Aaaah, another Sunday morning. Fresh coffee, hot, buttery toast, and a stack of newspapers; scooped up onto a tray, the coffee balancing on the newspapers and the toast balancing on the coffee, stumbling over the cat in a Sunday-morning haze and swearing as your coffee spills slightly, onto the papers. Ah, it’s only on the sports section. Phew.
Clambering back into bed, husband mumbling that you ALWAYS get crumbs on his side, just as he notices that your beloved cat (that he hates) has started making puddings on the pillow next to his ear (he hates that too). The sun is pouring through the open window, the Spring air blowing in with its scents of blossom and grass. Snuggling back down, coffee poured and toast crunched, you tentatively whip the front page open for the best read of the week.
The headlines scream at you:
- volunteers in ireland to plant 1 million trees in 1 day
- positive messages set to lift mood at central london station
- baby born with hiv appears ‘cured’
- community spirit is alive and well in the uk, finds report
What newspaper is this, I hear you ask?! Well, unfortunately, it isn’t one that available on the rack at your local newsagent. However, these are genuine headlines, taken from Positivenews.org.uk – ‘the world’s original and leading positive newspaper.’ Focusing on solutions, it reports on people and initiatives that are creating a sustainable, just and fulfilling world. You won’t find any ‘KETCHUP, BUTTONS AND WIND-UP TORCHES FOUND TO CAUSE CANCER’ style headlines here; it’s all good-for-the-soul, nourishing, smile inducing stuff.
I’m a sucker for a story, and even more so for a happy one. This website is incredibly inspiring, and certainly a nicer way to start the day than picking up the average newspaper. Flicking open a regular publication, published in their millions each day, it’s fairly common place to feel weighed down after reading it; in fact, I can’t remember the last time I read a newspaper from start to finish. It’s just…too grim. And sure, they’ll throw in a cutesy story or two along the way (presumably to avoid commuters sobbing their way to work), but let’s face it – it’s a dreadful business, reading the newspaper.
You have to do it, or else risk being the dullard who doesn’t know what Boris is up to, or what the heck is going on in Cyprus, or if the snow has bashed the living daylights out of pensioners in Wigan. But does anyone really want to read the doom and gloom that’s thrown our way, day after day? Do we just do it to fit in, to keep up with everyone else, to avoid awkwardly saying “Eeeer….who’s Kate Middleton? Is she the one off Dragon’s Den?”
Now, that’s not to say I’m naïve enough to think that newspapers don’t hold some useful purpose.
However, wouldn’t our newspapers be infinitely better with a bit of positive perspective? We know that positivity dramatically improves performance – so wouldn’t it be beneficial to inject a bit of happiness into our news reports? We can’t make every report a positive one, of course – but perhaps a little more focus on positivity and the areas we’re succeeding in globally wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world…
What do you think – could we stand to be a little more positive? Leave your comments and thoughts on this in the comments section below. For now, enjoy this cheerful and inspiring Ted Talk from Martin Seligman, on the new era of positive psychology:
Hayley McGarvey
