| How to Read News Stories Mindfully Posted: 25 May 2017 05:00 PM PDT Mindful thinking takes into account your thoughts and feelings about what you're experiencing. When you do day to day activities like reading the news, mindfulness can help you pay attention to things you might otherwise not notice, or ignore feelings that might otherwise cloud your judgement. In fact, reading the news mindfully can help reduce your emotional response to what you're consuming, improve your ability to analyze and comprehend the content, and even identify fake news that is attempting to mislead you. EditUsing Mindfulness While Reading the News - Name emotions as they arise. One of the tricks to practicing mindfulness as you go about your daily life is being more aware of the sensations you feel. Next time you read the news, make a point of paying attention to the way it makes you feel, and name particular emotions as they arise. For instance, when you read something that makes you agitated, pause and think to yourself, "this is anxiety" or "here comes frustration."[1]
- This can have a powerful effect on how you feel, as well as your ability to analyze what you're reading. In fact, media is often designed to appeal to particular emotions to keep you interested, not to mention make you feel a certain way about the story's content.
- Think of naming your emotions as a way to interrupt the part of your brain that's making assumptions based on how you feel, instead of analyzing the substance of what you are reading.
- Bring your mind back to the article whenever necessary. Mindful thinking can provide you an improved ability to focus on what you are reading. Of course, it takes practice to quickly catch yourself when your mind begins to wander. Whenever you do catch yourself thinking about something other than the article itself, stop yourself and think, "right now I'm reading the news."[2]
- This can be especially helpful if reading the news tends to make you anxious about the future, or regret something in the past.
- Don't judge the thoughts that arise in any way. Simply get back to reading the article.
- Pause to find your breath. When a particular article gets the better of you and riles you up, take a moment to pause. Focus only on your breath to help you calm down. Close your eyes and breathe in deeply and evenly through your nose for five seconds. Inhale all the way into your lower belly, allowing your abdomen to fully expand. Then exhale slowly and even through you mouth.[3]
- As you breath, think only of the sensations you feel, such as the air moving through the different parts of your body. Once your emotions balance out, go back to reading the article.
- Be persistent. Practicing mindful thinking can be frustrating at first, but will lead to an improved ability to stay relaxed, as well higher amounts of self-awareness and strengthened cognitive abilities. As such, patiently remind yourself to check your peripheral thoughts and feelings as often as necessary while reading the news.[4]
- Sometimes, your mood or frame of mind may make it harder to stay mindful while reading the news. If you experience emotional turmoil while reading unpleasant content, for instance, don't hesitate to put down the article and do something else for a while.
EditThinking Clearly About the News You Read - Read the news regularly. Get in the habit of reading the news during a certain part of your day. For instance, read the news on your subway commute, or right before your evening shower. Regularity alone will help prepare your mind to read more mindfully, which requires plenty of practice to master.[5]
- Accept your thoughts and feelings as passing mental events. You may have found it frustrating to practice mindfulness in the past, especially while reading the news. It can help to view your thoughts a bit differently.[6]
- For instance, if you find yourself getting distracted by certain thoughts and wishing they would go away, try to think of these thoughts as ships passing by on the horizon, or semis driving by on the highway. Simply let them go and return to your article.
- Recognize that mindfulness will reduce your bias. Aside from the mental health benefits of thinking mindfully, you will also reduce the bias which would otherwise affect your thinking about news stories. Everyone's experiences lead them to lean towards a specific way of thinking about different issues, but practicing mindfulness actually reduces your tendency to default to assumptions that you usually make without thinking about it.[7]
- Biases (which our brains develop as a type of cognitive shortcut to explain something complex) are especially apparent with regard to race and age. For instance, a young white woman is likely to make much different assumptions about the world then an old Inuit man.
- Meditate before or after reading the news. To maximize the benefits of mindful thinking, consider meditating before you sit down to read the news. Simply sit somewhere quiet and close your eyes. Focus on your breathing, and push any other thoughts away as they appear in your mind. Don't judge or otherwise assess any thoughts, just let them slip away as easily as they arrived.[8]
- Try to maintain a single, comfortable sitting pose while meditating, but adjust your position if you develop any physical discomfort.
- Shoot for ten minutes to start, and increase the amount of time you meditate as you get better at it.
EditDeciding What News to Read - Diversify your news sources. One of the best ways to maintain a pragmatic and mindful perspective on the media you consume is by exposing yourself to multiple reputable sources. Is there one source of news that you read more than others? If so, make a point of reading as many articles from other sources as you do from the source or sources you're accustomed to.
