Welcome.
You can do this sitting or lying down.
If you've been living in the current moment,
America,
The world,
The headlines,
There's a decent chance your nervous system has been constantly bracing itself for impact.
A lot of people are feeling a kind of ambient alarm.
It's not just one story.
It's the sense of constant volatility,
Arguments everywhere,
Institutions feeling shaky,
The feed never ending.
So treat this as a reset,
Not a way of ignoring the world,
A way of meeting it without losing your mind.
Take a moment to feel the body as it is,
The fact that you are here.
Now notice,
The mind is probably producing commentary,
Even right now,
Images,
Phrases,
Predictions,
Arguments you're having with people who aren't present.
That's not a personal failure.
That's what minds do under stress.
See if you can recognize that a thought is just a thought.
Not a moral emergency you must solve in the next five seconds.
Let one thought appear clearly,
Maybe a political one,
Maybe a fear about where things are going.
And instead of following it down the tunnel,
Just watch it.
Notice it without judgment.
It appears.
It changes.
It becomes,
Then impassive.
Now this type of anxiety has a special trick.
It convinces you that staying activated is the same thing as being responsible.
As if calm equals complicity,
But calm is not denial.
Calm is capacity.
When you're calm,
You can choose what to do,
What to read,
What to ignore,
What action is real,
What action is performative,
When you need rest,
When you can help.
So let's draw a clean line between two things.
What you can influence and what you are merely absorbing.
Feel that difference in the body.
There are things you can do,
Vote,
Call someone,
Donate,
Show up locally,
Have difficult conversations with care.
But there is also the endless consumption loop,
Refreshing,
Scrolling,
Marinating in outrage,
When nothing changes except your nervous system,
And the mind will insist.
Just a little more information,
As if the next clip,
The next heart take,
The next update will finally create certainty.
Notice that urge,
Not as bad,
Just as an urge,
And watch it the way you watch the thoughts.
It rises,
Peaks,
Falls.
Now widen your attention,
Include sound,
Include space,
Include the whole field of experience.
Sensations,
Thoughts,
Emotions,
All of it moving.
In a moment like this,
The world can feel like it's closing in,
But awareness is the opposite of that.
Awareness is open.
And in that openness,
You can hold complexity,
You can care without combusting,
You can be grief or anger without turning your mind into a battleground.
If it helps,
Silently repeat one phrase.
I can care without spiralling.
Once more,
I can care without spiralling.
Now,
Imagine the news as a storm moving across a continent.
Some of it is intense,
Some of it is ugly,
Some of it is heartbreaking.
But you are not required to stand outside in the storm all day to prove you're paying attention.
You can come inside,
You can warm up,
You can regain your clarity.
And from that clarity,
You can decide what's next,
If anything.
So let the mind settle into a quieter stance.
Notice what remains when the mind stops for a moment.
A simple presence.
A baseline okayness.
Even here.
Even now.
And as we close,
Make a small commitment.
When you return to the world,
When you pick up the phone,
When you read the headlines,
Do it deliberately.
Not as a reflex.
If you feel yourself getting pulled into the undertow,
You'll know what to do.
Pause.
Feel the body.
Watch the thought.
Let it pass.
One more moment of stillness.
And when you're ready,
Open your eyes.
You're not turning away from reality.
You're meeting it with a mind that can actually help.
