Today’s audio / video clip is an excerpt from an interview on What Can I Do? podcast released on September 4, 2024. While my focus then was helping listeners move from fear and freeze in the anxious days preceding the federal election, the theme remains salient today.
When we are afraid, we can become stuck in a vicious cycle of helplessness that leads to despair. Within this cycle, doom-scrolling often serves to give us a false sense of control, as though if we could simply know and understand the full scope of the problem, it might somehow become manageable. The horrors may not change, but at least we won’t be caught off guard. Unfortunately, this rarely works to reduce anxiety, and we can become further entrenched in our fear.
To move from this frozen state, identify one action, no matter how small, that you can take to influence the things you care about. This may be within your home, your local community, your state or province, your nation, or the world. It may be related to your source of anxiety or completely separate - even organizing your closet or junk drawer or weeding your garden can create a sense of efficacy to move you from freeze to thaw. These small acts may even create a snowball effect - but are worthy even if they don’t.
Then balance this action with purposeful self-care, moving your body to stimulate dopamine and endorphins, and engaging with others in mutual or collective care. If possible, move from the screen to live engagement, and notice the energy shift. There is immense power in looking in another’s eyes, in allowing our heartbeats to synchronize and co-regulate, in letting our mirror neurons attune to the mind of another. We truly are stronger together.
For more on managing doom-scrolling and media overwhelm, be sure to check out last week’s post, Surviving the Flood.
And, join me LIVE here on Substack this Wednesday at 2:30 Pacific / 5:30 Eastern for a discussion on grounding and coping techniques for managing trauma symptoms. Come to share what works for you or simply to gather fresh ideas! All are welcome. I look forward to connecting with you then!
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