3.1M People Get Their Daily Dose Of Positivity From This IG Page, And Here Are 50 Newest Posts (New Pics)
Getting bombarded with negative news is no good for us. Crime, politics, even controversies in the entertainment world – we're sometimes much better off by not reading or watching it. In fact, in a survey of 266 therapists by GrowTherapy, 96.6% of them said watching or reading the news can have a negative impact on our mental health.
While we have to follow what happens in the world to some extent, curating our news feed so it contains more positivity is also important. That's where pages like Tank Sinatra's good news Instagram account come in. Here are some positive news stories from them to make your today's news feed at least a little bit more uplifting!
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Tank's Good News is one account of many under the brand of Tank Sinatra (others include Influencers in the Wild and the original Tank Sinatra meme page). Tank is one of the most prolific meme creators online, with some even calling him "The Michael Jordan of Memes."
Sinatra launched the Instagram page back in 2017, and it has since racked up over three million followers. But don't worry, Tank Sinatra isn't the real name of the person behind all these accounts. The man is George Resch, and, as he told amNY last year just before the holidays, the idea to create such a page had been brewing in his mind for a long time. For 35 years, to be exact.
Our village used to be cut off by flood waters every year and I know a few of the elderly ladies used to rather look forward to being taken out to the shops by either a strapping farmer or the firefighters (the only locals with machinery to get through the floodwater).
"I remember watching the news as a little kid with my father and asking him 'Why are there so many murders, kidnappings, robberies, etc.' and he said: 'There aren't, it's just what the news focuses on.' My mind was blown, I just couldn't understand it."
Resch also told the publication that tries to commit small acts of kindness whenever he can. One of the ways is to give his CVS ExtraBucks away to others. "I try and find an elderly person or maybe a parent alone with their kids. Sometimes it's $3.00 sometimes it's $30.00, but it's always nice to give to people, whether they need it or not. It's about reminding people that random good things do happen."
I did the same. You can't imagine the sigh of relief every time I'm home.
Back in the late 50s or early 60s we acquired a puppy from a neighbor whose dog had given birth to a litter. We named her "Cocoa". We had another neighbor whose 7 or so year-old son had never spoken a word even though he was otherwise physically and mentally normal according to doctors. (Nowadays he'd be diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum.) Anyhow he loved Cocoa, Cocoa loved him, and the first word the kid ever spoke was her name to call her to him. Before the year was out, the kid was not only speaking and otherwise behaving normally for his age but was actually somewhat advanced.
"I'm a big believer in the fact that things have always been the way they are," Resch also told the NACS podcast this year. He says the key to being content is living in the moment. "People will say: 'Things are worse now.' I think certain things are worse, but certain things are better. And 100 years ago certain things were worse and certain things were better," he said, explaining his philosophy.
While telling his story on the Rachel Ray Show in 2021, Resch said that the inspiration for his good news page came partly from a photo. The woman in it is sitting on a jet ski in her flooded home after Hurricane Harvey. Resch explains how her smiling through this hardship made him realize that "Even in a tragedy, attitude is everything."
The good news page is proof that kindness can be contagious. On the NACS podcast, Resch recalled how one man messaged him saying how the page inspired him to start a non-profit, and that it's what he's been doing now full-time for years. Yet George isn't quick to take credit. "It's not me," he said on the Rachel Ray show. "It's the content of the page. [It] changed the way they see the world."
Instagram is not the only place you can find Tank's Good News. If you're ever filling up gas in the U.S., you might've seen Resch's face on a screen, delivering some positive, uplifting news stories through GSTV. "I don't know if being on gas station TV screens is a cool thing to be proud of and grateful for, but I am," he wrote in a post on Instagram. "These good news stories get out in front of 115 million people per month. If that's all I ever accomplish on earth, then I feel like I've done my part."
If you're really fed up with negative news, there are ways to lessen the negative effects it has on your mental health. The mental health experts at Growth Therapy say that the first step could be limiting your exposure to traditional news sites. Turn off news app notifications and give yourself a limited amount of time per day to read news sites. But don't go full cold turkey; you have to know what's going on in the world.
