More spiritual homework dropped into my inbox this morning. My spiritual mentor wants me to take a close look at the sources of information coming into my mind. My first thought was, she is not going to like my Netflix true crime addiction one bit!

She wrote: ‘We are deluged with information 24/7 in our culture and much of it is noise. Be mindful about what you are allowing into your headspace.”

The idea is to allow in information that is uplifting, but avoid anything that makes you anxious or fearful.

I don’t tend to watch the news much these days. I glance at the BBC News app first thing in the morning and then most of the information that I garner, comes from Facebook. There is lots of uplift, but heaps of vitriol too.

My newsfeed contains a vast amount of politics. Way too much in fact. The views are, shall we say, strident. I used put forward my opinions, but I don’t bother any more. The people who vent about politics on Facebook only want to hear views that back up their own. When things go bad, they go very bad and it often ends in a personal slanging match.

I realised a while back that people who like to argue vehemently on social media, aren’t doing so because they want to change the world, they are essentially angry and looking for a place to unleash their fury.

There’s a great quote in Opening Doors Within by Eileen Caddy that reads:

“You cannot hope to create peace and harmony in the world until you have found peace and harmony within….Never stand back and blame anyone else for the state of the world, but get into action and do something about it yourself.”

My thoughts entirely. I don’t pay much heed to Facebook rants any more. At the moment, much of the information that I absorb comes from self-help books, which is no bad thing. However, I do have a husband who sees danger and negativity everywhere. He’s always talking about the latest crime in the area where he works and he lives in a state of constant vigilance. Often, I only half tune into what he says, but that tends to annoy him. It doesn’t help that he spends hours watching real-life police shows that perpetuate his belief that the world is full of bad people.

That’s his prerogative, it’s not my job to change anyone else’s opinions. I can only concentrate on myself.

News avoidance does make me feel like an uneducated halfwit sometimes. I couldn’t tell you the first thing about Brexit. I ticked the remain box and that’s it. I’m not interested in marching, debating or campaigning for a people’s vote. All I can do is be kind and courteous to those I encounter, wherever they’re from, whatever they look like and whomever they are.