That hasn’t been a great week. We see the entire financial system of the US descending into a bottomless pit, and dragging the rest of the world down with it. I have a distant relative who just took all his money out of the bank and has it stuffed in a safe with his guns. It’s getting crazy.
What am I supposed to do in this situation? How do I keep from being dragged into this despair?
Well, the first thing I’m doing is to go back to my basic values. I remember that I’m the one who gets to choose who I want to be, and that I want my life to be values-based rather than driven by the craziness of others around me.
That’s a good start. By realizing this, it gives me some mental space to think about the situation more calmly.
The second thing I’m doing is to try to balance my information inputs. I listen to one podcast which is more in the direction of conspiracy theories, but not usually too bad. I balance that by other podcasts which are focused on spiritual health. I have a number of TV news stations that I won’t watch, because I don’t like how they affect me. I spend time reading more uplifting magazines.
The third thing is to recognize what I can actually affect in this situation. I have minimal impact on what our government is doing, but I certainly will be contributing my voice in the upcoming election. I’ve done some thinking about our retirement investment portfolio, and decided that the best thing for now is to pretty much leave it alone. We’ve pared back our discretionary spending a fair bit. I can continue to support others around me who are in truly dire straits.
But, in the end, this whole thing is just absolutely, stunningly huge. I wish for our leaders to make intelligent choices.