Anti Anxiety Methods for Negative Times
Guest Author: Leah Wyatt
The world can feel like a dark place. We face a barrage of extremely negative news headlines, and social media has intensified this experience. World and U.S. politics, environmental disasters, gun violence, global warfare, and other distressing trends all compete for our attention, and the negativity can be suffocating. Climate change anxiety, in particular, has become increasingly common and emotionally disruptive for many people.
Near constant access to information often heightens our feelings of hopelessness and isolation. Negative thinking affects our lives across many areas, from our performance at work, to our physical health.
If this resonates with you, please remember that your feelings are valid: a strong emotional response to negative world issues is completely normal and even healthy. Our brains are hardwired to focus on threats; this psychological mechanism kept early humans alive. Still, there are anti anxiety steps we can take to help ourselves feel better. It is absolutely possible to mitigate the mental and emotional effects of upsetting societal situations that seem to dominate our collective consciousness.
Guilt, while a completely natural response to terrible circumstances, isn’t useful because it doesn’t inspire action or change. Guilt is paralyzing, but if reframe guilty feelings as having the ability to show us opportunities to make changes, we empower ourselves. If you feel helpless, move beyond this by channeling negative mental energy in more positive ways.
Small actions count and can make a difference! Join a group with a mission you believe it, sign up to volunteer for a cause, vote for political candidates who support your positions. The familiar adage “think global, act local” rings true: what small actions can you take that meaningfully address the issues that scare you? Taking practical steps can feel empowering and lessen anxiety.
Taking media and social media breaks can be critical to maintaining a calmer mindset: the nature of social media can amplify negative news headlines to oppressive levels. Studies have shown that social media use can lead to depression, heightened anxiety, and feelings of social isolation. Some practical anti anxiety steps towards reducing social media use: store your phone out of reach, track your usage and set goals, turn off notifications, delete apps from your phone so you can only access your accounts from a computer.
If a complete, extended break from social media feels unrealistic and destined for failure, try a two hour break and work up from there. An information diet, whereby you allow yourself a set window of time each day to read the news and scroll through your social feeds could also be helpful. Narrow the news accounts you follow to wire services like the Associated Press and Reuters in order to keep your focus on fact based reporting instead of slanted news commentary, which inherently strives to elicit a strong response from readers and may be deeply biased.
Establishing a practice of expressing gratitude can also help significantly, but this can be challenging and may take time and emotional investment. It may help to start by focusing on/listing small, positive things throughout the day (many people find that keeping, and frequently revisiting, an ongoing gratitude list can be helpful).
An amazing thing about being human is that our brains can change and evolve. With a little commitment, we can retrain our minds to focus on the good things in our lives instead of on the world’s negativity. With practice it will become easier to shift your mindset and talk yourself off of the ledge when negative thoughts dominate your mind.
Perhaps most important of all, fight against the isolation brought on by feelings of fear and anxiety by seeking connections with others and asking for help when you need it: you are not alone! Discussing issues and your feelings about them with friends, family, or licensed professionals can help us reckon with and potentially lessen difficult feelings.
Pictured: the owner, Mandy Barbee