I think to reduce stress is big and overlooked by me. I recently listen to a blogger commenting how we are bombarded by terrible news from the media. It is constant and overwhelming, and it is easy to get really sucked into it — to too great a degree.
But one has control over how much attention one gives to it. You don’t have to listen to the constant stream of disaster all day long. You can just shut it off at any time.
Perhaps the answer is to realize the acceptable level of listening to news media that dwells on the disastrous, and cut it off when you accede that level.
I am a voracious reader and also enjoy writing. I often have a very different point of view than the popular one. I do see value in debate, and thought it might add to the public debate on controversial issues if I were to express my contrarian opinions. I also started keeping my poems recently (I've written little pieces my whole adult life but never kept any); and I've been a photographer now for over 25 years. So I will be adding an occasional poem and hopefully interesting photograph to the blog along the way, just to spice things up.
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