How about some happy news sometimes? On a daily basis, we are inundated with troubling stories and horrifying images on the 
news. Shootings, rapes, war and terrorism load up our lives through television, radio, online news and yes, even the old-fashioned print paper. To compensate, news outlets also load us up with the latest information in entertainment and people who are famous for no reason. Even things that are supposed to be good, like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, were turned horrible by people getting hurt or having cruel tricks played on them. (The good news in this is the challenge raised awareness and funds and research moved research forward on this horrible disease.)
Stress from these stories and images can stimulate the fight or flight response in your sympathetic nervous system. A real threat doesn’t need to exist for the response to be triggered. Recently, I was having difficulties sleeping and when I finally fell asleep having horrible nightmares. After speaking to my Doctor about it, she recommended that I stop watching news at night (and other shows like Criminal Minds.) I did, but I also started searching for other ways to get a daily dose of news.
Turns out there are still positive, happy things happening in the world and there is a way to find them. There are some sites dedicated to posting only happy or positive news stories—and that’s something I find refreshing and stress reducing. Here are six sites that you can check out to find some of these stories.
The Good News Network: Since 1997, this site has been dedicated to only showing positive news stories from around the world. A recent post is about a Phoenix police officer who helped to rebuild a woman’s house after it was ruined when copper pipes were stolen from her house.
Daily Good: This isn’t necessarily a news site, but it is meant to uplift and inspire. Different sections are titled Generosity, Everyday Heroes and Science and Technology and one recent post was about lucky socks!
SunnySKYZ.com: Another site for daily, positive stories from around the world. Their tagline is very close to mine: Live. Laugh. Love. One of their recent stories is about the CEO of Gravity Payments who became quite famous for raising the minimum wage of his employees to $70,000 while reducing his salary from 1 million down to $70,000. Talk about motivating your workers! This story is about what they did for him in return.
The Intelligent Optimist: This site has been around since 1995 and was part of Ode Magazine, founded in The Netherlands. The name change hasn’t changed their focus on positive solutions to support an optimistic outlook. A recent story is about how freelancers are happier because they prefer their freedom. Check it out, bloggers.
Positive News: A UK site that has a claim to being the world’s first positive news resource. They were founded in 1993 and are the oldest on this list. Positive News also has a print edition in circulation. One recent article was about Britons are eating less meat.
Huff Post Good News: Yes, even the Huffington Post understands the importance of reading good news. One of their recent stories was about a group of teachers who donated 154 sick days to help a colleague going through cancer treatments.
I hope you check out these sites for the positive content and inspiration that can be found there. I’ve found that by reducing my intake of “bad” news and trying to find the good news stories has helped me to reduce the stress and get a good night’s sleep. If you have a favorite good news site, please share.
Thank you for sharing! Everyone needs help finding their happy place! 🙂
Thank you for your list!
You’re welcome.
Yes! We all need this…
Boy, is this a timely post. And so needed in this ridiculous world we now live in.
Good news? What’s that? Thank you for these wonderful sources. Didn’t know HuffPost had such a section. Will definitely check it out.
What a great post! Spreading the positive for a change. I will definitely be checking out these websites – thanks!
I hope you enjoy.
I wish my children would allow me to write every day! Good for you. That’s wonderful!
I started by getting up an hour earlier than my son. It was only an hour, but it was all mine.
I love these and have pinned your post so I can remember where to find them when I need them x
These are terrific and I can’t wait to check them out. Like you, Jennifer, I limit my exposure to mainstream news and violent or dark movies/television. I feel physically revolted when I am exposed to too much and it is not good for my health. I recently found a wonderful podcast called Story Corp on NPR which highlights heartwarming stories about regular people through hearing them tell their stories. Story Corp has also published some books with themes, like finding one’s calling in life. I can’t stop listening to it and you may like it too.
My ex wife used to have sleepless nights from watching Criminal Minds LOL, thanks for sharing good to read some thing positive for once!
Thank you! Right about now with all the craziness in our world, I could use a little sunshine!
Good stuff Jennifer! Thank you.
May have to start looking at these! Actually, we have a comedian here who does a satirical news show, joking about the news of the week. But he always has a segment at the end that is just for featuring a really happy, positive story, which is always a nice feel good moment.
Our local news always features at least one happy news segment….but why just one? I love being able to inject myself with happy news whenever I need it.