Feeling fearful, worried, or sad about what’s happening in the news right now?
While it’s important to stay abreast of what is happening in the world, how you receive information and process your emotions about it can make a huge difference in how you feel.
Here are 3 tips on how to protect your mood, outlook, and energy during this time:
- Limit your exposure to other people’s opinions and emotions.
Read the news from a more unbiased source versus watching opinionated news channels which use inflammatory language that hooks to keep you watching.
BBC World, Reuters, and The Associated Press show up on several unbiased news source lists.
- Pay attention to how you are feeling, and take even better care of yourself during this time.
Check in with yourself often–scan your body and see if it is showing signs of being stressed. Is your neck or jaw tense? Stomach upset? Finding yourself stuck in worry or overwhelm? Having trouble sleeping? Being more critical of yourself? Or feeling compelled to over-function in an effort to gain some control in the face of the powerlessness we are feeling while this conflict continues?
If so, give yourself a break, do something that feels nourishing. Do something to calm, ground, and empower yourself.
Many times this week, I have turned to prayer to shift my energy from helplessness to hope.
Click here for a PDF of the prayer I have been using and that I shared last week.
I also find walks in nature, exercise I enjoy, and inspiring music have an uplifting effect.
While you may think…
“How can I enjoy my life while others are suffering?”
I see it another way energetically.
Like energy feeds like energy.
Anger feeds more anger.
What you feed grows.
So, energetically, being able to embody the energy you want for the world is a way you can make a difference.
When you feel good, you have a greater capacity to be kind and to make a positive difference.
Studies have shown, smiling has the power to raise your own endorphins and…
“Two studies from 2002 and 2011 at Uppsala University in Sweden confirmed it’s very difficult to frown when looking at someone who smiles.” Forbes
Turns out smiling is contagious.
Your energy matters.
- Support your faith in humanity, and look for signs of social growth.
After I read something triggering, I was scrolling on Instagram looking for something to help me shift my energy before going to bed, and I came across a video from Dr Becky.
She is a child psychologist and reparenting expert who talks about seeing the Good Inside (Her Book Title;) your kids, other people and yourself.
In this video, she was talking about the MGI (Most Generous Interpretation) versus the LGI (Least Generous Interpretation) of what was happening when her daughter hit her sibling because he took her favorite toy.
- LGI: “What is wrong with my kid!? She is such a sociopath?!”
- MGI: “I guess she hasn’t learned to share yet, and it’s hard for her to see her brother playing with her favorite toy. Maybe she hasn’t figured out how to ask for it, and she gets frustrated, and her anxiety comes out in a hit.”
Understanding this behavior is the first step to being able to help a child change it. When you know what is needed – help using words instead of hits – growth is possible.
Dr Becky’s message gives me hope.
Having the MGI for all our interactions can help us all be the change we want to see in the world.
After writing this, I walked into the bedroom and saw the reporting on the mass shooting in Maine, and my husband asked. “What kind of a sociopath does something like this?”
Using the MGI, I answered, probably someone whose parents hit him or were violent with him in some way.
While there is no excuse for violence, understanding the emotional patterns that can cause it gives me hope we can heal from it.
Emotional regulation is a popular subject on social media now.
People are becoming more and more aware of the importance of emotional and mental health.
Our society has grown leaps and bounds in this regard since I was a kid when children were to be seen and not heard.
This gives me hope and faith.
So, I invite you to have the MGI of what is happening right now.
The violence is upsetting. It is a sign we still need healing as a culture.
And there are many signs we are healing and growing too.
We each have the power to be the change we want to see in the world, one interaction at a time.
Your smile and energy matters.
So much love,
Lara
P.S. I have one spot left for group coaching. You can claim it here.
