REMEMBER what is going right for you. This lunchtime I made a point of watching the news on tv and it made uncomfortable viewing. I tried hard to spot any positive news in amongst the rest but there really wasn’t any to spot.

In just 20 minutes we heard about the fall in wages, the rise in inflation, the fact that midwives are leaving the profession in droves, restaurants having to close because they can’t recruit staff and Ryan Giggs being on trial for assaulting his former partner.

Oh and the drought. Not only has there not been enough rain but there apparently isn’t going to be enough either. Farmers are struggling, animals don’t have enough to eat and hose pipe bans are coming into force.

Thinking about it, there was one small piece of good news. It was that the Native American Indian lady who was booed after making a speech at the Oscars in 1973 has finally received an apology for the way in which she was treated back then. But even that came 49 years later than it should have done.

It’s quite a lot to take in really. Some people’s reaction is to avoid the news altogether, but I am one of those who likes to have some idea about what is going on and what is making the headlines.

Today though, more than ever, I wondered how helpful it actually was to have 20 minutes of total negativity in the middle of an otherwise busy working day.

It’s not that I want the newscaster to lie about things – but it would be nice to see some balance and have a reminder that in amongst all the challenges we are facing there are some things that are also going right.

In the absence of being offered this as part of the lunchtime news, my suggestion would be for each of us to make our own list of things that are going right despite everything else.

If all we hear about is problems and what is going wrong, then that is obviously what we are going to focus on and what will directly impact our feelings about both the present and the future.

It can sometimes be quite comforting to take a few moments to think about and write down some of the things that are going right.

They may not even immediately spring to mind – but that is even more reason to try and remember what they are. I did this with my daughter this morning.

On our list we included a refund I had received today after some very poor service, some good news her partner had at work, the nice food she was planning to cook this evening, an event being cancelled leading to some breathing space at work and the fact that the weather was not as hot as yesterday.

All relatively minor things – but also very useful in balancing out the lunchtime news. We were also able to laugh whilst we added to our list.

We are going through turbulent times in the UK at the moment so it is perhaps ever more important that we do what we can to keep our own spirits up.

By keeping in mind those things that are going right in our lives – even the little things – we can take a significant step towards finding some balance and reminding ourselves that not everything needs to be as negative as the lunchtime news.