Every day, it seems the news brings more information of chaos and crisis.
Wars. Political dysfunction. Climate change impacts. Or whatever is happening in your personal life.
It’s easy to say, just push that aside and focus on what you need to do each day.
That’s certainly the way to go, in theory.
In practice, it’s not that simple. It’s naive to think that the energy of what is happening around you, in your life, and more globally, doesn’t impact you.
You might not even be aware of how it is impacting you.
To be fair, it doesn’t impact everyone the same way. Some people are better able to compartmentalize.
Other people are more “sensitive” — or, as I prefer to call it, more “attuned” — to the energy of what is happening around them and across the world.
As someone who is “highly-attuned” to energy, I know the impact it has on my physical body and on my ability to focus.
Here are some of the strategies I use to keep my nervous system regulated and stay focused when chaos and crisis are swirling around me.
(1) Be in Your Body
Being “highly sensitive” means that your senses work overtime. I tend to feel energy acutely in my body. Sometimes, it doesn’t feel good. The impulse is to try to escape this discomfort by going into my head — being in my thoughts. But those thoughts turn into distractions.
Getting into my body and staying there is the best way to stay centered in my own energy.
The best way to do this is with a morning workout that puts me in my body before the thoughts have a chance to distract me.
(2) Breathe
Breathing is something we do without even thinking about it, which is generally a good thing. But that also means we often don’t realize when we lose our breath or hold our breath.
When you notice yourself starting to spin in thoughts, pause and spend a few minutes consciously breathing.
Inhale slowly through your nose, and exhale slowly out of your mouth. Making your exhales longer than your inhales will signal your nervous system to get out of “fight or flight” mode and into a more calm and peaceful state.
Set an alarm for once an hour to pause and spend just 2 minutes to breathe consciously. Or create a ritual to do it at different points throughout your day, such as each time before you get out of your car, or before you start to eat.
(3) Limit Your Consumption of News and Information
News — both official news and the type of updates you get from social media — is like a toxin that can infect you from afar. It’s crucial to have good boundaries around your consumption of information.
Here are three ways to limit your news consumption:
(a) Stop watching television news or news in any video form.
Don’t listen to news in audio form either. Most reporters deliver even the most mundane news with a charged tone.
If you’re going to consume news, do it by reading. When you read, you supply the tone.
This goes for social media too. Limit the videos and the audio podcasts, especially when they are delivered in charged tones of voice.
(b) Limit the amount of news you read.
You don’t need to read every article and every perspective. Read enough to be informed for what you need to know. If you’re being interviewed as an expert on a topic, you probably need to read more news than if you just want to know what’s going on.
A lot of news is repetitive. Because of the pressure to publish more, news sites repeat big chunks of copy in different forms. You are not served by reading every article.
(c) Set clear boundaries on when you read news.
As a general rule, I stay offline for most of the day. I am aware of how the energy of the internet infects my personal energy and distracts me from my work.
I read a little bit of news only at the end of the day, but not too late at night before bed.
The same goes for social media.
Create clear buffer zones when you will not engage online, and clear windows when you allow yourself access to the online space. If it helps, you can set a timer to monitor your use of news and social media sites.
Notice how these sites impact your energy, and adjust your usage accordingly.
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