For the most part, I have tried to stay away from politics over the last few years. I’ve had too many other things going on and didn’t need anything else adding stress to my life. It was an important part of my “decluttering” effort. But lately I’ve been sucked back into it and it’s not been pretty.
My attitude stinks.
My energy levels are down.
My patience is lacking.
And my social skills are poor
I mean, the current political landscape, and thus news cycle, is beyond frustrating. Everybody (i.e. BOTH sides) seems to spend all their time and energy trying to “catch” and then “prove” the “other side” has done something wrong, and it seems both sides are highly successful in their efforts. Following this "gotcha" moment, the guilty party defends themselves by justifying why they did their wrongdoing, while at the same time trying to prove the other side had done so much worse than them. It seems to be a game of constant back and forth. All the while, nothing productive is being done by either side and we are simply left as spectators of it all. And here's what else I've noticed. The people I've been watching and listening to on the news seem to actually enjoy showcasing all this nonsense.
I started wondering if this is because we are so obsessed with following their antics and we spend so much time talking about it. I started to think, and finally came to the conclusion, that if we just stopped paying attention to them, they might just stop their "shenanigans." I know this method seems to work with my children when their fighting and misbehaving. It just might work for them, too!
I know many people will criticize me for this, and I know there are people out there with more skin in the game than me and they NEED to pay closer attention to it all, but until this whole childish game of "tit for tat" gets under control, I’m out! I'm taking a temporary "Leave of Absence (LOA)" from today's news and political banter. I am stepping away from what seems to be a constant battle with no end in sight.
Instead;
I’m going to focus on MY ATTITUDE & MY ACTIONS.
I am going spend my time and energy loving and SERVING OTHERS.
I'm not going to let this annoying “noise” distract me from MY PURPOSE any longer.
I'm going to try and do, what my friend CZ tells me all the time, THE NEXT BEST THING!
*** I wrote this a couple weeks ago as I was preparing to make an attempt at staying away from the current news cycle. I was starting to get so worn down by today's ugly political landscape. For the most part, I would call it a success. It really has made a significant difference in my well-being and I've seen an improvement in all the things I mentioned above. And to be honest with you, I don't really feel like I've missed out on anything by avoiding the news. So as of now, I am going to continue with these efforts!