As we embark on another year, the deluge of grim headlines shows no sign of abating. From polarisation and the climate crisis to the rising cost of living and the disruptive spectre of AI, the news cycle can feel like an assault. The instinct for many is to switch off entirely, a trend confirmed by a 2025 Reuters study finding 40% of people globally now actively avoid the news.
The Need for a New Perspective
Columnist Justine Toh, writing for the series Making sense of it, proposes a different solution. Rather than disengaging or numbing out with endless social media reels, she advocates for cultivating a spiritual resilience. This isn't about ignoring harsh realities, but about developing a way of seeing that refuses to be cowed by them. She draws inspiration from a surprising source: a foreign correspondent who, traumatised by frontline horrors, found unexpected solace in the silent sanctuary of a church.
Toh suggests that, in our own way, constant news consumers experience a similar, if less direct, trauma. The endless scroll of conflict and apocalyptic forecasts primes us to see only the terrible, constricting our view of what's possible. "Attention changes the world," she quotes British psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist. "How you attend to it changes what it is you find there." The challenge, then, is to consciously direct our attention.
Practical Steps to Reclaim Your Attention
Changing this focus requires more than willpower; it demands new habits. Toh proposes a simple but radical first step for the 21st century: let the first thing you see in the morning be something other than a glowing screen. This could be a human face, the natural world outside, or a book of sacred texts or reflections.
These "handholds of immediate reality" serve a dual purpose. They are life-giving in themselves, and they forcibly decenter our obsession with feared futures, reminding us of the tangible world there is to love and engage with. While people and nature offer clear perspective shifts, devotional texts add a unique dimension. They connect us to historical struggles, showing how past generations navigated their own seemingly insurmountable challenges.
Scanning for the Good Amidst the Havoc
Toh cites the example of William Wilberforce, remembered for abolishing slavery but also an ordinary person who prayed for "more love, more humility, more faith, more hope, more peace and joy." For the believer, such stories hint that the havoc dominating headlines may blind us to quieter, hidden workings of good. The goal is to foster a vision that sees through the crisis, not past it.
Some may dismiss this as whistling in the dark. Yet, "showing up with eyes that scan for the good is what counts," Toh insists. It is a determined effort to hone our attention, to lift our gaze and remember that grim headlines cannot capture the full complexity of the human story. She echoes J.R.R. Tolkien's Christian realism, which viewed history as a "long defeat" punctuated by "glimpses of final victory."
As 2026 unfolds with its inevitable challenges, Toh concludes that cultivating this kind of vision—one that actively seeks those glimpses of hope and humanity—is not naive but essential. It is the spiritual habit that might just help us survive the headlines without losing our souls or our capacity to act. Justine Toh is a senior fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity.
