EPISODE DESCRIPTION: As you've gleaned by now, I have strong opinions. Today, I discuss one of them while imploring you to try something that may make the rest of your 2022 fabulous! Just trust me. 

Episode theme song ‘Ace High’ by Nick Poss

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, you beautiful human. 

As you know, I was on the Texas coast for my birthday this past weekend and most of Monday. My girlfriend prepared a fun and relaxing weekend, and the break was glorious. 

As a result of being near the lapping ocean waves, I watched the seeming breath of Mother Earth, the waning moon at night, the pelicans and the seagulls, a completely people-free beach because Texas got a cold front that set us into automatic winter. And I was eating good food, laughing about the bizarreness yet preciousness of life. 

Pauses like these offer me perspective. In general, I make it a point to get out in nature every day. I live next to a preserve, for God's sake, so there's really no excuse for me not to. 

For me, nature is a lifeline to my soul, to my God, and to my center. So one of the things I thought about while on the coast was how much people turn to the news, how much the news occupies lives and attention. 

I don't care if you're turning to mainstream news or going down rabbit holes of more fringe kinds of things. It's astounding to me how much people watch or read the news. 

Think about it. We are filling our brains with what other people want us to know. 

Now you can argue, “But we have to keep up with current events lest we be blindsided by what's happening in the world.” 

Do we? I mean, the news is basically a produced segment of “He said. She said. They said. We said. We're fighting against the so-and-so because the so-and-so suck. 

News breeds the mentality of the ‘us/them narrative.’

That's one of the issues I have with it, but I also think it keeps us programmed in weird ways—like literally programmed to watch the program. It's always been weird to me that we listen to talking heads tell us our reality. 
 
So I'm going to share with you something that influenced me in the mid-nineties.

And you might say, “Well, good lord, that was eons ago.” But it's still true for me today.
 
I was given a challenge by, hmm—he was a leader of an organization that I was involved in. Now, just saying those words automatically makes me think of the series The Vow or the NXIVM cult. But we're going to move on from that for now.

Anyway—the leader of this organization requested that all of us who were going through the higher training to become instructors, take a hiatus from news outlets. What he basically challenged us to do was not listen to the news for two years, and not read newspapers for two years. At the time, our world wasn't internet-heavy, so that wasn't on the list of no-nos, but every other outlet where we could find the news was on moratorium.

So we all accept this challenge, and I can tell you, surprisingly, I kept that ‘no news’ streak up for most of the years after those required two years. And I still kind of subscribe to no or very low doses of news. I purposely don't have cable. I like to stream Netflix and Apple TV and Hulu and all the streaming channels because I like to pick what I'm going to watch and when I'm going to watch them. Not when stations decide. So I haven't had cable for a long time. 

Now I am on social media, so it's not like I'm useless, but I've never been one of those to have news stations on in the background. I've never really understood that. Talk about setting up your day badly at the onset. I know people who get up and that's the first thing they do—watch the news. What in the hell? 
 
My point here is the news is not something I feel any sort of allegiance to and people that can't miss it. I'm just perplexed by that. Everybody's like, “Well, you gotta be informed.” Uh, well, I am. I rely on headlines and I can literally walk past newspaper stands and see what's happening in the world. Or open my Chrome browser and I see what's happening in the world. 
 
I used to do this during my challenge hiatus—not pick up the newspaper and peruse it because that would violate my commitment to the two-year challenge. But I would see the headlines and be like, “Oh, hey, the Berlin Wall is coming down. Yay.” 
 
It was like passing newspaper racks allowed me a Cliff Notes version of what was happening in the world. And I kind of think the Cliff Notes version of the news is a pretty sufficient one. 
 
People often ask me, “Seriously, how are you so happy all the time? Why are you never in a bad mood, Jenée?” 
 
Well, first of all, my girlfriend would state otherwise, but for the most part, I'm pretty positively happy.

I think not watching the news might be one of the reasons. Seriously. I don't get bogged down with all that shit. And by the way, just checking in one time a day online actually really tells you a lot. We don't need to run and watch the five o'clock news and stay awake for the 10 o'clock news.

Honestly, I have no idea what time the news comes on, so forgive me there. 
 
But you don't need to go down the rabbit holes of all the folks on Telegram chatting it up about the end of times and how the… I mean, come. I don't care what your sources are—mainstream, tributary stream, crazy train or kooklarooville—they all have agendas and we need to take smaller doses of them all.

How many of us are agitated, but we don't really know why? We feel unfulfilled in areas and we're not exactly understanding it. 
 
I suggest you take a news break and see if some of that agitation doesn't melt away. Seriously, we are so revved up that we are putting phones and watches next to us and on our arms overnight because we need sleep apps to help us fall asleep. Let's just disrupt our natural biorhythms by adding more electrical current to our lives because this sleep app is the only way I can. 
 
I say, stop watching the news. Stop reading your tribe's manifesto every day and chest-beating into these militant calls to action to fight the good fight. Take a hiatus from the freaking news.

It doesn't have to be two years, but take a hiatus and see how much better you feel, how much your health improves, and how your anxiety level goes down. I mean it. Stop watching the news for even a week and see if your life doesn't get a little better. I guarantee you somebody in your family's going to keep you apprised of what's going on, so you're not gonna be completely out of the loop.

Now some of your friends might say, “What do you think about this?” And you're gonna feel like a big dummy ‘cause you don't know what they're talking about. But is that the worst thing in the world for a week? I think given the current landscape of news, Baby, the Walter Cronkite days are gone. There are very few, if any, just-the-facts news outlets left, so turn off your TV.

I don't say “Kill your TV.” That's just stupid. I love my television and I paid a lot of money for it. I say watch your favorite storytelling movies and documentaries and things that inform you, but don't necessarily pit you against your fellow human. Seriously. Just try a news hiatus for one week, seven full days, and see if you don't feel lighter and a bit happier.

Now is ignorance bliss? You betcha, Baby. You can always go back to your daily fix after seven days. Just see if you can do it. I bet you'll feel something shift for the better. 
 
Instead of the news, walk in nature. There's a lot of information out there and inside your own being that will serve you during your news sabbatical, I promise.

Okay, I'll see you tomorrow.

If you love this podcast, please FOLLOW, RATE, and REVIEW it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Visit Jenée's IG profile

The podcast is hosted, produced, and edited by Jenée Arthur.
Cover art by Jenée Arthur
The songs used in the individual episodes have been licensed for use.