Is the Media you are surrounding yourself with helpful or harmful to you?

What do you do before bed and in the morning? If the answer is listen or read the news to either I feel you can improve your health dramatically just by altering this one simple habit.

What we read, watch either on TV or at the movies and listen to whether it be podcasts, audio books, radio programs or music ALL affect the way we see the world. When I was ill I read only fictional novels (mostly mystery ones with violence) or books on my diseases and I watched the news frequently, read newspapers as well as checked my yahoo news periodically throughout the day. The media is not in the business of bringing happy news -- in fact it seems they unfortunately thrive on the bad.

When I was trying to heal myself I made sure I was surrounding myself with positive messages. I read only positive books or articles. I listened to positive podcasts and audio books. I watched positive movies. I listened to music that was upbeat. How many of you after a break up felt compelled to play sad music? I know I did and somehow it never made me feel any better -- I wonder why? : )

Now that I am healthy I can take a little news or an article on something less than uplifting once in a while but I still try and surround myself mostly with positive. It effects my mood, it effects how I relate to other people and it effects my well being.

Just as in another post I said I had to limit my time around negative people -- I also have to limit my time around negative images and words if I want to feel good. If you think about it -- it just makes sense. If you watch the news all day and worry about this person or that situation or comment on how horrible it is -- how will that make you feel? Whereas if you NOTICE the bad but surround yourself with good it is much more uplifting. When you feel good -- positive thoughts come to you which can produce positive actions. When you feel bad you don't feel motivated to do anything except talk about how bad things are. By concentrating on the good I am able to focus on how I can help the bad situations much better than if I was surrounded by all the negativity.

I have a few links for positive movies, cds, audios, etc. that have helped me. There are also people like Steve Pavlina who I was lucky enough to meet in NYC this past weekend who I consider THE personal development GURU. Steve offers tons of FREE personal development materials on his site; podcasts, articles, etc. that will lead you in the right direction and have you feeling good. There are also positive social networking sites that I did an earlier post on. These allow you to meet positive people and also to BE the change instead of commenting on how bad everything is.

Want to stay informed? There are options. if you feel you can't turn on the news for only 2 minutes a day or just scan headlines -- why not either watch The Daily Show (where at least he is poking fun at the news and you will get some laughs) or check out http://www.happynews.com -- a link that was given to me by C4Chaos.

There are options on what to surround yourself with. There is not shortage of ANY kind of media. Branch out -- try and surround yourself with positive media instead of the negative stuff for a few days in a row. Let me know if you see a difference in your attitude, your peace of mind and your sleep..... for me it effects all of these things and I am grateful this was one of the easiest habits of mine to change and I know it was helpful in healing my chronic pain! ; )