News stories can create distressing memories.
Stories are powerful. They offer details to help you think about and understand the situation and the people. They also create powerful mental imagery that activates your feelings and emotions. In the news, these stories are often delivered with very graphic details to catch and hold your attention. When you create vivid mental imagery as a result of the story, it can create a lasting, emotional impact. Some of these stories make you feel good. Some stories are distressing.
The same story affects people differently.
Recent medical research is highlighting the role of mental imagery in emotions. Studies show a connection between the vividness of distressing mental imagery and the intensity of the emotional distress, calling for new approaches to resolve distressing mental imagery. One study (Gulyad et al, 2022) highlights that the vividness of mental imagery decreases with age. Teens and adolescents experience more vivid mental imagery than older adults, and with this, they experience more intense emotions.
Aphantasia is defined as “the inability to form mental images of real or imaginary people, places or things.” (Merriam Webster Dictionary, 2023) Research suggests that individuals with aphantasia experience emotions with less intensity compared to those with hyperphantasia. (Wicken et al, 2021; Keogh et al, 2021).
Additionally, a news story can trigger a memory of a prior experience, complete with the thoughts, emotions and physical sensations of the original event that you experienced.
This suggests that a distressing news story may impact you quite differently from your family, friends and coworkers – with either more or less intensity of emotional distress. It can be helpful to recognize that automatic reactions to a story are different but you don’t need to stay stuck with the distressing thoughts, emotions and physical sensations that may automatically occur. You can resolve the mental imagery for an increased sense of peace and calm.
Logosynthesis offers a technique for fast & lasting relief.
There are many coping techniques to offer relief related to distressing news stories. While you can chose to not watch the news or to control the amount you watch, news stories are important to help make sense of what is happening in your community and in the world. By recognizing the role of mental imagery in your level of distress, you can use an innovative coaching and therapy model, called Logosynthesis, to identify and resolve the underlying stress triggers for immediate and lasting relief.
Here are 4 considerations related to news stories to guide you to reduce stress and feel better in everyday life:
- Pay attention to how specific news stories impact you throughout the day and over time. Do you experience distressing thoughts, emotions or physical sensations?
- Pay attention to news stories that get stuck in your mind. Do you replay stories over and over or is there an image or sound that keeps recurring?
- More distressing news stories can more distressing mental imagery, resulting in a greater level of stress in everyday life. This can negatively impact your health and relationships without even recognizing the impact.
- Emotions and mental imagery are energy based. You can use Logosynthesis to shift the mental imagery to dissolve distressing images, sounds, and other sensory representations.
Give it a try:
News stories can create distressing mental imagery, keeping you stuck in stressful, reactive patterns. Shift the mental imagery – relieve the distress. Logosynthesis guides you to shift distressing mental imagery for immediate and lasting relief. You can use the video below to give it a try to notice what can shift.
Sources:
Gulyàs, E., Gombos, F., Süt.ri, S., Lovas, A., Ziman, G., & Kov.cs, I. (2022). Visual imagery vividness declines across the lifespan. Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior, 154. hwps://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2022.0 6.011
Keogh, R., Pearson, J., & Zeman, A. (2021). Aphantasia: The science of visual imagery extremes. In Handbook of Clinical Neurology (Vol. 178, pp. 277– 296). Elsevier. hwps://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12- 821377-3.00012-X
Wicken, M., Keogh, R., & Pearson, J. (2021). The critical role of mental imagery in human emotion: Insights from fear-based imagery and aphantasia. Proceedings Biological Sciences, 288(1946) hwps://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.026 7