No News is Good News Day

Take a break from the twenty-four hour news cycle by taking part in No News is Good News Day! Really, it is possible! 

Believe it or not, the world keeps turning even if you aren’t plugged into every crisis, disaster, scandal, and tragedy. A day can be fulfilling without being crammed full of tidbits of celebrity trivia or the daily misdeeds of the great and not-so-good.

History of No News is Good News Day

The phrase “no news is good news” in English can be traced back several centuries, to 1616 when King James of England wrote it out. Then, in 1640, English author James Howell makes a reference to the king’s phrase in his book called Familiar Letters. But the concept actually goes back even further because in his first writing of the idea, King James gives credit to the Italians when he writes, “I am of the Italians’ mind that said “nulla nova, buona nova”.

The modern version of No News is Good News Day has less clear roots, but it was created in more recent years to offer people an opportunity to unplug from the negative influences of daily life and simply enjoy the present moment. With grass roots some time in the early 21st century, No News is Good News Day began to gain traction around the world by 2021. Now, it is celebrated each year by folks who are excited to let the bad news wait until another day!

How to Celebrate No News is Good News Day

Leave behind the negative and focus on the positive in celebration of No News is Good News Day. Have fun and enjoy the day by making plans to observe it with some of these ideas:

Unplug from the News

Turn off the TV and radio, unhook from the web, and leave those newspapers at the newsstand or lying on the front porch. If the weather really seems to matter, just take a look out of the window. And the traffic report on the radio? Be honest, when was the last time a traffic report actually turned out to be useful for driving? Just use a maps app on a smartphone to offer that information.

If it seems the news is always bad news, now is it possible to put that to rights on No News is Good News Day. The world isn’t all that bad when there’s no-one to report just how awful it all is!

Read Some Good News

Instead of filling that head with sound bites or snippets of troublesome thoughts and ideas, change things up a bit and check out various sources of information that only offer good news on No News is Good News Day. From following groups on Facebook or Instagram, like The Good News Movement, to intentionally reading sources of news like Positive News or the Good News Network, it can be fun to suss out ways to brighten our day and celebrate the things in life that are great. Because there are so many!

Focus on the Good

No News is Good News Day might be the perfect time to make some habit changes and flip some of that negative thinking into positive thinking. It can be difficult to make such a switch, but it is definitely possible with some intentionality. Instead of being a nay-sayer, consider making some personal changes that might provide opportunities to be the bearer of good news.

Check out some of these books that feature some important tips for positive thinking:

• The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale (1952)
• Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Martin E. P. Seligman (1990)
• Eliminate Negative Thinking by Derick Howell (2020)
• The Positive Shift: Mastering Mindset to Improve Happiness, Health and Longevity by Catherine A. Sanderson PhD (2019)