The Feel Good Diet
Many of us decide throughout the year to consider what we are putting in our bodies and whether or not we want to go on a diet. However, there is another kind of diet to consider and it is a “diet” for the mind. Just as you think about what you are putting in your body, you need to think about what you are putting in your mind.
Time for a Feel Good Diet?
If you are starting to feel overwhelmed from the news of the day or from your social media feed, please consider the following “diets”:
Information Diet
What are you receiving as a steady diet in the way of news? If you are feeling overwhelmed, hearing about the many ways our world is going to hell in a hand basket is probably not going to help. Eliminate, reduce or choose a different source of news and see if you feel differently.
But, you say, if I eliminate the news won’t I be uninformed? Well, it is kind of like when you take a break from your favorite TV show and you come back and you find you haven’t missed much. Taking a break from the news is like that. You come back to the same old stuff. And, if something really important is going on, someone will either tell you about it or it will come up on your news feed on your phone.
Thoughts Diet
What thoughts do you pay the most attention to in your mind? Are they of the positive or negative variety? There is a great book (that is older but still totally relevant) called “The Magic of Thinking Big”. He has a lot to say about the thoughts we focus on and how they impact our lives in many ways. You can also read more in “When Stinky Thinking Moves in, How to Stop Negative Thoughts“.
The Magic of Thinking Big
Learning Diet
We are fortunate in this vast interconnected world of ours to be able to research and learn about many multitudes of subjects. This is a wonderful time to be alive from this perspective. However, it is also a time to be constantly bombarded and overwhelmed with new things to learn. Try and make a conscious effort to focus on one thing at a time and see if you feel a little less overwhelmed at the volume of information coming your way.
Social Media/Comparison Diet
Social media can be both a blessing and a curse. It is fabulous to be in contact with so many people all at once and hear what they are doing. But, it can also have a thorny side when we start to believe what we see is the pure truth. Most people don’t publicize the problems they encounter day to day (and for that we should probably be thankful). Yet, be careful you don’t fall into the comparison hole. This is where you start to think everyone else’s life is rosier than yours and feed the negativity spiral of item 2 your thoughts.
What do you think? Are you in need of any of these “diets”? If you try one, let me know how it works for you in the comments below. I’m interested to see what a break from any of these four does for your peace of mind.
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