How To De-Stress Yourself When Reading News
There’s a lot of words coming at us these days, because everybody has a platform. One can get whiplash from all the charges and counter-charges. Here is a way to keep one’s sanity.
From any story, simply mentally edit attempts (yours or anyone else’s) to presume to have knowledge of what is going on in someone else’s mind. It’s hard, because it’s human nature to guess at — and then feel sure of — and then be certain of — the motives of people and groups.
The first two of those are what are difficult to resist, but will make your reading much more palatable, while you gather the facts that make the third possible.
Being human nature, it’s almost irresistible to guess at and assume the motives behind others’ actions, but that way lies madness.
Once you mentally delete attempts at clairvoyance, stories are stripped down to essential facts and actions, the things worth retaining and debating. Stories that don’t consist of anything except opinions presented as facts and actions will evaporate altogether, saving you from wasting time and effort on them.
“This politician did this…” — read this — “…because of an attitude…” (ignore).
“This group did this…” — read this — “…because of their plan to…” (ignore).
With the mental edit in place, you will read articles much more quickly and get value out of them. Added bonuses: accusations of racism dissolve. Conspiracy theories are boiled down to facts, not assumptions. Grandstanding and pulpit-pounding again appear as idiotic as they are, and can be completely ignored. It will be glaringly obvious that certain people routinely have nothing to offer other than assumptions about what is going on in others’ minds, and can be ignored as well — freeing up even more time. And you will never be embarrassed to find that what you once assumed to be someone’s motivation turns out to be mistaken in the end.
