Following the non-stop news of the era of gun violence, war and political division can be overwhelming. And it is understandable that we feel sadness, anger and anxiety in many of our ongoing challenges, such as pandemics, climate change and economic uncertainty.
As a clinical psychologist who specializes in providing people with tools to deal with intense emotions, I am deeply concerned about our world and how much it is to remain positive, or simply to balance. I know it’s difficult. Some of my clients say they can’t stop Doomscrolling, while others take unhealthy behavior to adjust it.
But if you feel desperate about the state of the world, you can fix yourself. I use these seven mindfulness-based strategies to maintain my position as a client.
1. Label your feelings.
If you can do it exactly Label emotions You are experiencing at that moment, you can reduce that power Your body When brain.. Name the emotions you feel, such as sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and guilt. And list how hard you are experiencing it. Say it aloud, use a mood tracking app such as Daylio, Reflectly, or Moodnotes, or write down your feelings in your diary.
Don’t wait until you Feelings peakedHowever. Get in the habit of naming when you feel emotional.Tracking their intensity gives you the opportunity to slow down before you reach the boiling point and lose yourself. Worry or ruminationSnap to someone or unknowingly reach for the substance.
2. Make yourself feel emotional.
Melanie Harned, a psychologist at the VA Paget Sound Healthcare System and author of “Treatment of Trauma in Dialectal Behavior Therapy,” says that trying to avoid one’s emotions would be more intense. When you are emotionally influenced by a news article, be aware of what you think, do, and feel in your body. Choose the one that is most useful at the moment. Create a window to feel your emotions for a few minutes without trying to change your emotions, or if you’re in the middle of an urgent task, plan to revisit the painful news at: The time when you can be sad.
One way to improve your ability to sit with emotions is to remember that your emotions can fluctuate quickly. An exercise that helps clients stop worrying about being emotionally trapped is to watch a series of short emotional scenes. The deathbed scene from the movie “The Champ” is followed by a snippet of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” music video. If you try this, you may shed tears at one moment and dance or laugh in a chair the next. The goal is to understand how the same transient can be applied to the different emotions that we experience as we continue to exist throughout the day.
Not surprisingly, in the aftermath of tragedy, you may want to reduce the scope of your life to avoid painful emotions. For example, after learning about massive violence in a supermarket, it’s natural to feel uneasy about going shopping for groceries, as was the case with the horrific shootings of Boulder and Buffalo. Keep in mind that allowing you to experience emotions, including fear, will ultimately improve your anxiety when you return to your daily life, Dr. Harned said.
3. Practice different types of empathy.
You can feel driven to make a difference and help without over-identifying the pain of others. “It’s been taught that empathy is the way to help others, but it can be a trap,” said George Everley, a junior professor at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, who specializes in crisis intervention and resilience. increase.
Dr. Everly encourages in his work to reduce burnout in humanitarian workers perspectiveOr, rather than trying to understand the world from the perspective of others, they become obsessed with their emotions and blur the line between what they are experiencing and yours.
“There is a difference between what you are aware of and what you are immersed in,” said a leading mindfulness author and author of “The Real Change: Mindfulness that Heals You and the World.” Says Sharon Salzberg.
1 study Of the more than 7,500 physicians, understanding and acknowledging the patient’s emotions can reduce burnout, while over-identifying the patient’s experience can predict the physician’s emotional malaise. understood. Practice is required, but if you observe yourself engrossed, try taking a short breath and then moving on to more cognitive forms of concern, rather than taking full part in the suffering. ..
4. Take the action.
By considering ways to help others, you can regain some control in a world where you can feel overwhelmed. Improve your own well-being..By deliberately and repeatedly doing work such as donations, volunteering, and political involvement, Risk of depression When Boost happiness..
“When we mobilize and stand up with positive and concrete actions, it’s almost impossible to fall into despair,” said Sherry Tigierski, activist and author of “Sit to Stand Up.” ..
Take the time to think about what makes sense to you and how you want to contribute. While working to improve the world’s injustice, “We need to balance compassion and effort with the wisdom that things can take time. It can take a long time, but I Our efforts can also sow seeds, “Salzberg said.
5. Rethink your words.
When something terrible happens in the world, it’s natural to use dramatic words like “I’m broken.” This is especially true for social media. On social media, extreme words can be verified by other people’s likes and comments. But our words and interpretations have a great impact on our feelings and actions.
Being able to respect one’s feelings is beneficial, but exaggerating a situation that is already in pain can add to the intensity of the emotion.Catastrophic thinking can cause or exacerbate negatives Many people’s emotions.. Therefore, consider replacing ideas and phrases such as “the world is collapsing” with “something needs to be done to improve X”.
6. Invest in joy practice.
Resilience, the ability to function after stressful events, often depends Add positive emotions Daily actions to improve the ability to deal with challenges. Connect with people who schedule hobbies that may inspire you and excite you. Protecting mental health is not selfish. It allows you to be your best version, not the burned-out version, said Dr. Everly, who ticks the time to exercise even when he’s on a disaster relief mission.
In addition to adding happiness-fostering activities, practice paying attention to the natural moments of positive emotions, whether it’s coffee in the morning or spending time with your loved ones.
“When the news cycle is heavily dominated by horrific things, we can lose sight of the good things in the world and in our own lives,” Dr. Harned said.
But if you find yourself struggling to find a moment of peace and experiencing sadness or anxiety that is affecting your ability to function, Contact the therapist Someone who can provide you with evidence-based tools to improve your well-being.
7. Respect the limits without losing sight of problems or pain.
Instead of scrolling the news endlessly or turning it on in the background, think of a specific time zone, such as morning and afternoon, where you want to keep up with the news. Taking a break doesn’t mean you don’t care. It’s about hitting a pause so you can go back to facing the challenges of the world and trying to make a real difference.
It is also important to always pay attention to the causes that are important to us during relatively quiet times. “We feel pain and then forget,” Salzberg said. She suggests finding ways to focus on what’s important to us, even if you’re not at the top of the news feed.
Give yourself permission to feel pain and joy without getting stuck. That’s how your emotions contribute to true healing. Dr. Harned recalled the analogy taught by psychologist and mindfulness-based behavior therapy pioneer Marsha Linehan. You can visit the graveyard without building a house in the graveyard.
Jenny Taitz is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles and author of several books, including the following on stress:
