Stop the Doomscrolling
Keep your media diet healthy and sane
Years ago, I left social media and stopped looking at the daily news.
I was inspired by Henry David Thoreau, who believed that all news is gossip.
I still think he’s mostly right.
These past months, I’ve been back to constantly checking the news on my phone. It’s a hard addiction to shake, and I’m not proud of it.
I try to stay aware and mindfully observe when I do it, and how I react to it.
Last week, I suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to drown out all the noise and retreat from the news cycle completely.
When bad things happen, it’s easy to get stuck in a loop of refreshing your feeds. But doomscrolling doesn’t provide any value. It doesn’t help anyone, least yourself.
Look, I’m not ignorant. I just believe that Nietzsche was right in saying that if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Honestly, I just wanted everyone to shut up for a moment.
Music, books and films have always provided that safe haven for me.
In this week’s recommendations, I will focus on some quiet works.
Take it not from me, but from Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield:
“Turn off the news for a while, meditate, turn on Mozart, walk through the forest or the mountains and begin to make yourself a zone of peace. Let go of the latest story. Listen more deeply. When we react to insecurity with fear we worsen the problem—we create a frightened society. Instead we can use courage and compassion to respond calmly, with both prudent action and a fearless heart. […] It is our inner nobility and steadiness that we must call upon in our personal and collective difficulties.”
With metta,
Stephan