If you still feel stressed, direct your attention elsewhere. Distract yourself with social activities, an old or a new hobby, or physical exercise. Mindy Hall Czech, a licensed professional counselor with Grow Therapy, recommends getting involved in the causes you care about, whether that's volunteering in animal shelters, joining a non-profit, or getting involved in other organizations.
Our dog use to do this, as soon as us kids went to school she would sneak up to the nursing home, they loved her there because she calmed down a lot of patients, she would leave when it was time for us to come home from school. When she died they put a little plaque in the garden for our Rosie girl.
You can also curate your news feed and include more positive news sites into your feed. Along with Tank's Good News, try following more similar good news pages. Like the Good Black News page that shares "the good things black people do, give or receive all over the world." Or give Good Good Good a try, an independent good news media organization.
What about you, Pandas? What recent good deeds and stories have you seen online or in real life? Share them with us in the comments! And if you're looking for more uplifting news stories, check out our previous articles about Tank's Good News here and here!
His name was Odin and he was a Great Pyrenees. There was a fast-moving wildfire and the family HAD to evacuate. Odin refused to leave his herd of goats. The owners did not have time to load the goats onto a trailer (wildfires move FAST) and Odin refused to leave his herd. They had their other pets (cats and dogs) in the car already, but Odin wouldn't get in. Livestock guardian breeds are bred to be independent, intelligent, and stubborn - they are designed to "make decisions" about protecting their livestock when a human isn't present to give them commands. So Odin refused to leave his charges - because a livestock guardian dog protects his herd. So when the family tried to evacuate, Odin refused to go with them. Odin survived the fire and kept his herd alive as well. When they came back, there was Odin, the goats, and even some deer that Odin was protecting as well.
I remember reading something years ago about 2 guys who were always in the same bar at the same time but never spoke or even acknowledged each other. On one occasion, one guy was missing but arrived just as the other guy was leaving & said "Sorry I'm late, I was delayed at work"
Why are so many and such young girls live in homeless shelters? That is inhumane. In the Netherlands there is no place for children in the shelters. They and their family get a house to live in, benefits, and often an administrator/curator if they can't handle finances. I'd wished people would step up to give them a roof, and then bake and sell the cookies from a home to live in.
He looks like he’d do it again with zero regrets. Hardened criminal, this one!
I've seen most of these multiple times here and elsewhere. Heck, I think this is a repeat post. And I love it.
Load More Replies...I was at the local shopping centre, selling another chunk of my DVD collection because I've been unemployed for nearly a year now and needed all the extra money I could get. Once I'd done that I sat down to rest on a bench where an older Muslim lady was sitting eating some Gözleme. She offered me some. I politely declined but she absolutely insisted I join her for lunch. Then she told me all about how she had come to my country as a refugee and how in her original home village there was no shopping centre and no doctor either, and all she was allowed to do was cook and raise children and how things are so much better here and she's so happy. It was clearly very important to her to share all this with me along with her food. It really put things in perspective for me. I'll never forget her.
Gözleme is a savory Turkish stuffed turnover. The dough is usually unleavened, and made only with flour, salt and water, but gözleme can be made from yeast dough as well.
Load More Replies...I have emotional tears in my eyes - people are surprisingly kind. Pity that we mostly hear about the violent and selfish ones.
Load More Replies...I've seen most of these multiple times here and elsewhere. Heck, I think this is a repeat post. And I love it.
Load More Replies...I was at the local shopping centre, selling another chunk of my DVD collection because I've been unemployed for nearly a year now and needed all the extra money I could get. Once I'd done that I sat down to rest on a bench where an older Muslim lady was sitting eating some Gözleme. She offered me some. I politely declined but she absolutely insisted I join her for lunch. Then she told me all about how she had come to my country as a refugee and how in her original home village there was no shopping centre and no doctor either, and all she was allowed to do was cook and raise children and how things are so much better here and she's so happy. It was clearly very important to her to share all this with me along with her food. It really put things in perspective for me. I'll never forget her.
Gözleme is a savory Turkish stuffed turnover. The dough is usually unleavened, and made only with flour, salt and water, but gözleme can be made from yeast dough as well.
Load More Replies...I have emotional tears in my eyes - people are surprisingly kind. Pity that we mostly hear about the violent and selfish ones.
Load More Replies...