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"Ten Tips for a Nutritious News Diet"
Being aware of your media diet is a spiritual practice, says Elizabeth Thoman, CHM, a Sister of Humility (Iowa) who founded the Center for Media Literacy. Finding the right kind - and amount - of news that inspires us to
be creative and to take positive and effective action in the world takes time and energy, like choosing the foods we eat. Here are suggestions from spiritual leaders to make your media diet as healthy as possible.
1. Say Grace: Scott Mitchell, a Buddhist scholar at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA performs a daily ritual of compassion, reciting the Bodhisattva vow to help all beings reach enlightenment. The vow is an acknowledgment that we are all connected; in other words, we are all enlightened or none of us are. This practice helps to minimize the feelings of disconnection or remoteness that can be pervasive with so many news stories.
2. Count Calories: Keep a journal of your media intake, suggests Thoman. She notes that the practice frequently shocks people into changing their media intake diet or even going on a modified media fast.
3. Choosing Variety: Imam Sa1dullah Khan of the Islamic Center of Irvine, CA says the problem is not how much we consume, but the narrow range of choices we have. We need to be careful that we are not just hearing or seeing the things with which we already agree, but also allowing ourselves to see and hear things as they are.
4. Ask Who is Stirring the Pot: A key question for consuming all news reports is,
"Whose interests are being served here?" With a little scrutiny one may become aware that certain entities or interests may benefit as the result of a particular spin or angle to a story.
5. Weigh Yourself Often: Check in with yourself to see how media reports influence or affect you. The Reverend Kris Haig, coordinator for spiritual formation for the Presbyterian Church (USA), asks,
"Is your news diet making you more loving, peaceful, and connected with other people? Or is it making you fearful and alienated? Choose
accordingly."
6. Pray or Focused Attention: "The news tells me where I need to focus my prayer (or attentional) energy and whom I need to embrace with
love," says the Reverend Stanley Howse, pastor of the Unity Church of Burbank, CA. Corinne Ware, an Anglican professor of spiritual theology, says,
"When I hear of people in distress, I pray, 'Lord, be with them now and in their moment of
trial.' Which basically says, 'Do what you can to help!'"
7. Add Plenty of Salt: In food, flavoring is everything and so it is with our media diet. One way to do this is to reflect on the larger picture. A strategy for doing this might be to ask yourself,
"Is there another way to see this?" Usually there is if we can scope out of our own version of truth. Reflecting on different perspectives can make even the most disturbing news seem less so.
8. Get Back to Nature: Ever notice how a walk in the woods changes your mood? Nature has its own news to share with us.
"I tell people to seek the quietude of nature," says
Tripurari. "A perspective on nature from sacred texts or sacred persons also helps us take full advantage of
nature's lessons."
9. Develop Rituals to Counteract Overeating: Occasionally we can become over-exposed to news media to the degree that it is hard to shake it off. For example, after a spate of news stories about child abductions, Beth Willis found she needed to do something to help alleviate her anxiety about her
daughter's safety. To address this she spent some time making a sachet with different protective herbs and visualized her daughter growing up strong and happy as she did so. The structure of creating a focused intention was useful in providing a sense of power in an otherwise (seemingly) powerless situation.
10. Work off the Calories: Do something active to contribute to the world. Most spiritual practices and traditions have some notion that faith without works or other kind of effective action is somehow not complete. According to Shaikh Kabir Helminski, of the Sufi Mevlevi Order of Whirling Dervishes, working for justice is an unavoidable spiritual obligation.
-- T. Blythe, Spirituality and Health: The Soul/Body Connection, June, 2003
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