What are 5 ways you can guard your reading

What to do when you read something that angers you. Eventually you will, if you have not already read something that get’s you fired up. It may be an article on bad behavior, poor politics, or some other form of moral indecency that gets you riled up.

There is good news on how to handle these situations, you no longer have to succumb to the moral indignation that society forces upon us.

Here some steps on guarding what you read, possibly make a difference and recover your day from reading something horrible.

1.) Position -Put yourself in the position, would you have handled things differently? Rewrite the story in your mind with a better ending.

2.) Research – Read the article, are the facts true, is there something you can do to make a change? If there is then create a plan and act to turn the tide.

3.) Recover – Read something upbeat, positive and inspirational, that way the fresh memories in your mind are pleasant and comforting.

4.) Talk – We tend to dwell and complain, and focus on the negatives. There are many others that think just the way that you do and can be a great resource and sounding board to discuss both good and bad writings.

5.) Focus – Spend time with the good news there is plenty of garbage out there as that is what sells. Change your reading habits, get away from the headlines, start improving your mind rather than infesting it.

We all know that bad news sells subscriptions, breaking news gets your attention and tearing someone else down is what keeps people coming back. If we stop supporting the smut and trashy headlines then they will have to find something else to sell.

Our minds are a vault that determines our behavior and actions we might as well fill it with affirmations and truth and become the people we are meant to be.

The latest article that fired me up was one that was in our local partner of CNN entitled ‘Scam Targets Homeless‘,  I do not usually read these kinds of articles but it was at the top of my local feed this morning. It fired me up, especially with the homeless population that already are ignored and taken advantage of and to read that people are exploiting them angered me. Instead of helping those that are homeless, which in my city are mostly veterans, there are people out their taking advantage of them for their own gain.

The good news is the average person has become smarter than those that have the old school mentality of the news media. Statistics show since social media has become the source of most people’s information the tide is turning.

According to the New York Times “psychologists have found that good news can spread faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.” So now instead of good news being no news, the bad news is used to draw people in, fortunately most are tuning it out.

Let me be clear, I am not saying we should not read any of this material, for without the information no attention will be made on correcting our society.  Just be weary of the spin and outweigh the negatives with upbeat positive stories like this ‘This is what happens when you put pit bulls in a Photo Booth’.

As a reader, I tend to read inspirational or topical books in order to continue to feed my mind and in turn feed my attitude. Any great leader is a reader, by reading we become self-educated and dependent upon what we read we can become successful or just as easily become part of the society that these articles are written about.

In closing, be careful what you feed your mind, our heart can become callous and indifferent if we feed it a diet of bad news.

The next time there is a tragedy and a success story on the same page of a magazine or newspaper, which one will you read?

Blessings,

CJ