You can stop the madness.
By Linda Easthouse — Written on Mar 11, 2019
The world is full of chaos, and living in it can give us stress, anxiety, and a whole host of negative emotions.
Sometimes, it feels like it would just be easier to pull your head down inside and hide in a shell like a turtle. Avoiding the overwhelm can seem like such a good way to deal with the chaos in the world. Sticking your neck out sometimes seems like an invitation to get your head cut off in today’s stressful and anxiety-ridden landscape.
When the news headlines blare new depths of deceit and corruption, it seems there is no safe place left to calm down and just live and let live. If you engage, and take on the battle, you are seen as adding to the polarization, no matter how balanced and non-confrontational you try to be. It seems impossible to know who to believe because it is all spin and opinion.
Whatever happened to old Walter Cronkite just reading the news? No angle, no position, no taking a side — just saying what happened?
Hiding and retreating to your 'turtle shell' can only help your anxiety for so long. At some point, you have to let it go and learn how to deal with anxiety. Learning how to relieve stress in a chaotic world is not as hard as you might imagine though.
Here are 5 ways to stay happy and Zen in a world of chaos and stress when everyone else is losing it:
1. Get the big picture
Step back and look at the line of history. Zoom out to see 1000 years. Today is just one day and this month is just one month out of 12,000 months.
Yes, it may seem terrible, but in the scope of 12,000 months, it doesn't have quite so much power. It's just a blip that can be undone by another month coming soon. Think about your grandmother or great-grandmother.
What was it like when they were born and when they died? Their lives changed immensely, there were huge social shifts, economic shifts, wars, droughts, and depressions; but in the end, they lived through it all. Life changed in unexpected ways.
There was a lot of resistance to that change. What we think is normal today was feared, fought against, and seen as a new regime. Over time, it worked out for the most part. Keep the big picture in mind and today won’t seem like such a cliff.
2. Remember you only see one piece of the puzzle
There is so little you actually know. In this age of information overload, you really don’t know much. Most of what you see and hear is conjuncture, threat, and spin meant to deceive, cause alarm, and get people doing whatever it is that the government or the advertisers wants you to do.
Finding the actual truth is like finding a pixel in Where’s Waldo. It's hard to make judgments and come to conclusions with so little real data. So, if you want to know how to reduce stress, start by withholding judgment, observing, listening, making friends with both sides, and recognizing that the truth probably lies somewhere in between.
When you only focus on the one little bit you see, you lose the ability to see the rest and can easily lose your way.
3. Cultivate an attitude of neutrality
You know how The Secret works, yet you let yourself submerge into the fear, the chaos, the muck, and wallow in it. What you spend your time thinking about and feeling and fearing is exactly what you attract. What you expend your emotions on is what you get.
So cultivate neutrality, focus your attention and emotions on being Zen. When fear wanders through your heart, you don’t have to offer it a bed. Send it packing.
When negative thoughts appear in your head, you don’t have to rent them a room. Ask your brain a positive question to refocus it onto solving your real desires.
4. Ground yourself in reality
A walk in the park or the forest will ground you into the earth. Shut off the phone, the social media, the news, and every other electronic device and let your body feel the earth again. Reality is dirt and sunlight. And this is a form of self-care and self-love that can help deal with stress.
Reality is your family, friends, and furry ones. Reality drains and cleans the electromagnetic field (EMF) and clears your head. Too much EMFs causes hyper-stimulation and overexcites the nerve and brain pathways, making everything seem worse.
5. Practice self-care and self-love
Take a deep breath. Eat properly. Fill your life with the good things, and focus on that which nourishes you, challenges you to be better, and feeds your soul. You'll find that you have less time or desire to be sucked in those things that make you want to hide from the chaos of the world.
If each of us — every single one — would do just one thing to help someone else today, our community would be a better place.
Once you know how to calm down in a world of chaos, you'll find yourself happier. Slowly, you'll spread your Zen and calm to others. It's like a candle; light is best passed on. Sharing it increases the light. Hiding it increases the darkness.
These 5 steps towards happiness will get your Zen back, and then shine the light for others. It's way easier than being the angry, crazy person that the chaos wants you to be.
Linda is a stress management coach, energy medicine professional, Radionics master, and best-selling author. Take control of your stresses, establish healthy patterns, and attain success and well-being so contact Linda to regain your Zen or visit her website East House Centre.