- Similarly, do you tend to read an article and feel like you have a good understanding of an issue?
- Or, rather, do you consult multiple sources about the same issue before deciding how you feel about something? In general, it's highly recommended that you do so.
- Recognize that fake news exists. Not only does intentionally false and misleading news exist, it has real-world effects on the world you live in. Examples include many people believing that Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, despite this endorsement never happening. In fact, some publications intentionally use misleading headlines and news stories to manipulate readers' political inclinations.[9]
- While mindful reading can help you maintain a better understanding of the media you read and diminish the effect of emotions to impact your mindset, it's still extremely important to be able to identify and avoid reading and sharing fake news.
- As soon as you find evidence that a source cannot be trusted, do not spend time consuming news from that source any longer.
- Ask yourself how an article's title makes you feel. One of the most telling signs of an article that is designed to make you feel a certain way is that it will start trying to do so in the title. As such, mindful thinking can not only be used to remain calm while reading the news, it can also help you critically analyze an article's content and even help you spot misleading media.[10]
- Do you have strong feelings about a certain title right off the bat? Do you already know you definitely want something to be proven (or disproved) in the article? Legitimate news sources will not rely on titles that manipulate readers in this way.
- Look closely at article URL links. In order to ensure you are reading articles that were written and published with journalistic integrity, there are few signs to look out for. Sometimes, it's harder to spot a fake news site than you'd think.[11]
- In particular, look for letters after the ".com" portion of the URL if you're reading and English-language website. If, for instance, the article ends in ".com.co," it is likely a rough copy of a similar, more legitimate news source. This copy is likely designed to mislead you.
- Look for other signs an article is fake. There are extensive lists of warning signs to look for, as well as websites that rate new sources on their journalistic integrity. Use these resources to evaluate the news you consumer.[12]
- Another common warning sign is the high prevalence of an article on social media. There are bots designed specifically to feed you news articles you'll be interested in, regardless of the story's legitimacy.
- In sum, stay mindful of what you're clicking on, and make the active decision to read news that's made as mindfully as you intend to read it.
- Tell friends and family members when they post fake news. Do so in a friendly and respectful manner, of course, and explain how you know an article is inaccurate or misleading. Conversations like these are important to help the people in your social networks read news more mindfully in general.[13]
- Just say something like, "Hey, I saw you posted an article about Donald Trump's inauguration. I wanted to let you know the article uses photos from Barack Obama's inauguration to mislead you about the attendance at the 2017 event. You can check yourself by right-clicking on the image and doing a reverse image search through Google. The exact photos that were used originally appeared in 2008 and 2012."
EditSources and Citations
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| How to Hide Your Phone Number on an iPhone Posted: 25 May 2017 09:00 AM PDT This wikiHow teaches you how to hide your phone number when you call someone from your iPhone. Edit10 Second Summary 1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Phone.
3. Tap Show My Caller ID.
4. Slide the Show My Caller ID switch off. - Open your iPhone's Settings. It's the app with grey gears that can be found on your Home screen.
- Tap . It's located about halfway down the menu.
- Tap .
- Slide the switch off. It will turn white. Now when you call someone, your phone number will not show up on their phone.
- It may be possible to hide your number for individual calls by entering a code before dialing a phone number. This varies depending on where you live, as well as your cellular service provider. Refer to your provider for more information.
- Many phones have the option to not accept calls from unknown numbers. If you hide your number and try to call someone who has this setting activated, you may not be able to place the call.
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| How to Stop Getting Too Much Sleep Posted: 25 May 2017 01:00 AM PDT If you're sleeping too much, you're probably not being as productive as you'd like to be. Fortunately, you can take a few steps to change your sleeping pattern. First, it's important to get on a sleeping schedule, so your body knows when it should be sleeping and when it should be awake. You should also learn some tricks to wake up more easily, as well as take some steps to help yourself stay awake during the day. - Stay on a routine. Your body gets used to doing the same things at the same time. When it comes to sleep, a steady schedule is best. By going to bed and getting up at the same time, your body will become accustomed to sleeping a certain number of hours at night which can help you avoid sleeping too much. Your body will want to wake up.[1]
- Make your bedtime mandatory. Set a bedtime for yourself, at least eight hours before you must get up.[2] To make sure you are actually going to sleep at your bedtime, set an alarm on your phone about an hour before. That way, you have time to wind down, turn off the electronics, and get ready for bed.
