I don’t know about you but I hate the way journalists prepare inane lists of the ‘top five’ or ‘top 10’ things that we should all be doing.
So often these lists are glib pieces of information which I believe the journalist is just writing to fill words and have no relation to the reality of the reader.
Case in point. This week we received a ‘top 10’ tips to beat loneliness prepared by a 90-year-old in Manchester in the UK. One of his top ideas is to join a hobbies club.
If you are feeling isolated, how likely is it you will leave your comfort zone to locate, enquire and then join a club of people you don’t know? It doesn’t happen, especially if you are a male.
Men less likely to seek out others
Why a male? Unlike females, we generally struggle in new and unfamiliar circumstances. Most of us avoid them.
Here are a few of the other tips to avoid loneliness:
- Visit your local community or resource centre and find out what’s on offer
- Seek help from your local social services
- Take in a lodger or paying guest
Most are not going to happen.
I have thought about this long and hard and then put into practice my conclusion – which is that we should all “walk and talk and read a newspaper every day”.
A happier – and healthier – life
This means we should walk for at least 30 minutes every day because exercise is required for good health and exercise stimulates positive feelings. Both facts.
We must talk to people every day, and if you walk in your local community and bump into the same people or visit the same cafes or shops, you build easy familiarity and conversation. This is stimulating and uplifting. A fact.
We must all read newspapers every day. Not a phone or a tablet – a newspaper. Digital media identify what we like and channel those stories to us. We never see the ‘other stories’ that make up a community and stimulate our thinking.
Physical newspapers force these different stories in front of us. Fact.
Combine these three things; you walk in your local community, you talk to the people in your local community and you have informed opinions from newspapers that make your conversations – and you – interesting. And that will be a fact.
So join me and ignore the ‘top tips’, preferring to walk and talk and read a newspaper every day.
