The Age of Anxiety
Many people today live their lives filled with anger and fear much of the time.
I have a friend who was one of the kindest, gentlest, and most positive people I knew. However, over the past ten years, she has become increasingly negative, angry, and hateful. She became obsessed with political issues and news, and her personality has completely changed.
When I read blogs every morning, there’s at least one writer who refers to “these crazy times,” or “fearful times,” “dark times,” or some other negative phrase. I’m sick of reading it.
There is pervasive negativity in our culture.
Some have called it a culture of fear. People are afraid of what might happen next, and their worldview is primarily negative.
In spite of the fact that this is the most prosperous, safest, and peaceful time that humans have ever lived, many feel like it’s the worst.
Life doesn’t have to be this way.
How the News Hijacks Your Mind
There are many reasons for this negativity.
I think the primary cause is the instant access to negative news we have today, thanks to our constant digital connection.
There’s 24/7 news available on multiple feeds. And some people are addicted to it.
Rather than just reporting the facts, the media now needs our attention to monetize us. As Oliver Burkeman wrote in The News Does Not Equal Your Life,
“They need your attention, which means maximising your emotional involvement. Which inevitably leads them to present every bit of news – even legitimately terrible things that matter a great deal – as if they mattered even more than they do.”
Material is written to make us angry, to inflame emotions, to get and keep our attention.
Oliver Burkeman writes that people are now “living their lives in the news.” The day’s news events are more real to them than events in their own lives.
Social media is filled with memes designed to get attention by making us upset. They’re often partial truths or misinformation.
Three Ways to Take Back Your Peace of Mind
1. Your Life Is Happening Right Now
Oliver Burkeman described the cure for living in the news in The News Does Not Equal Your Life:,
“To stay sane, you need at least one foot planted firmly in your world. The world of your job and neighborhood. That letter you need to mail, the pasta you’re cooking for dinner, the novel you’re reading with your book group.”
For me, this might mean focusing on the blog post I’m writing, the walk I’m taking in the woods, or the conversation I’m having with my wife.
It’s helpful to remember that we only live in the present. The past is gone, the future is unknowable.
In his insightful book I’ve Got Time: A Zen Monk’s Guide to a Calm, Focused and Meaningful Life, Paul Loomans encourages us to intentionally focus on the one thing we are doing in that moment, and not on anything else.
In other words, be present in the moment.
2. You Don’t Need to Know Everything Right Now
I haven’t regularly watched or kept up with the news for over 20 years. When something important happens, I find out about it, and then I look it up. In the meantime, my mind isn’t constantly taken up with negative news.
I stopped keeping up with the news when I noticed that it was giving me a negative perspective about the world.
When I watched the mostly negative news (murders, robberies, fatalities in car accidents) in the large metropolitan area where we lived, I started thinking that every time I went out the door, I was taking huge risks with my life. My real life (without the constant stream of negative news) told me that wasn’t accurate.
Buddhist Monk Haemin Sunim wrote in When Things Don’t Go Your Way: Zen Wisdom for Difficult Times ,
“Remember, we have a choice not to be aware of every piece of negative news in the world at all times.”
It’s okay and even healthy not to know every bad thing that happens, as it happens.
I’m not saying that you should be completely unaware of current events. If you feel the need to do so, you could schedule a short time every day to skim the headlines or receive a short digest of news events once a day.
But on the other hand, there’s no reason why you have to receive a notification on your phone every time there’s a breaking headline. It can wait.
Turn off your news notifications.
3. Outrage Is Optional
The fact that there are events in the world that you perceive as negative does not mean you must have a negative attitude or be mad all the time.
The world doesn’t have “good” or “bad” events in themselves. Events are just things that happened. We interpret those events as “good” or “bad.” Different people respond differently to events depending on their point of view.
Negative news doesn’t force us to feel negative and get upset. We do that to ourselves by the way we choose to respond to the news.
The Stoics figured this out over 2,000 years ago — we can’t control what happens, but we always get to choose how we respond. Epictetus explored this idea in The Art of Living, and it’s as relevant now as it was then.
When I catch myself getting pulled into outrage over a headline, I try to stop and think.
Do I choose to become angry over what may or may not be a fact? Do I choose to allow my emotions to be manipulated for someone else’s gain?
It’s Your Choice
My friend didn’t wake up one morning and decide to become an angry person. It happened gradually, one headline and one outrage at a time, until the news became more real to her than her own life.
It doesn’t have to be that way. You can step back from the constant stream of negativity, choose how you respond to events, and focus on the life that’s actually happening around you.
As Haemin Sunim wrote,
“Ultimately, this is a choice we need to make. We can decide what kind of universe we would like to live in.” When Things Don’t Go Your Way: Zen Wisdom for Difficult Times
What kind of universe are you choosing?
AI Note: I wrote this blog post myself, using my own words and thoughts for the initial draft. I used AI only to suggest headlines, section headings, images, and text improvements.
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