The world seems a bleak place at the moment, with the constant stream of bad news getting even the most positive of people down.
Neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart explains why the negative news cycle gets us down, sharing: "The human brain has a negativity bias. This means it tends to give more attention to negative experiences than positive ones.
"The news often focuses on distressing and traumatic events, this can trigger this bias and cause us to release spikes of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.
This reaction was adaptive for our ancestors who needed to be on high alert for physical threats, but in the context of the modern world, this response contributes to chronic stress and anxiety.
"On a neurological level, avoiding exposure to continual and repetitive, emotive stressors will help to maintain a healthier mental state."
Someone who found themselves particularly bogged down by negative news is Emily Coxhead, who used her desire to turn down the noise of negativity to create The Happy Newspaper, a home for good, kind and lovely things happening in the world.
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Emily, who is now MINI's first ever Happiness Ambassador, shares how rejecting the negative news cycle has made her happier…
In 2014 I was going through my own struggles and I started to notice the negative impact the news and social media were having on my mental health.
As I started to talk more about this to others, I realised there were a lot of other people feeling the same way, so many people had stopped buying newspapers, watching the news or scrolling news apps because it felt like a constant bombardment of terrible things happening.
These days I feel like it’s impossible to fully avoid the negative news cycle, being on social media, talking to others about everything that’s going on in the world are both huge parts of our everyday day, but I wanted to find some of the good stuff happening in the world and share it with others, and I had the idea for The Happy Newspaper in 2015, which shares lovely thing going on in the world.
I don’t want to ignore the terrible things happening all over the world and pretend that everything is sunshine and rainbows because it’s absolutely not. The simple aim of The Happy Newspaper is to shed some light on the acts of kindness, incredible people doing wonderful things every day, things we may not necessarily hear about.
Imagine starting a conversation with something amazing that’s happened in the world recently, rather than only the bad stuff. It has made me so much happier being able to focus on so much good.
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How to avoid negative news
- Find positive ways to step back and give yourself some time away from screens. Read a book, draw, go for a drive, write, learn a new skill or go for a walk
- Turn off news notifications on your phone.
- Only access news apps and TV channels at certain times of the day or week when you are in the right headspace.
- Be mindful about who you follow on social media and how that’s impacting you, follow more positive accounts that make you feel good.
As well as her newspaper, Emily also finds joy in her partnership with MINI explaining: "I'm so excited to be working with MINI as their first Happiness Ambassador, sharing their passion for spreading positivity, happiness and Big Love."
Find out more information on Emily’s work with MINI and how you too can spread Big Love.