Have you ever found yourself driving home from work, having had a terrible day, only to turn on the radio and listen to the 6 pm news and hear a story about the economy or a politician that poured despair onto the fire of work misery and frustration? That combined with peak hour traffic and we get home in a far from healthy mental state.

Whilst removing work or career frustrations or doing anything about the traffic are things we cannot do a lot about, dousing our inflamed mood with more negativity that, let’s be honest, tends to be what news broadcasters focus on, is probably something we can do without. The media we choose habitually consume will impact us one way or another. It is either

helping lift us up, or it is dragging us down.
Whilst many know this to be true, the argument is often made that it is ‘important’ to be informed and in the know, and that ignoring the news is like an ostrich with your head buried in the sand. Well before we judge the ostrich, it turns out that when the ostrich’s head is in the sand, it is not to ignore the outside world, but rather to attend to something or critical importance, its eggs.

The ostrich seems to somehow understand that attending to things that are important AND that they have some control or influence over, is really pretty smart. Whilst the state of the economy or the shenanigans in parliament are important, they are not things we can do anything about. I realise that it will make us sound less enlightened during dinner party conversations and group Zoom chats, but becoming an expert in these areas of society and the world that seems to continually let us down, is not a productive exercise. It can become a cancerous cycle that is likely to take away from our focus on the things that matter to us and that we can actually do something about.

During the post-COVID-19 lockdown world that we are slowly starting to emerge into, this couldn’t be more pertinent. These are unprecedented and historic times, and it is not hard to get wrapped up in the ongoing saga as South Africa and the rest of the world try to deal with it. It’s almost addictive. But it’s just not particularly helpful, not in the confines of our much smaller day to day lives. In reality, watching the news is a leisure activity, not an exercise in productivity, just like watching anything else on TV.

Here are some ideas to counteract the bombardment of bad news stories and conspiracy theories that seem to force their way in front of us on TV and social media these days.

1. In general terms, consider what value listening to the news (from whatever source that comes from) is really adding to your life. Consider reducing this input to once or twice a day. If you are feeling particularly brave, consider avoiding it altogether. You will survive. In fact, see if you have any regrets with your decision 2 or 3 months later.

2. Currently, during the Covid-19 situation, receiving input around how we need to conduct ourselves in terms of social distancing and the services we can use, etc. is important for us to keep abreast of. If we are honest, the situation regarding COVID 19 guidelines only changes every couple of weeks at most, so daily updates are probably overkill. When receiving your updates, you might want to focus on curated news sources specific to the Coronavirus, to avoid getting collateral news along with it. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), would be one of those sources.

3. Try to replace the old social media content you used before with content that has constructive information that you could directly apply to your life. There are many excellent podcasters, bloggers, or YouTubers that create content with ideas that people can inject into their daily lives immediately and receive the benefits from. Replacing screen time with a good Biography is another great way to deep dive into stories of people’s lives we want to learn from and be enriched by.

4. Another way to balance the bad news with the good and help us feel that evil is not prevailing in the world is to find some good news sources. This can help us (hopefully) feel like there are positive opposing forces in the world to all the dread that mainstream media thrive on. Here are some ideas.

5. If the TV screen is something that you must get your fix of, consider substituting the news for a good documentary. Whilst the news will throw 10 different subjects at you in 30 minutes, the information is too rapid and broad in focus that you learn very little. A documentary will immerse you in one topic of interest over a longer period of time and leave you having learned something useful.

I’m a Counselling Psychologist situated in Parktown North, in close proximity to the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, such as Rosebank and Sandton.

I work with individuals, couples, families and small groups to address current challenges with a solution-focused approach. These challenges may include some more common complaints such as depression, and anxiety, or those trying to come to terms with trauma or bereavement.