When You Hear Something that Rocks Your World

Method #2: Take responsibility for your mental diet

Have you ever had one of those days where you raided the pantry or vending machine one too many times? You were in back-to-back meetings and you ate junk food all day. Or you had uncontrollable munchies and, well, that 12-count variety pack of chips you bought for school lunches? Let’s just say there were no survivors.

I’ve been there. And too much junk food eventually makes us feel like garbage.

Our minds are like that too. What we allow into our minds is essentially our thought-life diet – with potentially negative and positive outcomes.

If we stay up late doomscrolling, guess what? We’re likely to feel a sense of doom! Cue the freak-out the next time we see that that BIG POLICY ISSUE is going the wrong way! We can be passionate, yes, active, yes, but studies demonstrate the detrimental health effects of “ingesting” so much concerning content – especially the news programs that amp us up with anxiety.

By contrast, guess what happens if we purposefully put something life-giving into our mind – like reading the Bible before bed? Even secular studies have found that biblical reading establishes a greater sense of hope in our lives.

Or, let’s look at a totally different topic. Are you dissatisfied with your intimate relationship with your spouse, perhaps in part because you keep watching or reading those steamy sex scenes? What might happen instead if you replace those inputs with something that honors your marriage? For example, perhaps you and your spouse watch a clean comedian together and laugh your heads off!

It shouldn’t be surprising that a steady diet of negative input can make us exhausted, nervous, jealous, critical, and paranoid. The problem is: we often don’t even realize WE are the ones fueling this freak-out cycle. 

So here’s a practical suggestion: Keep a journal of your “mental diet” for a whole week. Note the time spent on social media and news sites. Record titles of movies and articles. Where might you need to reduce or eliminate intake of toxic, negative voices in your life? And what uplifting content do you need to add to your mental diet?