Let’s face it – 2020 unfortunately hasn’t been the best year yet. Have you ever heard a douche-y guy at a party say, “this night is like a movie!”? Well, if 2020 were a movie, it would one hundred percent be a real-life spin on Scary Movie. All of the crazy, horrible things that have happened this year seem not only unbelievable, but worst of all never ending. Every topic in conversations, social media and the news is revolving around the next big negative event that has happened, and I for one am sick of it!
When negativity is constantly being pushed at you from every direction, it’s going to have an effect on your personal life. When I used to frequently check the news, I felt so defeated – it seemed like there were only negative things to report on. Then, I had a perspective change. News companies, bottom line, are businesses. They want to report to the masses what will sell. A very simple analogy explains it in the best way: if you are walking down a street and you see a cute puppy, or a house on fire, you’re most likely going to be staring at the house for longer. To most people it’s what they see less of, so they want to learn more about it. Due to this, I have decided to stick to a new motto when it comes to news: Get what you need, then get out. Simply put, I like to stay informed with what I need to know (from trusted sources I might add), but then log off and focus my attention on more positive things. Don’t get me wrong – it is definitely beneficial to read the news, but even more beneficial to know how to limit your consumption.
Once I switched my mindset about my media consumption and filtering out negativity, I wanted to find some new sources that only reported on positive news. When I first started my look, it was really comforting to see the number of sites solely dedicated to spreading positivity and highlighting positive acts of humanity. I found myself immediately feeling happier and hopeful just from looking at the headlines. Once I was able to constantly see positivity in the news, I genuinely felt a shift in perspective around positive thinking in my life. Right now, we are all in a quarantine together (well apart, but in the same situation), and at face value it definitely isn’t ideal. However, after being on these websites and seeing so many kind acts of humanity from people making the best of a bad situation, I started to do the same. I reflected on my past three weeks social distancing, and realized there are quite a few great things that have come from this. I have been able to spend more time with my family than ever before, I am reigniting old hobbies I never had the time for and getting plenty of cuddle time with my dog (which is the ultimate prize).
To finish this off, here is a list of my favourite absolute favourites that always can put a smile on my face, and I hope they can put one on yours too. ☺
WEBSITES:
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Uplifiting News (This is a subreddit – but I still love it!)