You already know the doomscrolling drill. You pick up your phone to check one thing. You see a disturbing headline. Then another. Then a frightening statistic, an upsetting video, a comment section you definitely should not have opened—and suddenly 30 minutes have passed and the world feels considerably more dangerous than it did before you picked up your phone.
Enter: bloomscrolling.
Bloomscrolling is essentially the yin to doomscrolling’s yang. Instead of allowing your attention to be pulled toward an endless stream of threats, outrage and bad news, you intentionally seek out information, images and stories that feed your brain positivity, hope, inspiration, humor and connection.
Think cute puppies. Beautiful places. People helping one another. Something that makes you laugh. An inspiring story. A new idea that makes you curious about the world.
And from an anxiety-management perspective, there is something important here.
Your Brain Is Paying Attention to What You Feed It
Our brains are built to notice potential threats.
From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense. The brain that noticed the rustling bush that might contain a predator had an advantage over the brain that was completely absorbed in admiring the beautiful sunset.
Potential danger gets priority.
Unfortunately, your brain is now carrying that same threat-detection system around while holding a device capable of delivering an unlimited supply of scary information 24 hours a day.
If you repeatedly feed your brain content about everything that could go wrong, your brain may understandably begin to conclude:
Wow. There must be a LOT to worry about.
This doesn’t mean we should avoid difficult information or pretend bad things aren’t happening. Avoidance isn’t the goal.
The goal is balance.
Think of Your Attention Like a Diet
Imagine eating nothing but highly processed, sugary foods all day. They might be incredibly compelling in the moment, but they aren’t providing everything your body needs.
Your information diet works similarly.
If most of what you consume involves danger, outrage, conflict, comparison and catastrophe, you are giving your brain a very skewed sample of reality.
Bad things are happening.
And good things are happening.
People are struggling.
And people are helping.
There is uncertainty, danger and loss.
And there is creativity, kindness, humor, beauty, progress and connection.
Mental health doesn’t require convincing yourself that everything is wonderful. It involves developing the psychological flexibility to make contact with the full range of reality.
Bloomscrolling can help restore some of that balance.
Bloomscrolling Is a Little Like a Gratitude Journal for Your Feed
Gratitude practices don’t require pretending that everything in your life is good.
They simply ask your brain to deliberately notice information it might otherwise overlook.
Bloomscrolling can serve a similar purpose.
Instead of allowing an algorithm to determine what receives your attention, you become more intentional about what you consume.
You might deliberately seek out:
- stories of people helping one another
- animals that make you smile
- art, music or creativity
- interesting things you want to learn
- inspiring accomplishments
- nature and beautiful places
- humor
- people and communities that leave you feeling connected rather than depleted
The question becomes:
What am I feeding my brain today?
But There’s a Catch: Bloomscrolling Is Still Scrolling
You may open Instagram intending to spend five minutes watching adorable golden retrievers.
And somehow, 20 minutes later, you’re reading about an alarming disease, geopolitical crisis, crime story or celebrity catastrophe.
That’s the problem.
Algorithms want to keep you engaged. And because threatening, emotionally charged information is particularly good at grabbing human attention, positive scrolling can quickly become negative scrolling.
So I wouldn’t recommend replacing two hours of doomscrolling with two hours of bloomscrolling.
Instead, try using bloomscrolling intentionally.
Go in with a mission.
Set a time boundary.
Curate your feed.
Notice how you feel afterward.
And most importantly, practice stopping.
Then Go Beyond Bloomscrolling: Try “Bloom Life Scanning”
Here’s my favorite version of this exercise—and it doesn’t require a phone at all.
I’m calling it bloom life scanning.
Go outside and spend five minutes deliberately looking for positive, interesting, beautiful or pleasant aspects of the world around you.
A bird.
A flower.
A cute puppy.
Sunlight hitting a building.
Someone holding a door for another person.
Kids laughing.
A tree moving in the wind.
Your mind will wander. You may start thinking about your to-do list, tomorrow’s meeting or something upsetting you read earlier.
That’s okay.
Notice where your attention went and bring it back.
Find the next bloom.
Then the next one.
You are practicing attentional flexibility—the ability to notice where your attention has gone and intentionally redirect it.
That is a skill you can strengthen.
A Quick Check: What’s Your Brain’s Information Diet?
Ask yourself:
- After scrolling, do I generally feel informed and connected—or frightened, angry and depleted?
- Am I learning about actual problems I can respond to, or repeatedly consuming the same frightening information?
- Does scrolling help me take meaningful action, or mostly create more uncertainty and anxiety?
- Is my feed giving me a balanced picture of the world?
- Can I easily put my phone down when I decide I’m done?
- How much positive, inspiring, funny or meaningful information am I allowing into my attention?
- When was the last time I intentionally looked for those same things in my actual environment?
If your answers suggest your brain is living primarily on an information diet of threat, it may be time for a reset.
The Goal Isn’t Positive Thinking. It’s Flexible Thinking.
At Light On Anxiety, we aren’t interested in teaching people to replace every negative thought with a positive one.
Sometimes things are hard. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons to feel scared, sad or angry.
The goal is learning to hold a more complete picture.
Instead of:
“Everything is terrible.”
Or:
“Everything is wonderful.”
We want the brain to become better at saying:
“There are difficult things happening, and there are also good things happening. I can make contact with both. I can decide what deserves my attention. And then I can choose how I want to spend the next few minutes of my life.”
So yes, try bloomscrolling.
But then put down the phone.
Look around.
There is probably something worth noticing right in front of you.
