Why Watching the Morning News May Be Bad for Your Mental Health
The Art of Letting Go of Morning Rituals That No Longer Serve You
Habits, rituals, and routines, are an ideal medium for us to create a mindfulness-based lifestyle. However, not all are created equal. Some demand our full attention, whereas others require that we automatically function with little to no conscious effort.
I can remember a time when I would awake from a restful nights sleep and immediately turn the TV. Every night, I would strategically place the remote within arms reach so that I could ease-fully access it in the morning.
Practically, not a day would go by that I wouldn’t look at the morning news. This persisted for many years. In fact it was such a staple in my morning routine, that it extended back well into my childhood.
At the time if you asked me why I prioritized the news over everything else, my initial response would be “so that I could be well informed.” Superficially, I did not know why I was doing it. But if you peeled the layers back a little deeper, you would find that it was just a conditioned response. Truth is, I never liked or enjoyed watching the news. It was just something I did out of sheer obligation, to remain faithful to a ritual that I had subconsciously committed to so long ago.
For no rhyme or reason, I consciously agreed to remain enslaved to a ritual that I knew did not serve me in any way form, or fashion. Remaining steadfast and committed, it often left me feeling down, and dejected, well before I could even get my day started.
It may sound silly, but it felt almost as if I was in a perpetual cycle of having an out of body experience where, I saw myself experiencing its unsettling effects in real time, without an end in sight. As I reflect back, this is completely nonsensical, as we each have the power of volition to selectively choose how wish to expend our time and energy.
Regardless of the network or station, the daily news narrative and undertones are all the same, negativity. Instead of it showing the glass half full, it was always half empty. Despite any good news that beamed across the horizon, it was always overshadowed with a cloud of gloom, fear, and hopelessness.
As my children began to come of age, I began to notice that they soon followed suit and aligned with the household practice. Although, they would turn the TV to cartoons versus the news, it was almost an immediate practice after they awoke.
We often don’t feel the brevity of our actions until we see it projected onto our awareness.
—Sonja Crandon
Pretty soon, I found myself chastising them for engaging in the very ritual that they witnessed both myself and my spouse engaging in. Hypocrisy at its finest. Ready or not. I was now motivated to break with tradition, and step outside of my comfort zone, to create new morning practices to better my health and well-being.
Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things they are transformed.
—Thich Nhat Hanh
Although, I had began to dip my toes in the mindfulness pool, I had not yet began to weave it into my morning routine. On all accounts, this was the perfect time to seize the opportunity. Only this profound revelation raised a number of questions.
How could I stop something that has become such a staple in my morning routine? If I refrained from watching the morning news how could I be informed of the weather and traffic reports? Why would I subject myself from being disconnected from the world? How could I possibly connect with people if I was out of touch?
Just as soon as one question arose, others immediately followed. The more I tried to figure it out, the more feelings of overwhelm would surface. My thoughts would quickly spiral into a flowing stream of negativity. So I proceeded to do the only thing that I could do. Paused and breathed. Taking several cleansing breaths, is an effective way to redirect your attention away from the flow of disruptive thoughts, and onto the breath.
Needless to say, it worked. I proceeded to carry this strategy over onto the next morning, as I consciously worked to refrain from immediately turning on the TV. Initially, I felt many things, mostly awkward, strange, and out of my element. But to my surprise it wasn’t horrible and in spite of my initial fears, I was perfectly fine.
In fact, I was better than fine. As the old saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. Up until this point I hadn’t noticed the affects of exposing myself to such negativity, so early in the morning was doing to me. The more aware I became, the more apparent it became that my my mood, and outlook, was greatly influenced and affected by what I consumed. As the days progressed, remnants of the unfortunate stories, and events would resurface as thoughts, and fear of the unknown.
I was however, pleasantly surprise at how much more time I had to get ready before my morning commute. As the weeks and months flew by, I was able to establish a morning practice of carving out sacred quiet time for myself to simply sit uninterrupted in the silence, while everyone else in the household slept. It was and continues to be liberating practice.
Needless to say there are more to morning rituals and routines, than the obvious. Throughout my mindfulness journey, I have had to closely examine the effectiveness of the very habits, and rituals that have been a staple in my life.
Honesstly, I have not always like what I have seen. Of course it is not always easy to change course, and begin again. However, sometimes the very thing that we seek is on the other side of our comfort zone.
This is a story of one of my many mindfulness adventures. If this resonates, I would love to hear about some of your experiences along the way. Leave a comment below.