TL;DR:
- What type of media are you consuming?
- Reflect on what media makes you feel good when you engage with it.
- Consider adjusting the content you consume and start to spend less time on platforms that make you feel poorly and focus on what makes you feel good.
What’s in Your Diet?
If I were to ask you what’s in your diet, what would you say? Maybe oatmeal, hummus, and an occasional margarita. Today we aren’t going to talk about diet in terms of what you put in your body, but rather what you put in your eyes, ears, head, and heart. We are going to talk about our media diet, which as rational optimists, is within our realm of influence and control.
When we take a moment to really think about how media impacts our levels of happiness, we must also take a moment to think about how we can adjust what is going in our ears, eyes, head, and heart. Click To TweetMedia Diet
The idea of Positive Media Intake is taken from the book STRIVE for Happiness in Education by Rob Dunlop. He invites us to carefully consider what media we choose to put in our lives. There is a “Happiness Homework” in his book that invites the reader to make a T-chart; on one side of the chart it’s the media that leaves me feeling bad, and on the other, the media that leaves me feeling good.
What media puts me in a bad mood? Starting my day with Facebook or the news. I never leave those pockets of time feeling any better than I did before. In fact, I often feel inadequate as I compare my life to others, or deeply concerned and worried about the state of our world.
What media makes me feel good? Inspirational (or downright ridiculous and hilarious) podcasts, Instagram, reruns of Parks and Rec, Spotify playlists, and books. These sources of media make me think, laugh, or inspire me to create or investigate something new.
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Adjust Your Diet
When you think about your media diet, can you describe how you feel after each encounter? When we take a moment to really think about how media impacts our levels of happiness, we must also take a moment to think about how we can adjust what is going in our ears, eyes, head, and heart.
Our invitation this week is to become a bit more aware of your media diet. What are you watching, reading, listening to, and scrolling? How is that impacting your head, heart, and happiness?
In other words, what’s in your diet? What’s on your plate that doesn’t deserve a place? What do you want to create room for?
Press pause.
Turn down the volume.
Disconnect.
Protect your head and heart.
Small Shifts, BIG Gifts!
Consider your media diet. What leaves you feeling good? Are you able to create some more space for that and decrease the media that leaves you feeling badly? See if this adjustment impacts your overall happiness levels at work or at home.
About Suzanne Dailey
Suzanne Dailey is a proud member of the Teach Better Family! She is an instructional coach in the Central Bucks School District where she has the honor and joy of working with elementary teachers and students in 15 buildings. Suzanne is Nationally Board Certified, a Fellow of the National Writing Project, and has a master’s degree in Reading. She is dedicated to nurturing and developing the whole child and teacher. Suzanne lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania with her husband and two children.
Check out the Teach Happier Podcast here!
