I’ve been a news junkie since I was 12, except then it wasn’t instant internet access to what took place across the world.
I read the newspaper every day and used paper route and lawn-mowing money so I could subscribe to magazines and newsletters. U.S. News & World Report. The New Republic. The Crisis magazine. I even bought Foreign Affairs by age 16.
When the internet arrived, I was able to get news the second something happened. Magazines and newspapers were, sadly, no longer relevant by the time they hit the stands.
I felt overloaded with the news. And as we all know, the news, for it to sell, is usually the bad kind.
When Trump took office, it was no longer just incessant bad news. We were punched daily with insults, nastiness, foul language and bigotry.
For the first time in my life, I needed a break from the news cycle. As much as I loved politics (not most politicians or political parties), I found that being Trumped every day was wearing on me. It affected my happiness. It affected my demeanor. It even impacted my sleep patterns. It interfered with how I interacted in the world.
Trump was heavy.
So, I did something I hadn’t done in several decades. I turned off the news. And I don’t mean for just a day. I decided to shut it down for a week or two at a time.
I still wanted to know what was going on in the world. I still wanted to be part of society’s solutions. I still wanted to speak up if some injustice occurred. I didn’t remove the news from my life permanently.
But those one to two week breaks from “shithole countries,” “fat pigs,” “Mexican rapists” and “covfefe” tweets calmed me.
The breaks allowed me to reset my nervous system. They provided my soul a much-needed renewal.
If I’m being honest, those repeated resets allowed me to focus on being kinder to my fellow human beings. To my kids. To my friends. To strangers at a coffee shop. Coworkers. Everyone.
I started saying hello to strangers again. I renewed buying coffee for random construction workers and food for people experiencing homelessness. I showed up to work with Voodoo Doughnuts for our staff like I used to.
Now that the four-headed monster doesn’t have access to his Pennsylvania Avenue bully pulpit and he’s banned from Twitter, things are calmer.
The daily bad news, though — it didn’t go away. Whether it’s gas prices, inflation, police shooting dozens of bullets into an unarmed Black man, climate chaos, Russia, China or school shootings, we still have our daily dose of awful.
It wasn’t just Trump I needed a break from.
I think all of us need to take breaks from the 24-hour news cycle. We all need to give our brains and hearts time away from constant negativity.
This reminds me of a sticker Blockbuster used to put on VHS movies when you rented them.
Be Kind. Please Rewind.
That personal space of positivity and a rewind is the right medicine to renew our individual and collective humanity so we can get back to being kind in our daily interactions with our fellow humans regardless of race, political leaning, gender, geography, economic status or religion.
We obviously shouldn’t stick our heads in the sand and pretend all is good in the world. Nobody who cares about people and justice wants to take a break from working on solving the difficult challenges that still face so many people.
But maybe part of that help can come in the form of personal resets.
I’m rebooting right now as I turn off the news and spend vacation with my three kids for ten days.
Take a breath.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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