Mental Health

Does Choosing Peripheral Awareness of the Horrible Things in the World Make You Selfish?

Does how you feel matter?

Occasionally, I get zinged for my lack of in-depth knowledge about the plethora of horrible things happening in our world. This used to embarrass me. Sometimes I’d even pretend to be more knowledgeable than I was. That seldom worked and left me feeling like a phony and a woefully uninformed dweeb.

The feeling of being a woefully uninformed dweeb would lead to a sudden newfound obsession with the News. News with a capital N. I’d feel compelled to consume as much as I could as quickly as I could in an effort to “get up to speed.”

This meant binge-watching the 24/7 news channels, reading the ‘key’ publications, scanning the must-read books, listening to the ‘important’ podcasts, even catching the late-night comics, and an insane amount of time on Twitter.

While all of this effort helped alleviate my feeling of being a woefully uninformed dweeb, it did little to ease my feeling of being a phony.

That’s not me.

I’m not a news junkie. I’m not the person who wants to discuss all the things currently wrong, or about to go wrong, in our country or the world.

I am aware there are plenty of these things.

I’m also aware that giving my attention to what’s “wrong” sucks my energy and makes me feel like crap. How is that helpful to whatever situation I’m focused on, or to my mental and emotional health?

This is why I’ve been accused of being selfish, of caring about how I feel more than I care about fill-in-the-blank.

It’s true. I do care about how I feel. That doesn’t mean I don’t care about fill-in-the-blank. It means that I’ve realized unless I feel good, I have nothing to offer. I can join in and bitch as well as the next person, but as far as any real inspiration that might be of value, when I’m stressed, depressed, pissed off, or any of an array of negative feelings — inspiration is MIA.

I’ve chosen peripheral awareness.

For me, peripheral awareness means keeping informed on the macro level. I’m aware of major events that have taken place and are taking place. I don’t need or want, the blow-by-blow. It stresses me out.

Please don’t assume that my peripheral awareness means I don’t have opinions. I have plenty. I’ve chosen to be selective in sharing my opinions, especially when my opinions are in opposition. I’ve finally realized that pushing against anyone or anything causes pushback and seldom results in changing either party’s viewpoint.

It also leaves both parties feeling crappy.

This is what works for me — watching the national news a few times a week, reading a couple of daily newsletters, and occasionally checking Twitter. That’s basically it. To be honest, I still sometimes get caught up in the blow-by-blow and I always regret it.

If you’re a person who would benefit from a more curated approach to the news of the day, consider your version of the peripheral awareness approach. It’s helped me. I’m guessing it’ll help you too.

I’ve intentionally left out specific references to current or recent events. I’ve also omitted any reference to a political point of view. It’s not my intent to put forth or critique any points of view, but rather to offer a self-directed consumption strategy.