I need a break from Twitter.
For the past week, I’ve been informing myself about the terrifying and shocking developments in the West, the Jihadist stabbings and murders most prevalent of all.
Such events going on in one’s country put the nervous system into flight, fight, freeze. Putting oneself into that state for a long period of time shifts your focus away from your immediate surroundings to the mind and its spirals of anxiety around safety.
The hard truth? There is no safety. There’s never been. It’s a necessary illusion for humans to function in a healthy society. Even if all humanity lived in peaceful harmony, what about asteroids and other cosmic dangers?
This is something no one really wants to accept. That’s normal. Organisms don’t like feeling unsafe. Our bodies don’t do well in constant adrenaline-fueled stress.
Unfortunately, we can easily fall into a loop of adrenalizing by exposing ourselves to the news non-stop. We get bombarded by horrible events that happen all over the world, near and far. And sometimes we can’t stop looking, driven by fear of what horrible things have happened in the hours we were asleep.
It’s tempting to invest our energy into this spiral. Trust me, I know. But this is sapping you of life force, and adds more fear, helplessness, and victimhood to the collective consciousness.
Fear clamps us shut. It keeps us from letting creative energy flow through our bodies and bring light to the world, in whatever way that may be for you.
The antidote is to get back into your body, here and now. Your mind wants to create horrible scenarios of horrible things happening to you or your loved ones. Don’t let it. When you notice your mind drifting in that direction, gently direct it back.
Your mind is your servant, not the other way around.
That said, I’ve totally fallen into this spiral before. There’s a difference between informing oneself and keeping a distance from the information, and scrolling for hours, tight and afraid.
That difference can be felt. That shift from one to the other can be felt. That’s when you can make the decision to stop, to get back into your current, physical reality.
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