by bad news, it can either give us anxiety, feeling like we have the weight of the world on our shoulders, or it can make us shut down completely.
It does not help that for-profit news and social media companies are incentivized to draw you in by dramatizing the bad. Humans tend to engage more with negative stories, and that means you watch and scroll more, leading to higher advertising revenue for them.
This is not healthy, and your thoughts may turn to, 'Humanity is doomed anyway, so why bother doing anything about it?' This is not an accurate or helpful response to the current situation.
So, take a break from bad news. This might mean cutting back on news, taking a break from it completely, or intentionally seeking out good news to get a more accurate perspective. This is not about sticking our heads in the sand and ignoring what is going on, but rather about not letting it dominate our lives to the point of traumatizing ourselves.
And when we feel better, we are more likely to take meaningful action to create a better world.
It does not help that for-profit news and social media companies are incentivized to draw you in by dramatizing the bad. Humans tend to engage more with negative stories, and that means you watch and scroll more, leading to higher advertising revenue for them.
This is not healthy, and your thoughts may turn to, 'Humanity is doomed anyway, so why bother doing anything about it?' This is not an accurate or helpful response to the current situation.
So, take a break from bad news. This might mean cutting back on news, taking a break from it completely, or intentionally seeking out good news to get a more accurate perspective. This is not about sticking our heads in the sand and ignoring what is going on, but rather about not letting it dominate our lives to the point of traumatizing ourselves.
And when we feel better, we are more likely to take meaningful action to create a better world.
Tips
• Subscribe to a positive environmental news outlet like Happy Eco News or, if you feel like you need a pick-me-up at any time, simply search online for positive environmental news to get the latest and greatest from a wide range of sources.
• Trick your algorithms online. Purposefully search for positive things and then engage and 'like' those stories more than the negative ones.
• Set a timer to limit your time reading or watching the news. Consider avoiding it completely first thing in the morning or right before you go to bed.
• Check in with Earth Hero occasionally and see how the community has grown and how much climate pollution we have reduced together. You are not alone!
• Take an actual break from the environmental crisis (good and bad) on a regular basis. Go outside, read an unrelated book, or have friends and family over for a game night. Even though we are in the midst of a major crisis, being plugged into it all the time will only result in you burning out. It took us a long time to get into this mess, and although we have a relatively short time frame to make some drastic changes, we will be in this fight for the long run. Take some time to enjoy your life. Others will respond better to you then, too.
• Trick your algorithms online. Purposefully search for positive things and then engage and 'like' those stories more than the negative ones.
• Set a timer to limit your time reading or watching the news. Consider avoiding it completely first thing in the morning or right before you go to bed.
• Check in with Earth Hero occasionally and see how the community has grown and how much climate pollution we have reduced together. You are not alone!
• Take an actual break from the environmental crisis (good and bad) on a regular basis. Go outside, read an unrelated book, or have friends and family over for a game night. Even though we are in the midst of a major crisis, being plugged into it all the time will only result in you burning out. It took us a long time to get into this mess, and although we have a relatively short time frame to make some drastic changes, we will be in this fight for the long run. Take some time to enjoy your life. Others will respond better to you then, too.
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Photo Credit
Photo by Rob Mulally on Unsplash