9 Tips To Stay Grounded As You Take In The News (Mindful Media)
I’ve been feeling pretty quiet in terms of responding to the state of affairs here in the US and around the world these past few weeks. I’m hearing that a lot of you have been feeling that too. Many of us have been internally collecting ourselves, letting the new realities of this moment and context settle in and feeling into how we can take wise, useful individual action to contribute to the collective good.
I attended a half-day urban meditation retreat with one of my favorite meditation teachers recently. And while it was sweet and grounding, I noticed I was craving more integration of these ancient wisdom practices into where the rubber meets the road in our actual daily lives right now.
And I’m noticing in my own daily practice that one way this is really showing up is the practice of mindful media consumption.
Because neither constant, breathless, indignant outrage nor overwhelmed, despairing, passive helplessness and withdrawal serve our collective well-being in this (or any) moment.
We need to resource ourselves so we can stay engaged in flexible, useful, responsive rather than reactive, conscious rather than unconscious ways without constantly feeling pummeled into overwhelm by the barrage of information coming at us all day every day.
And in this moment when so much feels out of our control on the global scale, one thing that is within our immediate individual control — and which can have a profound positive ripple effect —
Is for each of us to do what we can to stay as calm, centered and grounded as possible as we take in information about what’s going on in the world.
We — despite what it may often feel like — are not actually at the helpless mercy of the news cycles we're constantly inundated with.
We have conscious choice and actually a lot of control available to us around how we engage with and respond to all of this information.
So here are a few ideas to help you stay more internally grounded amidst all the external churn.
1. Take one to three conscious, full belly breaths before tuning into the news in the morning and set an intention to stay grounded as you read, listen or watch.
DON'T ENGAGE WITH NEWS UNLESS/UNTIL YOU'RE FEELING REASONABLY GROUNDED & REGULATED (CALM IN BODY & MIND).
2. Stay connected to your body as you take in news.
Instead of getting 100% lost up in your head, with its proliferative, fearful, projected stories about what might happen in the future, notice your breath. Notice areas of intense sensation.
Pendulate your awareness between areas of the body that feel neutral or relaxed and what you're reading, watching or listening to.
Rhythmically toggle your attention between “inner” and “outer”.
3. Let your news consumption be an observational experiment.
Play with noticing what's scrolling across the screen of your awareness (and the screen in front of you) without ingesting it it into your body.
OBSERVE, DON'T ABSORB.
4. Notice the language you habitually use to talk about what’s going on in the world.
If you find yourself frequently saying things like “It’s all just so scary”, try a shift to less personal/less permanent language. This might sound like: “I’m noticing that a lot of fear came up within me as I read that story this morning.” The less personal and less permanent our minds perceive something to be the more regulated our nervous system can stay around it.
5. Pay attention for when you've hit your saturation point.
When is enough enough when it comes to taking in information? Your mind won’t be able to tell you this. This is going to come from cues in your body of overwhelm, panic or shutdown — a clenched jaw, a tightly held abdomen or noticing that your breath has stopped. These are signs to tap out for the moment.
AIM FOR ENOUGH BUT NOT TOO MUCH INFORMATION.
6. Consider how often you actually need to consume news.
For me, this generally looks like scrolling in a grounded way through headlines of a few publications in the morning while I have coffee, listening to the morning news brief from NPR while making breakfast, and occasionally listening to a thoughtful, calmly presented podcast about something that feels important to learn more about what's going on in the world. And that's it. No casual, random scrolling throughout the day. After I've gotten what feels like a responsible sense of what's happening for the day, I shift my attention back into my actual directly lived life.
7. Thoughtfully consider what sources you're collecting your news from.
Notice, are these outlets pummeling you with a hyperventilating fire hose of traumatic, urgent events beyond your control, leaving you in a more panicked, less regulated state every time you visit them?
If so, consider what outlets could better allow you to receive the information you need to stay informed but without dysregulating your nervous system and leaving you feeling helpless.
8. Remind yourself that you're not having a solitary, individual experience if you're feeling overwhelmed by all that’s going on in the world.
Anyone who's paying close attention these days is going to feel that way sometimes. This reminder of our shared collective experience is nervous system regulating. And the more skillfully we can regulate our nervous systems, the more adeptly we can take useful action “out there” in the world.
9. When it all feels like too much, literally step away. Micro-dose small moments of joy, delight, wonder, kindness and connection in your daily life, neighborhood and community.
Balance "The world is on fire!!!” panic with peaceful, joyful, caring, pleasantly energizing people, places, habits and resources in your daily life. Tap into your internal pharmacy of feel-good chemicals you can trigger cascades of within your own body through where you place you attention and energy.
Nourish yourself. Surround yourself with beauty. Focus on people who are doing inspiring, compassionate things in the world.
Here’s to us seizing this moment as an opportunity to deepen our practice of even more deeply connecting to ourselves and one another for the greatest good.
With Love,
Melissa
PS - If you’re curious about exploring these themes in a sweetly personalized way, be in touch about 1:1 coaching possibilities.