14 years ago I stopped consuming mainstream media…

Two innocent sets of eyes glued to the television. 

Not an uncommon scenario in my household…

But in this case it was my 8 year old girls and they were glued to the news channel

And upon looking up I realized that they were indeed watching the most horrific news story…. 

I rushed to turn it off.

That moment shook me though… 

I didn’t want my girls to continue to consume all the negativity that the news always, without fail, would convey… 

I had no idea what impact that would have on them in the future.

So I made a decision at that moment to no longer watch the news, nor read about it, nor listen.

I had no idea what effect that decision would indeed have on all of us, but me in particular…. 

Just not watching the news on commercial TV was indeed possible, but it did not stop viewing of other crap that did not need to take up space in anyone's brain.

Back in that technological time, Netflix and other streaming TV was not available in Australia, but thanks to Twitter (now X) I knew it existed in the US….

Being the resourceful chick I am, I figured out how to get it…. 

I think we ended up having it about 5 years before it was actually available…

This allowed us to remove commercial TV (including the stupid ads) from our viewing pleasure..

And with Spotify, a radio was no longer required…. 

And newspapers were not something I had purchased anyways… 

Mission accomplished…

So what happened…..

I removed so much brain clutter.

Honestly, we all have enough trouble dealing with the negative thoughts our lizard brain is intent on delivering to us, without adding to it further with the negativity that is mainstream media…

Without this clutter I actually started to “think” more…. 

Think about me, life and what I truly wanted…

It wasn’t an overnight thing…. 

But I gradually became more and more aware of how much of a societal imprint is delivered by mainstream media…. 

Without those messages clouding my mind, I was beginning to create my own view of life, not what “society” was cultivating for me…..

I developed my own media channel by only tapping into the things that lit me up, that had a positive impact on my day and thoughts… 

I became way more curious about life and its possibilities.

My life epiphany wouldn’t happen until some 2 years later… 

But I am certain that by removing the clutter that was filling my brain each day, this was the key to my thoughts becoming my own… 

To start to think for myself rather than autopilot societal conditioning…. 

I know this approach to life brings with it many questions, the same ones I get every time it happens to come up in conversations, so let me dive into those as they are no doubt coming up for you too…

Q: But world news is important, you need to know what’s going on!

While I agree with this statement to a certain extent, I will say this….. 

One of the most common conversation starters for someone is in fact the current world news event/s…. 

So you do indeed always find out… always…. 

But here’s where it’s a win…. 

By not knowing, people are aghast that you don’t know and will tell you all the details…

People love talking and love to tell you something you don’t know… 

So for me this has always been a great way to let someone lead a conversation and tell me what’s going on while I listen…. 

One of the most underrated skills is listening - it’s a guaranteed brownie point always.

Now to answer the other question that often follows this…

Q. Don’t you care about what’s going on?

I care about what I can control…. 

And in 99% of the world news WE cannot control nor make an impact on the outcome… 

So I choose to focus on what I can control… 

Simply taking that approach to life is so FREEING, I highly recommend it….

And here's what else I have observed over all those years…

My life is very different from most. 

I don’t feel an obligation to live by societal norms. 

I have chosen to live my life by design and I credit part of that to freeing my thoughts all those years ago, it laid the foundation to what I finally saw as possible….

If I happen to hear “news” I actually have a physical reaction of feeling quite ill… I am no longer desensitized as most people are…

I don’t like superficial small talk… 

When I talk with people I love to have robust and vulnerable conversations… 

I credit this also to giving up mainstream media… because you cannot engage in small talk about the BS that is portrayed in mainstream media as “important”.

Now this trait I have developed can also make connecting with other people hard, especially if they are not willing to enter into those types of conversations….. 

And in fact I’ve let go of friendships over the years for that reason….

But being authentic, vulnerable and true to myself is a non negotiable for me… and I won’t waiver on that…

Now to the BIG question….

I want to ask you to consider if mainstream media consumption is having a negative or positive impact on your life?

Do you feel like your life is happening to YOU?

That it’s on autopilot and you’re playing out the life that is working on society’s script, not your own.

What if your thoughts were about YOU and what you want? 

And you had the head space to think, truly think and tap into what you really want out of life?

Simply removing mainstream media from your mind can have a tremendous impact on setting you on that path…

And it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what you want out of life….. 

That in itself is a true indicator that what you currently have is not it…. 

It’s simply what happened to you…

Let’s revisit that question… 

Is your life happening to YOU?

Your lizard brain will try and shut you down with this question… with responses like:

“Of course it’s not. I love my life… I wanted this….”

But if you have the slightest flutter in your gut…

The slightest apprehension with the question…

I invite you to explore it further…

Because life is always best by our own design and to live to the fullest…

I got you xx