Dawn Eden writes a column about bloggers and blogging, Blog On, in the New York Daily News every Sunday. This morning, to start off the New Year she quotes from a number of PsychBloggers, including yours truly, with advice for the New Year. Here is my post originally posted last week:
New Yorkers, like many other Americans, are assaulted daily by sensory and information overload. It is enough to drive even the most well adjusted to distraction. Luckily, a number of PsychBloggers have joined forces to offer various tried and true methods of maintaining one's sanity in the riotously cacophonous world of New York.
Sigmund, Carl and Alfred starts with a novel way to maintain self esteem and ends with a surprise.
Neo-neocon suggests a useful approach for down-regulating the global misery index, courtesy of the New York Times, and ends with a useful aphorism all parents should memorize but never admit out loud.
Dr. Helen eschews a Top 10 list [perhaps she read mine first-SW] but has high praise for one of the seven deadly sins that in the context of New York's aggressive energy may just be life saving.
And here are my "Top 10 Things You Can Do to Stay Sane in 2006":
1) Find a place to reconnect with the natural world. Man evolved in places where the nights were actually quiet and you could see real stars at night. If you haven't seen the Milky Way in the last year, you should immediately make plans to find a dark, quiet place and stare straight up. The Milky Way, our home, is still there, still overhead, still with the power to inspire awe. I recommend the Ward-Pound Ridge Reservation in Northern Westchester as an accessible place in which to reconnect. It will do you good.
2) Reconnect with your loved ones. Tell your children you love them. Tell your wife or husband you love them. Tell your parents you love them. It may not seem like much, but it is everything.
3) Increase the amount of positive sensory input versus negative. Since the old line MSM insist on looking for the disaster in every situation, leaven your news input with some of the more optimistic and often more accurate blogs. Are you convinced Iraq is an unmitigated disaster? Then check out Michael Yon, Bill Roggio, or the Milbloggers, like Black Five or the Officer's Club, who have some first hand knowledge of the conflict. You might be surprised with how many of them are guardedly optimistic.
4) Decrease the amount of negative input. Cancel the New York Times. They seem to believe their job is to put as negative a spin as possible on every story that has George Bush attached to it and the only way to save this valuable institution is to put pressure on them that they might understand. Remember, even if they are right some of the time, they can't be right all the time. The best way to figure out when they are correct is by comparing their stories with those who disagree; to that end...
5) Read more blogs! My blog roll is a good place to start. As a bonus, check out how the same stories sound on the Daily kos or Atrios or the Democratic Underground; compare and contrast!
6) This one is especially good for those who have neither the time nor the faith for religion. Try to behave as if there is a God. Admittedly, we have no way to prove he does or doesn't exist, yet those who insist there is no God are basing their argument on faith just as much as those who insist he does exist. Given a choice, isn't the world a better place if we act as if he exists? Most people behave better when they think they are being watched and most of us would prefer to imagine there will eventually be some justice at the end of the day.
7) Do something to let the troops know that you support them, whether you think the war was a good decision or not, they are over there fighting to defend our freedoms and deserve our thanks; you will feel better if you do.
8) Make amends with one person who you have been estranged from. All we are is the sum of the people we have touched; bad feelings have a way of damaging everyone they touch so don't leave them hanging out there.
9) In the interest of the final item, there is no #9.
10) Finally, don't make any Top 10 lists!
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