Content Provided by EmpowerHER Podcast
Hey Vizer Fam!
I’m Kacia, the host of EmpowerHER podcast and I’m obsessed with helping you feel more EXCITED about your life which means I LOVE sharing tips and starting conversations around mental and emotional health!
While there are a lot of contributors to anxiety; I wanted to specifically share one habit that is easy to change that might not even realize is contributing in a massive way!
We’re talking about media consumption; in particular, the type and amount of content you are consuming, through TV, social and the news!
As we know, human-ing is a lot sometimes, we are all juggling a ton in our day to day life, so it’s important to remind ourselves that every single piece of content we consume through media platforms has an agenda to persuade us or provoke an emotion.
There’s nothing wrong with that if we are conscious of what we are being persuaded to feel and how frequently we’re consuming, but if we aren’t we don’t even often realize how much anxiety negative media or too much consumption can cause us.
In fact if you haven’t checked out the book “ Positivity” by Barbara Fredrickson it’s an interesting read where she references a study that shares findings around media consumption.
The study found that the more TV people consuming, the more they grossly overestimate the rates of violence in the world. In comparison to the people who watch less TV are more accurate judges of the degree of risk we all might encounter each day, you can imagine less TV means less anxiety!
I believe the same concept applies to news and social media consumption too!
Whether the agenda is to catch your attention with a scary news headline to keep you watching so news outlets can collect more advertising dollars, or if the agenda is simply by someone you follow on Instagram who wants you to think a certain way about them so shares a carefully curated (and likely highly edited) picture that has you feeling like they have their life more “together” than you, it’s crucial we are aware of this because it’s the world we now live in!
Very simple things like setting timers of how much content we are consuming, developing strong morning and evening routines so other people’s agenda isn’t the first thought in our mind, having un-plugged time where we are getting our steps in, and maybe listening to a podcast (hey, I know a girl) ;) and actually having blocked off times where we aren’t within an arms-length distance of a phone can be very helpful boundaries to set!
While we are at it, we can all probably use a good audit of our social accounts to really check in on who we are following on social media right?
Also, the media you are consuming is are negative, or the people you are following are in some way causing you to feel “behind” or over-whelmed, let’s unfollow those people and create an environment that’s actually serving us rather than causing more anxious thoughts!
As Barbara mentions in her book, “Positivity doesn’t just change the contents of your mind, it widens the possibility of what you see”, and I for one am here to find all the good!
Are you with me?
If so, come find me on social or check out EmpowerHER podcast for more topics like this!
Xo
Kac