Contents
In the midst of a stormy sea of worries, how can one understand the relativity of difficulties without giving up on everything? What do we do when we can’t deal with negative news? Advise existential psychotherapist Svetlana Krivtsova and philosopher and psychoanalyst Elsa Godard.
Receive information in a different way
If you read all the news in a row without thinking about them, you get Malevich’s Black Square. This does not mean that it is necessary to completely disconnect from the outside world, it is only about a rational approach to the news. Allocate a special time during the day to get acquainted with the information — let it be a fairly long period, but only once a day. It’s better than constantly grabbing bits of news here and there. Distinguish also sources, prefer analytical articles about politics, economics, history, to put into perspective what we hear in short issues.
See also: «Absorb information consciously»
Back to your feelings
Yes, there is a crisis around, but I myself, in my life, here and now, what do I feel? What touches me? In most cases, such a question will allow us to feel the gap between the global event and our subjective experience. And do not dive headlong into what others inspire us.
- Four ways to get back to yourself
be realistic
Fear of the future often hides longing for the past. However, the notorious “It used to be better” is just an illusion. By what criteria can we evaluate that our parents lived better than us? And why should we worry about a future we may never see? The past is no more, the future is not yet. Let’s try to experience only what is here and now — this is the main lesson of Buddhism, on which the practice of meditation is built.
- Breathe in… and breathe in peace
Understand what is up to us
Anxiety prevents us from finding the sweet spot between the desire for omnipotence (“I want to change the world”) and the feeling of powerlessness (“I can’t influence anything”). To take an intermediate position between these two extremes, one should ask oneself what depends on me and what does not depend. It does not depend on me that Russia is losing its positions in the world, but I am free not to make these changes a source of my anxiety.
- Alfried Lenglet: «We are becoming less and less aware of the true value of life»
Remember your successes
To worry that we will not be able to overcome the difficulties that await us is to have a short memory: after all, there have certainly been moments in our lives when we managed to come out of difficult situations with honor. If we did it once, then why shouldn’t it work tomorrow? Remember those moments and the lessons you learned from them to gain faith in yourself and in life.