Years ago under a different employer they insisted that every new employee had to go to “Happy Camp”, a three or four day off-site motivational/life-skills workshop. As with most such things it makes perfect sense while you’re in the program, but once you get back in the real world and run into conflicting priorities (and the scoffing of co-workers) it tends to lose importance.
But one thing they taught us still stands out to this day: Avoid negativity right before bed. The idea is that taking in the news, reading a depressing book, or taking in any negative energy within the hour before going to sleep will put that negativity into your subconscious and drain your energy. It makes sense, and I try to stick to that advice.
Lately I’m starting to think that beginning your day with negative input is not a particularly good idea, either. I’m sure they mentioned that at Happy Camp, even if by default. I know they advocated starting off your day with exercise and positive energy activities, even if they might not have specifically mentioned avoiding negativity. But it seems for me, at least, if I start out the day with the news and sometimes even social media I run the risk of something negative putting a shot just below my water-line. Even if it doesn’t sink me altogether, I still take on water and just can’t operate at full for the next while until I manage to patch the hole.
I’m thinking it’s time to change some of my habits so that at the very least I put off the known sources of negative input until later in the day when I’m better able to deal with it, or at the very least I ruin less of my day. Even better if I could start my day off with something positive, but at least eliminating the negative would be good.
I still wish I could get away with the Happy Camp advice of taking a nap in the middle of the day, though.
Have you considered not interacting with anyone? That would cut out most of your negativity right there.
Hmmm… skip the echo chamber and go straight for the isolation chamber, eh? That does have a certain appeal to it.
Well, I’m sure that you don’t live in an echo chamber. 1. I’ve heard you express distaste for some of the views around you in UT and 2. (most importantly 2) You interact with me …
Oh, what great advice. I’m sure that would help me sleep better and help with the anxiety that sometimes plagues me. I try to start right off with prayer and scripture study. 🙂
I do find that my morning scriptures and prayer help, too. Unfortunately I then go to work and essentially begin my day all over again. I have to be careful what I listen to in the car, which people I speak to at work, etc., until my day is a bit more “stabilized.”
I suppose what I could be saying is to beware “transition points” throughout the day. For the first year or two after we moved to Utah I would listen to the radio on the way home from work every day, which would usually be the period where they talk the most, give you the most news, etc. I found I would often get home totally stressed out from stuff I heard on the news, etc. Now I listen to audio books or conference talks, and I find that transitional time is (mostly) a positive time, though bad traffic (or a bad book) can still disrupt things.