Collective Apprehension

May 16

So often I have people come to me, distressed at the state of the world around them, trying to figure out how they can relax. Obviously, most of us don’t like to stress ourselves out, so getting out of it is desirable. However, when those who are rattled plea for strategies to cope, there is often an implication that they are somehow more sensitive, or less resilient than others. They wish to just be able to “get over it” or to “move on” like everyone else. But this is a false assumption. Like American rock musician Joe Walsh puts it, "Everybody else shares the same cloudy sky." We all are stressed by the lack of money to go around. None of us feel comforted looking at news cycles and seeing the fear, anger, and sadness in our neighbors. There is widespread unease as we all don’t know what lies ahead of us. So yes, I can share some ways to help get your mind away from spiraling about these things you cannot control, but make no mistake, you are not alone in your distress. How it impacts you might differ, and how you react can wildly diverge, but the baseline apprehension about the world in front of you is a shared experience. Give yourself more credit for just getting through the day. We all get it.