Increase your general happiness by 27%… starting tomorrow! – SCN Encourager
Just cut down your intake of the morning news.
That’s it.
Seems weird, right?
You think you’d have to quit your job or take other drastic steps to feel significantly happier.
But nope.
Even though this is what CBS morning news anchor Michelle Gielan did.
She resigned from her “dream gig” a few years ago when she realized delivering steady doses of negative news was making her “tired and crabby” in a way she didn’t like.
Dang, I wished she would’ve called me before she left her highly paid position.
As an old guy I could’ve given her super advice about how to be tired and crabby without worrying about it one bit.
Instead she talked it over with her husband Shawn Achor, a psychology researcher.
This was the best move – as Michelle and her husband’s company teamed up to conduct an exhaustive study on the impact of negative news on happiness.
Here’s an interesting takeaway.
People who watched or listened to the news (with all of its negativity) in the morning reported feeling 30% more dreary and irritable than those who watched or listened to the EXACT same news reports in the evening.
Michelle Gielan isn’t surprised by this fact.
She now takes great joy in telling people they don’t have to go into a shell or flee from current events to be happier – they just have to be more selective WHEN they turn to their favorite media outlets to catch their local and national news.
Yowza!
Turn on the news from 6 am to 9 am – even if only for three minutes – and you may dampen your mood for the rest of the day.
Turn on similar news from 5 pm to 7 pm – for the first time – and you may find yourself leading the next chorus of “Oh, Happy Day.”
As you might suspect, the absolute worst time to watch or listen to the news is during 10-11 pm.
Apparently getting hit by negative news late at night makes a whole lot of people tired and crabby and also turns them into baggy-eyed insomniacs.
Hmmm …
I think I’m one of those people receiving too much negative news late at night.
I better stop watching the Tigers for awhile.
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