I've got news for you. The news might be bad for you. For some people or during certain events or news cycles too much information might actually be harmful. In my former life I was a complete news junkie and liked to consider myself super informed about what was going on in the world. I was also angry and depressed a lot more often than I am now.
Choosing not to internalize what's happening doesn't mean you are uninformed or unthinking. It means that you are thinking rationally about what you have control over (your thoughts, actions, and words) and what you don't (the thoughts, actions, and words of others). How is harming your health going to improve anything?
Your assignment for today is to turn it all off. Just for today skip the news. Not just on TV but on radio and social media. If you have news notifications on your phone turn them off today.
I know it's hard to find the right balance but experiment to find the level of informed for you. And ask yourself, if you didn't know anything about what was happening would it actually make any difference? We aren't saying we live in a bubble and don't care about what's going on. We are only playing around with the amount of information necessary to be responsible citizens and members of society.
How much information do you need to be an informed voter, for instance? How much of the news that you are seeing is new information or just the same information rehashed? Come to terms with the fact that you aren't ever going to have all the information. The people making the decisions don't even have all the information.
So take just today and let the anxiety of information overload go. Experiment with how that feels.
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