79. No news

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Hello, darling heart, and welcome to the drink less, live better podcast.

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This is the podcast that helps you to see that drinking less doesn't need to be stressful, lonely, or boring.

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I'm your host, Sarah Williamson, and I decided to have a year alcohol free as a little life experiment and haven't looked back. Back.

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With my experience and training, I now help other people with their alcohol free or drink less adventures.

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You can find out more and sign up to my 5 day drink less challenge at drink less live better dot com.

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I'm here to tell you that you can relax, connect, and have fun without alcohol in your life.

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Join me here each week to find out how. No news.

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At the very start of 2019, I was in the kitchen one breakfast time when a news item about a stabbing came on. 1 of my boys

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started to ask me questions about the incident, none of which I could answer.

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They were questions about detail, which I didn't have, and also questions about bigger life issues, which at 7 AM I was struggling to get my head around to.

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So I turned the radio off, told the boys that we would chat about it later, and then removed the radio from the kitchen.

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I've always had a radio in my kitchen and always listened to a talk based radio station, so it felt a bit odd for the 1st

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week or so, but over time we began chatting more as family in the mornings because we didn't all have half an ear on the news.

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A short while later, a mentor, retreat leader, and friend of mine told me she no longer watched the news, and there began

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a whole new way of living for me.

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I never questioned her decision or asked for more details about the choice she had made.

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I knew something in me had flipped.

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I was no longer going to consume the news.

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Next time I was going to my car, I took a selection of my old CDs and a charger cable to plug my phone in to listen to audiobooks

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or podcasts when I was driving around.

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Mister w and I always used to watch the 10 PM headlines together, but I decided to leave the sofa at 9:59 and hop straight into bed at that time.

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I stopped buying my local newspaper and buying the Sunday paper that I used to buy about twice a month.

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I've never had any news apps on my phone or news web sites saved, so I was already safe from notifications and alerts.

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Mr W would occasionally say, oh, did you hear such and such on the news? And I would reply, nope.

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Remember, I don't get the news anymore, and then we'd start talking about something else.

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When COVID hit, I questioned my decision. Was I being willfully ignorant?

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Well, no, actually I don't think so.

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I was working in local government at the time and all my work was face to face with very vulnerable people.

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My line manager was masterful at protecting his staff team and giving us all the information we needed to do our jobs as safely as possible.

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There was no way the media, local or national, could have helped me out on that one.

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I was aware of what was going on because, of course, people told me.

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Sometimes I was willing to listen to a bit of detail, but not.

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I don't feel like I'm missing out by not keeping up with the news.

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I'm acutely aware of what I can control in my life, and I know most of what I would see, read or hear on the news doesn't directly affect me.

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I came to the conclusion that news usually always made me feel less good than before.

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I recognized that I was not taking the time to see a variety of news sources and get differing views, so what I was getting was incredibly biased.

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It was death, disaster, or some kind of controversy on repeat.

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I was not being uplifted in any way, shape, or form.

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I realized that my life is going to be short enough.

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I sometimes don't have enough time for the stuff I really want, so why was I wasting a precious second on all of this negative stuff?

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If I need to know something, of course I can go and look it up.

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My own research will be tailored to what I want or need.

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I don't feel like I'm missing out in any way.

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I feel like everything in my life is slightly better without consuming the news in the way that I used to.

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I save some money, I save some worry, I save some anxiety, and I save some time. All good things in my opinion.

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I'd love to know about your news relationships.

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Drop me a DM and let me know.

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Check out the show notes on this podcast or any other episode.

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You'll find details about the drink less, live better 20 23 retreat.

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You'll see the link to a hidden podcast episode to help you with your 5 PM cravings, and you'll be able to read about my one to one coaching program.

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I'd love it if you could follow and download the podcast, and if you feel inclined to leave a review, that'd be lovely too. Thank you for listening in today.

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Come back again next week, and, PS, I believe in you.