If your anxiety feels unbearable after seeing violence in our world, you are not broken, you are human.
The truth is there is so much pain and hatred flooding our social media feeds. Shootings, violence, lives taken too soon. We’re watching it unfold in real time – over and over and over. No wonder you feel anxious.
Your bodies reaction makes sense. Mental health experts say our brains weren’t meant to process this much trauma from every corner of the world, instantly, on repeat, in our hands 24/7.
Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” said this week, the reaction people had to Trump not being seen or heard from for several days over the Labor Day weekend speaks volumes about our collective psyche at the moment. #TRUMPISDEAD was trending on social media that weekend. “It does say something about the ubiquity of Donald Trump in our lives , that we don’t hear from him for 20 minutes and we’re like ‘HE’S DEAD’, Stewart says.
The tight chest, racing heart, jumpy nerves? It’s not weakness, it’s biology.
So for today:
Turn off the news without guilt
Go outside and let the sun remind you that life is still here
Text someone safe and say “I just needed to say hi”
Play with your pets or kids (or your neighbors pets or kids).
Experts say tiny acts of grounding are not silly, they are necessary, and how we survive this.
Take care of yourselves.