- Be mindful of sleep cycles. One sleep cycle is about 90 minute; therefore, try to plan the amount of sleep you get around your cycles. In fact, if you find yourself awake slightly before your alarm goes off, you should just get up, rather than entering another cycle. Waking up in the beginning or middle of a cycle can make you groggy.[3]
- Use light and darkness to your advantage. Darkness and light are important to your sleeping rituals — reducing light exposure prompts your body to start producing melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleepy. Light (either natural light from the sun in the morning or artificial light from lamps and electronic devices) will suppress the production of melatonin, helping you feel more alert. Once you get in a rhythm, the darkness will help you sleep, and the light will signal your body to wake up.[4]
- When you go to bed, make sure to shut out any light. Turn off hall lights, and cover your alarm clock. Put up blackout curtains if streetlight comes through your windows or you must sleep during the day.[5]
- When you wake up, use light to your advantage. Open up the curtains, if it's light out already, or go outside for a few minutes. If it's not light out, try using a light box with full spectrum light.[6]
- Get exercise in earlier in the day. Don't exercise in the three hours before going to sleep. If you exercise too close to bedtime, it may stimulate your mind and body, keeping you awake.[7]
EditMaking Waking Up Easier - Don't hit the snooze button. It's tempting to get a few extra minutes of sleep in the morning by hitting "snooze" on the alarm; however, doing so can make you groggy, which means you'll want to sleep even more. Try to get up as soon as the alarm starts to go off.[8]
- Don't set multiple alarms, either. You may like waking up to the first alarm knowing you have another 15 or 30 minutes to sleep before your "real" alarm goes off, but this will interrupt your sleep cycle and make it harder to get up when it's time.
- One way to ensure you wake up is to make sure your alarm clock isn't within arm's reach. Basically, you don't want to be able to hit snooze.[9] Try moving it across the room so you have to get out of bed to turn it off.
- Another thing that can help you wake up is to use a natural light alarm clock. It's like having a little sun in your bedroom to wake you up.[10]
- Take a shower. After getting some light, hop in the shower. To make it especially refreshing, try switching between hot and cold water every 20 seconds. This method will help jolt you awake.[11]
- Look forward to something. You can make getting up easier by having something you love every morning. Maybe it's as simple as a cup of tea or a coffee, or maybe you have a bowl of your favorite cereal. Use something you love as a motivation to get up and moving.[12]
EditStaying Awake - Get up and move. If you find yourself getting drowsy, it's time to move about. Try to take a short walk, even if it's just to the bathroom or break room. 20 minutes is ideal, but if you can't manage that, just try a quick walk around the office or a few jumping jacks to get your blood pumping.[13]
- Avoid heavy meals at lunchtime. If you're eating a heavy meal at lunchtime, you're more likely to feel tired in the afternoon. Try eating something light, such as a salad. Be sure to include 3 – 4 ounces of protein (one serving), as it can help you power through the afternoon.[14]
- It's fine to snack on healthy foods if you start feeling hungry in the afternoon. It's better to stick to smaller meals or snacks rather than having one huge meal at noon.[15]
- Look away from your computer. If you find yourself getting sleepy at your computer, it's time to take a break, at least from staring at the screen. Try to look at something else across the room for at least five minutes.[16]
- Spread out your caffeine intake. It's no secret that caffeine can help you stay awake; however, science has shown it's best to spread out your caffeine throughout the day instead of taking one big dose in the morning in the form of three or four cups of coffee. To spread it out, try drinking something with a lower amount of caffeine, such as green tea, more often throughout the day, or just drinking smaller amounts of coffee at a time.[17]
- Also, don't drink caffeine too close to bedtime, as it can keep you awake, making you more tired the next day. Try to stop the caffeine about six hours before bedtime (and remember chocolate contains caffeine!).
- Try a little music. Music can help rev up your energy, especially if it's something you like. Instead of sticking to silence, plug in some headphones if you're at work or crank up the radio if you're at home. It's hard to fall asleep if you're bopping your head along to your favorite song.[18]
- Skip naps. Even if you feel like going to sleep, try to stay away from the bedroom or the couch. Don't be anywhere that you enjoy snoozing.[19]
- If you find yourself snoozing constantly, even at your desk, you may want to see a doctor about being tested for narcolepsy.
- Wash your face. You don't actually have to use soap; however, taking a trip to the bathroom to throw some cold water on your face can help you wake up. If you've got makeup on, try putting some cold water on the back of your neck.[20]
- If you find that you are still sleeping an excessive amount, you should definitely see a doctor. You could be suffering from any number of health conditions, from sleep apnea and narcolepsy to depression.
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