Time for good news
We’ve all read them — the headlines preaching doom and gloom; the regular tweets from BBC every car accident; the endless stats of crime rates, theft, rape. We are bombarded on a daily basis with news that shapes our understanding of the world. As a result we are becoming more and more defensive — the barriers against connection are being built, boundaries formed and minds being locked down. I often find myself feeling disempowered — hopeless at what can be done. Yet, this isn’t representative of the world we live in. Just spend a couple minutes watching one of Hans Rosling’s talks, or read through his new bestseller, Factfulness, and you’ll realise that the world is a becoming a safer, healthier, better place.
It is well known that we are greatly influenced and biased by the messages we read, the news we hear, the conversations we have. We have natural tendencies towards the negative, towards blame, towards fear and protection. Yet just as they say that we become a mix of the 5 people we spend our time with, we also take on the mind frame of the information we receive. Therefore just as we need to consciously choose who we hang out with, we need to consciously curate the stories and information we let into our lives.
One way of doing this is subscribing to outlets that seek to howcase positive actions, positive stories and positive change. Positive News, and Good, are just two examples of media that illustrate the successful efforts and changes that are happening to combat global issues including climate change, extremism, mental health and human rights. They do so not by throwing glitter on everything, but by critically examining these issues and drawing out success stories or innovations that are seeking to address these problems.
Just how reading the daily headlines often instills a feeling of doom, flicking through and reading the articles in Positive News leaves me feeling empowered — empowered to make a change, empowered to act on my natural, human desire to help and build bridges. I realise that I am not alone in hoping for a better world. I am better able to look at a problem and see solutions. Ultimately I feel more able to be human — connected, empathetic, and inspired.
So I invite you to review your current sources of information (whether through the news, blogs, podcasts or instagram), and for one week, remove even one that may be skewing your world view towards the negative and add one that may just remind you that we are actually living world full of good, should we choose to see, and that it we have the power to continue to shape the world towards a more positive goal.
