Hi, I am Oliver, one of the trustees, and in this article I would like to share with you something I have personally found useful over the past year.
It’s pretty easy to get caught in the idea that not much good goes on in the world. We’re constantly bombarded with negative news; when we pick up a newspaper or turn on the television.
One of the best things I learnt in a mental health group a few years ago was about human’s “negativity bias” which goes back thousands of years (see below video).
We’re more likely to notice and remember the bad things than the good.
Our brain means well, it wants to keep us safe from danger and bad experiences. But it doesn’t serve all to well when we have a constant bombardment of negativity, and our mood is already low.
I discovered Positive News magazine in June 2021 in Sainsburys. It has been a pretty turbulent year to say the least. I’d booked myself into a local hotel for a change of scenery and wanted something to read. I was shocked by the price; £7 for a magazine! But it was a novelty, and an investment in myself, I thought; and why not something positive for a change?
The magazine had some lengthy editorials and lots of different stories, inspiring pictures and statistics to look at.
A few examples of features include:
I felt a wonderful sense of comfort, awe and joy in reading Positive News. Some of the stories seemed unusual to me, not what i’d normally read, but I persisted with it and I felt it was all helping to bolster my resilience against the negativity of the past year; and it paid off.
The good news kept on coming, the more I opened the magazine the more wonderful stories I kept discovering. I figured it was a good investment for £7, especially after the year I’d had before.
The magazine comes out 4 times a year:January, April, July and October.
After the first magazine I decided to subscribe to a year’s worth of positive news stories. I figured it’d be a good investment in my mental health. Plus the magazine doesn’t seem to be so widely available in my local area.
So far it’d say that I haven’t loved all of it, but it’s certainly been worth it. The magazine keeps me going for several days and is a welcome boost of positivity when it arrives in the post. When I’m done I pass it on to friends to read.
Positive News made such an impact on me I’ve been an advocator since, enthused to recommend it to friends and family.
I feel there’s not enough of this sort of thing in the world, and many of us could benefit from it, certainly over the news displayed in most daily newspapers.
I didn’t engage with all of the stories in the magazine and I wouldn’t say it was for everyone. There are often a few features on environmental and social progress, sustainability etc.. But I’d certainly say it’s worth a go, you never know what stories you’re going to discover, and you’re bound to find something inspiring. At the very least you can pay a trip to their website to look at some positive news stories for free.
