This Is What Happens When Doing 30 Days News Detox
Thirst for knowledge
If any new spotlight is rising, we want updated information about its progress, sometimes irrespective of our control on its course. In this process, sometimes we even forget which sources to trust and which ones to scrap.
I also faced this issue. Watching the news every day about the outbreak and discussing with people about the world’s status. I even tried reducing the news exposure to once a day. Wait! The real detox is coming!
While I was practising watching news once a day, my anxiety decreased, and I wanted my family to know about my health too. But when I suggested this idea to my dad, he gave a surprisingly calm response, “I haven’t watched the news in the last ten days”. That’s when I thought of giving it a shot, I ignored all the news and barely paid attention to it in April. My anxiety adrenaline is at a considerably low level now.
Realising what you can control
Many people have already started working on their “ONE” thing which they had stalled for so long. Others are aiming to arrive on the other side. That depends on how optimistic you’re in such unexpected times. Do you want to sail through and be grateful about it? Or do you want to learn from it and convert it into a life-changing experience?
I went with the second one because I am a fan of experimental psychology. I love to try new things for the sake of learning. That’s why I started blogging. The dream is to become a writer. But I already took the steps in the right direction on March 25 (day 1 of nationwide lockdown). I am killing the nervosity day-by-day.
Blogging is the building block that is helping in improving communication. It makes me more empathetic by sharing my life experiences with the people who can learn from it.
The second activity was more comfortable: maintaining fitness levels. I knew I couldn’t compromise on it. So, I started by doing exercise twenty minutes daily and gradually increased it to one hour every morning.
Keeping anxiety at bay
Relaxed brain generates great thoughts, while the anxious one stumbles. You know how the anxiety ruins your day when the first thing you do after waking up is watching the news about COVID-19.
When I stopped it, I even stopped talking about it with friends. Why get judged by commenting on things when you don’t have the complete and updated information? In place of spreading misinformation, it is better to stay silent.
Instead, I worked on handling the anxiety through journaling. Putting down thoughts on paper (or screen) makes space for new and creative ones that might be cornered because of the stress.
Started journaling to purify my thoughts
I was reading, applying the lessons and learning. That’s it. But my subconscious mind was telling me to give back to the community. The community of writers who have shared their knowledge, the people who have helped me become a better version of myself, and the experiences that sparked the idea of lifelong learning.
You don’t know how your work will impact others. You may not even get instant gratification from the community. But the words you spread out in the open have the power to ignite a revolution. As long as you are learning from your experiences and sharing the lessons with the world, you are adding values to the lives of the people who would one day want to meet you and thank you for your work.
I’ve got such feedbacks, and I have become nonstop in my writing journey. Sometimes I even get a burst of ideas to write about, and the positivity is I can’t control them. Damn it, I don’t wanna control. I want to channelize them and Medium is giving me the voice to do exactly that. I journal a lot nowadays, even sometimes with hand-writing to strengthen my memory!
Hand-writing is a way to feel the emotions freely in a way typing can’t. You can scribble or write cursive. Not only that, you can create mindmaps, sketchings, satisfying geometric patterns, optical illusions, etc!
This article belongs to a set of posts I am publishing in this 100-days streak. Navigate to the end of the article 22 for the references from day 23 onwards. If you would like to read the ones before day 22, here is the first one that documents them in the end.
~ Sanjeev
