Tune Out External Stress and Tune In To Yourself
Shaghayegh Hanson
I used to be a news addict, religiously watching the PBS Newshour, cable news, BBC World News, Sunday morning shows, 60 Minutes, etc., etc. In my car, the radio station was permanently set on NPR. My incoming email box was filled with daily, sometimes hourly, updates on the most current news events. I was keeping informed, but I realized I was also sabotaging my peace by inviting anxiety and stress into every waking hour of my day.
This realization began quite by chance. My daughter had borrowed my car and left the radio station on music (as well as the gas tank on empty). When I turned on the ignition, expecting NPR, I was surprised to hear the cheerful melodies of a Beach Boys’ song. My first inclination was to switch the station back to the news, but the music was lightening my mood, so I decided to wait until the song was over. Soon I was singing along, rolling the windows down to smell the fresh air, and tapping my fingers on the steering wheel. I was experiencing a moment of unexpected joy and relaxation. Since that time, NPR is only one of the four stations I have programmed on my radio, and I often tune into the music more so. Believe it or not, this minor adjustment to my daily routine has made running errands in the car a time for escape and relaxation.
I slowly began to wean myself off my news obsession in other ways. Unless there is some momentous world event happening, I don’t watch television news at all. I unsubscribed from several newsletters and banished news pings from my cell phone notifications. Oh, the relief of it! Even now, with so much going on in the world, I mostly ignore the news, knowing that any worth hearing will reach me somehow. For example, my daughter was recently touring Europe with friends and called me from Vienna to say the Taylor Swift concert they were supposed to attend there was canceled due to an ISIS terror plot targeting the shows. This meant I knew about it even before it spread like wildfire over here.
As a workaholic in a stressful job, I knew I could do more to carve out moments of peace and tranquility in my day-to-day life. I just had to be purposeful about it and prioritize my mental and emotional health much more than I had done before. My friends and family are used to prefacing every invitation to a social event or get together with, “if you’re not working.” Several months ago, my daughter asked me to join her and her boyfriend’s family on a four-day trip to Mammoth; although I had work deadlines, I accepted the invitation. My daughter said, “You won’t have to work, will you?” I was surprised to hear her boyfriend reply, “Have you met your mother?!” This, more than anything, gave me perspective on how much I had allowed work to take over my life. I was living to work, not working to live, as it were. I did indeed have to take work on that trip, but I would wake up before everyone else, get it done, and then spend several hours just having fun. It proved to me that to work more efficiently and feel happier, I simply had to do something every day that forced me away from my desk. Nowadays, come hell or high water, I go for my daily three-to-four mile walk and either listen to music, an audio book, or a podcast. It’s the best gift I have ever given myself.
I write all this because we live in such stressful times—sometimes it only takes a nudge in the right direction to stop, breathe, reflect, and make small changes in our lives that impact our well-being in a big way. Consider yourself nudged.
