THE NEWS IS MAKING ME ANXIOUS. IS IT TIME TO SWITCH OFF?

Pick from these three fitness protocols to outpace your worries

Chances are your daily homepage of choice has never been a very positive space. After all, good news makes for bad news. But if the headlines have been hitting too hard, you may need to re-evaluate your reading habits.

Opting out altogether, though nice in theory, is unlikely to work when rolling news dominates your social feeds. Psychologist, Dr Laura Thomas from London’s Nightingale Hospital, recommends setting limits for your browsing time instead. So stick to a quick catch-up every morning, but avoid the urge to click on anything emotive or visual. A principle called the ‘availability heuristic’ dictates that the more readily we can bring an event to mind, the higher we rate the likelihood of the same thing happening again. Hence why car crashes feel more threatening than, say, respiratory disease.

Reading summaries rather than following stories live will also protect you from developing a strong emotional attachment to the events. Oh, and switch off push notifications, too: “Social media moves quickly, so you can be exposed to constant negative headlines without ever seeing a resolution to the problem,” explains Dr Thomas. “Actively seeking out stories of resilience and human connection in adversity can also help.”

Still can’t calm your fears? Breaking a sweat for the right reasons will help.