Breathe.
Not in a holier-than-thou wellness influencer way. Just literally. Stop for a second and take one proper breath. Go on — in through the nose…
The world feels super loud at the moment. Like full-on, won't-leave-you-alone, screaming-directly-into-your-face loud. Headlines, notifications, opinions, alerts, someone in the group chat sending a link with "bro have you seen this??"
Remember when the news actually ended?
Six o’clock every night - appointment viewing. Judy Bailey told you what had happened in the world that day, and then — that was it. Done. Dinner, dishes, Cheers/MASH or Happy Days on TV, then bed. Tomorrow's news was tomorrow's problem.
Now it never stops. It's on your phone before you've gotten out of bed. It follows you through the day, pops up while you’re sitting on the toilet, sneaks into the group chat, and sits right beside you at night when you really should have left the world outside.
And a lot of it isn't actually there to inform you. It's there to keep you engaged. Your attention is worth money. The more stirred up you are, the more likely you are to keep looking, keep scrolling, keep clicking.
Your mind has a diet too
If you're a regular here you know we talk a lot about what you put in your body — and the information we consume works in a surprisingly similar way. A lot of it is like ultra-processed food. Fast, addictive, engineered to keep you coming back, and somehow leaves you feeling worse than before you started. (Like demolishing an entire share bag of Thai sweet chilli Doritos - no judgement)
Most of what gets packaged as "news" isn't really news at all. It's prediction, reaction, commentary, outrage, and speculation. Something happens Monday morning and by lunchtime someone's confidently explaining what it means for the next five years. Spoiler: they don't know. Nobody does.
My favourite quote lately — "when you haven't engaged with history, everything feels unprecedented."
That's the whole problem right there. Without history as context, every headline feels enormous — like this specific moment is uniquely catastrophic and nothing will ever be okay again. History gently reminds you that people have always panicked, speculated, made a complete mess of things, recovered, and carried on. It doesn't make what's happening now irrelevant. It just stops every single thing from feeling like the end of civilisation. (Last week alone: “AI is going to DESTROY ALL JOBS !!” to “we're RUNNING OUT OF OIL!!”)
Some things worth trying this month
Check the news once or twice a day, max. It'll still be there — it doesn't need you watching in real time.
Be choosier about who gets access to your attention. Not everyone has earned it.
Read things that add context, not just noise. Anything with a known ending is a good start.
The world's not going to get quieter any time soon. But you get a say in how much of it comes in.
Thanks for your attention team! - if anything has sparked interest, never hesitate to reach out to us -
Andy and the team at Roslyn Pharmacy - Dunedins Friendliest Pharmacy