The World is In Chaos… So Yes, You Should Be Stressed

My whole goal as a stress management and anxiety coach is to help teach you how to be calm, present, at peace and less stressed.  So I apologize in advance for the list of horrible global stressors I am about to list below. 

But my very first step in my coaching program is to have you list out your stress and anxiety triggers.  Sunlight is the best disinfectant, is it now? And while this would usually be mostly about your personal triggers, the world as a whole is experiencing many wars, traumas, problems, and worries.  Any one of these, depending on where you are, would be enough to change your body mind and trigger anxiety and stress responses.  But all of them at the same time?  I am surprised any of us can even step out of the house.

Human beings have always faced existential dilemmas: predators, famine, war and disease.  In this modern times, as we grow as societies in our rational thinking and our humanity, one would think life on earth would and should get easier.   But I cannot excuse away all that is happening as I write this as “normal”: illegal invasions and war, the atrocities that have been committed in Israel and Gaza, the seemingly unending invasion and occupation of Ukraine by Russia, instability the world over in financial and governmental institutions, climate change, inflation, political upheaval and don’t even get me started on AI.  And this is after three persistent years of a global pandemic that changed EVERYTHING about our lives.  EVERYTHING.

 I will admit, there are days when even I have wanted to bury my head in the sand and do, just like Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind.   

“I can’t think about that now.  If I do, I’ll go crazy.  I’ll think about it tomorrow.” – Scarlett O’Hara, Gone With the Wind.

If a thought, an experience, a memory or situation is too overwhelming in the moment, it is perfectly ok to shelve it for tomorrow in order to take care of yourself in the here and now.  You can always unpack it at a different time when you are ready and have clarity as to how to deal with it.

If you, like me, feel overwhelmed by the state of the world, it is ok.  If you, like me, sometimes need as my friend Kiely calls it, a “duvet day” where you just want to spend the day under your duvet just like the pug in the photo for this blog, it is ok.  Do what you need to do to take care of yourself.  Take it one moment at a time, one day at a time.  Validate your feelings knowing that the state of the world is insane right now and unless you completely ignore it, it will affect you.  How could it not? But you don’t need to let it overwhelm you and know you are not alone.  Join my newsletter below to get instant access to my number one stress and anxiety busting tool to feel better now.