Our Personal Feed
Have you ever thought about what's coming into your 'personal feed'?
What do I mean by that?
Most of us have a Facebook feed, an Instagram feed, a LinkedIn feed...and so it goes on. These feeds are littered with things that are largely out of our control, although somewhat influenced by our scrolling history, things we subscribe to and friends and colleagues we follow.
I wondered some time back how useful everything was and how what I was seeing affected my own personal psyche and mindset.
We all love our social media and I'm not suggesting we all delete everything, but my thoughts extended beyond my social media feeds and to my TV viewing habits, my reading preferences and my listening choices.
I wondered what was coming into my own 'personal feed'.
Now, I am fascinated by psychology and I noticed my TV viewing habits seemed to be focussing on murder documentaries and crime solving programmes. I was fascinated by what drives people to commit crimes and 'how they caught the killer'. Movies were mainly thrillers and action films. I couldn't think of anything worse than suffering my way through a romcom! But it did make me think about what was seeping into my subconscious....don't panic, I'm not studying how to commit a murder!
My listening habits were more pleasing. Business and motivational audiobooks or health and science podcasts, which I had been learning so much from and implementing some of the ideas into my daily life.
My reading habits were.... well, not enough if I'm honest. I love a good biography or memoir, inspiring stories of triumph over disaster, with a few personal development books thrown in. My list of books that I'd bought but not read was growing and I knew I wanted to do something about it.
I concluded that my personal 'feed' wasn't too bad but needed a bit of adjustment.
I checked through all my social media and adjusted a few things so that the 'body beautiful perfectionists' and the 'do these 3 things and be a millionaire in a month' things were no more.
My listening habits are all good so no need for change there.
I started watching TV a bit less often and switched the channel to wildlife and nature from the murder documentaries, much to the relief of the dog, I think!
And I made sure my Kindle came with me everywhere and promised myself I'd spend at least half an hour every day reading.
What difference did this make to me?
Not that I was unhappy in the first place, but I gradually sensed a change in my happiness levels. I felt a bit more chilled out. I became more inclined to pick up the Kindle to read or my Freewrite to write rather than switch on the TV.
I felt I was learning more, observing more and soaking up good, valuable information that could be of use to me, to others, or even in a pub quiz!
It was a good exercise and I now have a better awareness of what is coming into my 'feed' and how it affects my moods, my learning and my general happiness.
And I'm not afraid to stop watching something, stop reading something or stop listening to something if it's either not doing me any good, boring me or affecting me adversely.
I used to feel if I'd started a book or a TV show, I almost had an obligation to grind through it and finish it.
Not any more, I just switch....and how empowering that is!
Consider your feeds and observe how they make you feel. Are you all good or do you need to make a few changes?
You may be doing yourself a favour to review and adjust.