5 Easy Ways to keep yourself sane In A World full of madness
It would be easy right not to wonder what the world is coming to. Everyday, when I look at the news, I realise that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with what is going on. Our current news cycle is like a reality TV show on steroids. I also often overhear conversations between people where it is apparent that we are currently more and more disturbed, stressed and anxious about what is playing out on the global stage. I get it. I have moments of it too. It’s hard not to worry. But when I do, I always bring myself back to these 5 thoughts that might also help you stay sane when all around it looks like the world has gone mad.
- Remember that the present moment is the only moment that exists - it’s so easy for us to get caught up in worrying about the future and what it might bring. However, we don’t actually know what is around the corner. The only moment that we have is this one. Right now. The future hasn’t come yet and the past has been and gone. If you can practice staying in the present moment, and using a daily mindfulness practice is the best way to do this, then you’ll find you’re worrying less about a future that you are only guessing at.
Most of the things we worry about don’t even come to fruition - in fact there was even a study done to prove it. At Cornell University a group of people were asked to write down their worries over an extended period of time and see what happened with them. What researches found was that 85% of the things that they worried about never even came to fruition. Even more interesting was that 79% of participants in the study handled the situation that they had been worrying about better than they thought they could have. Which means that 97% of of the worrying was actually unnecessary.
There is no point worrying about things we can’t do anything about - we can’t do anything about most of the things we read about in the news. Sometimes that can feel frustrating. We can be unsure what to do with all of the information we receive on a daily basis. Where do we put it? How do we process it? It can be hard for some of us not to be able to act on it. Some of the images we see fill us with sadness or anger or a sense of injustice. It’s natural for us to want to make things better. However, it’s important to recognise that we can’t fix everything. In fact, we can’t fix most things. If we see injustice in the world then the best thing we can do is to make sure we are being kind and fair and just in our own lives, in our own circle of influence.
Be thoughtful about how much time you spend consuming the news- everywhere we turn we are inundated with information. The news cycle is accessible in a way that it has never been before. You can actually follow a story in real time online, with commentaries from different sources all over the world. It’s exhausting because it’s so easy to get sucked in to so much negativity. So be mindful about how it makes you feel when you read it or watch it or listen to it. Notice whether you feel good afterwards or whether you feel a little out of sorts or even down. Then see if you can make a conscious decision about how much of that kind of feeling you want in your day.
Be a Warrior, not a worrier - become a warrior of kindness, goodness, patience and a loving heart. This will make life a lot easier and happier than worrying ever did.
Monique Rhodes - Creator of The 10 Minute Mind