Good question and I'm glad you brought it up.
1. About the rest of the world: I try to listen "lightly" to the news. I don't listen to what are nothing more than crime reports nor other things that I can't do anything about (a la Scully). But I do keep up. It's better, imo, to read the news than listen to it, as you can skim or skip the irrelevant-to-you parts.
2. Personal things: I journal. I read that in an controlled study, the persons who journaled 20 minutes per day vs. ones who did not had better immune systems at the end of 60 days. It seems they used blood test criteria to determine this.
Other things are books and movies. I just watched Veronica Guerin and it puts things into perspective. She was an assassinated Irish journalist.
Or learning something new.
Cheers!
Pat