Media Diet

I've been on a media diet for a couple of weeks. (Thank you, Karen, for the inspiration.) No radio news, or newspapers, or tv news.

I've knocked back our newspaper subscription to Friday, Saturday and Sunday only and even then, I only read the weekend entertainment section and the food and travel pages. The rest goes straight into the recycle bin.

No television news except for the local weather forecast. No NPR news and that's been the hardest thing for me.

Here's the thing. I began to think that all the bad news (car accidents and shootings, war and war and war, floods and disasters, anything Sarah Palin might say) was weighing me down. That letting all those things into my brain was not good for my heart. So I stopped, cold turkey.

And you know what? The world continued to turn without my having to carry all that bad news around with me. Absolutely nothing in my life depended on my knowing about the latest armed robbery or three car pile up.

People still talk to me about the news. I have a pretty good grasp of what has been happening around here and in the world these last few weeks. Strangely enough, to have a human conversation about something, even if it is bad news, doesn't leave me with that heavy feeling or a knot in my stomach.

I may do away with the newspaper all together. I may go back to listening to All Things Considered while I'm cooking dinner. I'm not sure where I'll take it from here, but learning that I don't have to let everything in has been completely liberating.