Our everyday dietary requirements go beyond what we eat and drink. For an overall healthy living, we must also focus on what we are feeding our brain and emotions. In accordance with the direction in which our society is moving, we are increasingly dependent on the media, in all its forms. We spend a considerable amount of our time watching the news and how things are not going right.
This goes hand in hand with our natural instinct as humans to focus on the negatives. This is called the negativity bias. This mechanism was very useful for our survival during our hunter gatherer days when we were in real danger of being attacked anytime. This mechanism, however, does not serve us in modern society, where those dangers aren’t prevalent. But in return harms us by regularly activating our fight or flight response causing stress and anxiousness.
This is why it is extremely important to monitor what we are feeding our mind on a daily basis. We have to regulate the amount of time we spend in front of the television and instead find ways to direct ourselves towards positivity and happiness. We have to consciously be aware of what we are consuming and redirect ourselves every time we feel ourselves feeding on negativity.
So, we want to share with you 5 statistical facts that show the world is not as it’s worst. We do have problems that are huge and need immediate help, but we have it much better than what the past few generations did. Here is why:
1. Poverty Rates:
This statistic blew my mind, in the best way possible - in the past 20 years the world population living in extreme poverty has almost halved. That’s an incredible amount of progress. This tells us that more and more people around the world have access to clean drinking water, food, medical care, transportation and an overall better quality of life. The improvement in the basic quality of life, gives families the opportunity to stop worrying about surviving one more day and instead move towards making greater progress in their lives. This has a huge domino effect for the future generations as well as the community around them.
2. Education:
There is more access to education now than there has ever been. More children are encouraged to not only enroll but complete high school education. The stigma of a girl child’s education has also been rapidly decreasing, aided by greater awareness and the availability of more infrastructure. In 2018, the literacy rate among adult females in the world was rounded to 83%. That’s a big leap from where we were a few decades ago. I hear that noise echoing in your brain and I agree, there is so much more ground to cover, but let’s pause to appreciate and take in all the progress we have made.
3. Access to Healthcare:
Access to healthcare is an important aspect of progress. The life expectancy in the world has reached 70 years, a lot better than what it was even a decade ago. This has been made possible by the ongoing efforts to provide basic healthcare to the most remote places. Basic vaccines are now available to almost all children across the world, almost completely eradicating some largely spread diseases that affected societies across the world. This has considerably reduced the child mortality rate and has increased the chances of a child leading a healthy life. Research in this industry has also come a long way with much better solutions for even some life threatening diseases.
4. Endangered Species:
In the past few decades, there has been a worldwide awareness on the importance of protecting endangered species. This has resulted in the revival of a lot of then endangered animals, birds, plants and many other flora and fauna. Even some previously critically endangered animals like tigers, giant pandas and black rhinos, now are out of that category with a much healthier population size around the world. There is still immense work required, starting with more respect for our environment, but with increasing awareness and rehabilitation efforts on a personal and institutional level, we will be able to restore Earth to its former beauty.
5. Environment:
Our environment has taken a huge hit due to the neglect and carelessness of the human race. Since the industrial revolution, we have been focussing heavily on industrial and monetary progress, at the expense of our environment. Today, we are facing the repercussions in the form of natural disasters, climate change and the lack of resources. However, today there is more awareness and change taking place than ever before. This can be seen through on various levels - industrial, retail, government, individual - whether through laws, campaigns, clean ups, recycling, upcycling or the many other ways we are becoming increasingly more conscious and respectful towards our environment.
We as mankind are constantly progressing. With every generation, we try to contribute to it by providing solutions to the problems we face collectively. In the short term it might not look like much but it creates a huge impact over the years.
This is true even on a personal level. Right now you might not think you have made much progress. But when you take the time to reflect back on your journey, you will find so much progress. Progress does not necessarily mean monetary progress. It can be found in physical health, mindset changes, social circle and many more such important changes that create a huge impact on your wellbeing.