When I’m feeling overwhelmed from negative news stories, I know I need to take a break.
Birding and hiking helps me find an escape, but weather like our recent bitter cold and rain showers mean I can’t always get outside.
Like many other folks, I’ve found visiting websites that highlight cool things people are doing, writing, and discovering helps me slow down and take control of my online experiences.
Here are a few of the websites I visit regularly:
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Mental Floss: For almost 25 years, Mental Floss has shared worldwide stories about history, science, art, music, language and more. I always learn something new when I visit their site.
One of my favorite recent stories, 130 Amazing Women Who Changed the World, is how I learned about Wangari Maathai.
The first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a Ph.D, Maathai founded The Green Belt Movement, an organization working with rural women to plant trees to combat poverty and ecological destruction.
In 2004, Maathia received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her work. -
The Marginalian: Created by Maria Popova in 2006 as a weekly email to seven friends, The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) has grown to a website, social media account I used to follow on the birdsite, two newsletters, and has been included in the Library of Congress web archive since 2012.
Based on reading The Marginalian, I’ve expanded my personal library to include books I never would have found on my own and discovered amazing artists.
On the 18th anniversary of The Marginalian, Popova wrote about her posts:
I write them and share them for the same reason I read — so that we may feel less alone in our individual experience, which is just a commonplace fractal of the total human experience.
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The Good News Network: Ok, it’s a news site. But it’s a news site celebrating and broadcasting good news from around the world.
From bison returning to Manitoba, Canada tribal lands for the first time in 100 years to the couple who met as teen penpals 3,000 miles apart now celebrating 30 years of marriage, I’ve been delighted with the uplifting and positive stories I’ve read.
What about you?
What do you do when you’re discouraged from all the negative news stories that seem to get top headlines? Share your suggestions in the comments.
