Reflecting on the Good News

As a former journalist, I’m sure some of you will find what I am about to say very bizarre, but here goes: reading the news is bad for you.

No, really.

There is study upon study suggesting that reading the news on a regular basis – or worse yet, saturating yourself with 24/7 news coverage – is bad for your mental and physical well-being.

For longer than I was a journalist, there was a saying: “if it bleeds, it leads.” And sadly, there is a lot of bleeding going on in local and national media outlets. If you are among the consumers who feels that there is nothing but negativity when you turn on the news or open the paper or a favorite magazine, what do you do? Being informed is important, but so is our sanity.

As I’ve been thinking about how to combat this dilemma, I decided that asking people to totally ignore the news is unrealistic. As a community and a nation, we need to be informed about what is happening around us and across the globe. And asking newspapers and TV stations to cover more positive news also is a bit unrealistic. Both outlets only have so much space and so much airtime, and of course they are going to report on the “big-ticket” items before anything else.

So, I’ve decided to use my Write Reflection blog to help spread some good news. I’ve admittedly been struggling for awhile to keep the blog populated with fresh content. Blogging only about my business seems not only boring, but also a waste of my writing abilities. Moving forward, I plan to feature “good news” stories on my blog. This might include features on startups, non-profits doing great things or even the guy down the street who might have an amazing story waiting to be told. As the saying goes, everyone has a story to tell. I would like to tell those stories.
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If you have a business, a nonprofit or know an unsung hero just waiting for the world to hear his or her story, please contact me today to help me share a lot of good news, one blog post at a time. 

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