Contrary to the 24 hour news cycle culture that has developed in the last 20 years you DON’T need to know everything about everything that ever happens on the planet Earth. MOST of it is entirely irrelevant to you and very little of it will bring you happiness.

I wake up to 10 to 75 new email per day, a Facebook newsfeed with dozens of notifications, people text me all day long and I could watch any number of YouTube Videos, cable news networks and read any article printed on the planet Earth by any news organization or any random blogger with something to express.

It’s enough to make a person’s mind boggle with Information Overload. Information Overwhelm is a real modern condition marked by increased anxiety, frustration and anger about nonsense that doesn’t really matter. It causes increased doctors visits to check for imaginary brain tumors. It causes fear of one’s neighbors. It causes one to insert irrelevant information into casual conversation. It causes new mothers to lose sleep over the story about “that one kid that one time.”

Worse, it causes people to believe that impossible things aren’t possible. It results in gainfully employed and upwardly mobile people bitching about the economy and blathering on and on about how hard it is to succeed these days. It causes college graduates to move back into their parents’ basement instead of jumping off cliffs into their Soul Purpose.

Information Overload clutters up your brain so you can’t even hear your Soul speak. It sucks up the Mind Share you could be using to live your Dream and create the life your Soul loves.

The answer lies in one word: Filter.

As a culture, we believe that being “informed” is somehow inherently valuable. But, is it really? It is even a good mental health choice to focus on all of the “might happens,” or the things happening somewhere else to someone else? Or would you rather be happy and save your Mind Share for what’s happening to you in your life right here, right now?

Happy people don’t need to know every screwed up thing that ever happened on the planet. They just don’t. They don’t need to know every fact or opinion that everyone with a microphone or a blog has. Happy people don’t watch Fox News or CNN, because there’s probably 1 hour of legit news in a 24 hour news cycle and if it’s really important you’ll find out about it elsewhere.

Happy people don’t allow every company to infiltrate their email inboxes with marketing. They don’t watch every television show or read every book. They don’t allow every person they know to spout off their political beliefs—no matter how vile and acidic the opinions are—on their Facebook feed.

Your body has a natural nervous system response that protects itself from trauma when you’re exposed to a real life trauma in person. This protection doesn’t exist when you’re watching trauma (news and other unnecessary brain pollution) on television, which means your nervous system goes into overdrive and you could blow out your adrenal gland with excess cortisol, needlessly and pointlessly as you react to shit that isn’t even happening to you.

Happy people understand that they can pick and choose what information they allow into their energetic field, into their minds and into their hearts. They choose what they allow into their life based on how the information and noise makes them feel. If it feels good, it’s in. If it feels bad, it’s out. It’s a really simple solution to a seemingly complex modern problem.

Org-gasm!!!!!

20 Minute Smack-Down
—Information Filtering

Spend 20 minutes going through each of your Information Feeds: Email Inbox, Facebook Page, Phone Contact List and DVR settings.

1.Unsubscribe from every newsletter in your inbox. If you need information, or want a coupon you can Google it and find it in seconds. Inboxes are for work and personal action items only. Do not sign up for newsletters. If you want the free ebook, subscribe and immediately unsubscribe. (I do allow 3 daily quotes that make me feel good in my inbox.)
2.Filter your Facebook Feed. Newsflash: just because you know someone doesn’t mean they get to pollute your experience with their B.S. Hide or unfriend everyone who makes you feel like crap when you see their FB posts. Political zealots, caustic angry rants, chronic health complaints, endless negativity, people bashing & drama: Hide. Unfriend. Unlike.
3.Delete Contacts: Keeping someone’s phone number ties them to you energetically. Delete contacts that make you feel bad and those who are not in your life anymore.
4.Stop Recording Crap: Delete recordings that don’t make you feel great. I’m all for trash TV—if it relaxes and amuses you. But, if it scares, frustrates, bores or exhausts you, don’t record or watch it.
5.Never, ever watch the News. News is unfit for human consumption.