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Nuki News #9 - Crisis and Calmness
🕑 Added 2020-03-25 17:09:09 +0000 UTC
So, there are some prompts I think about, and write down for me to talk about later, this being one of them. There is no shortage of tragedies in the news and social media, after all. Often I do what I can to avoid reading or watching these sorts of things. Not out of apathy, but more to protect my sanity. At the end of the day, there wouldn't be anything I could reasonably do to change the results of any world or nation-afflicting crisis. Learning to reduce the focus on these things and separate yourself from being accountable for something outside of your control is probably necessary to find personal success.
At least, that’s what I’d thought, until we faced one of the most globally impacting scenarios; the pandemic. In this case, there are things I could do; and I am very accountable for how I handle it. We all have responsibility for our part in this covid crisis. Doing what’s recommended to prevent further cases(social distancing, hand washing, etc) has a real life n death impact on others. It was definitely hard to stay calm when I might be making my loved ones sick. However… unlike my normal mindset about these dramatic global situations...instead of avoiding it, I’ve watched and read a lot about it! I didn't choose to try and ignore it, and check on updates for it daily. As long as my sources of information about the pandemic are level-headed and not dramatized, it’s actually helped me keep steady in this time.
Maybe this is the exception to the rule, because we’re all so personally affected by this situation? It could be! Maybe after all this blows over, I’ll go back to ignoring other world issues. Or maybe, this will be how I approach all world issues from now on? I don’t know that I’d be willing to draw something for global or political issues, but it’s got me pausing on why I should or shouldn’t look into issues.
With political things(candidates, controversies, bills/laws) it can often be hard to find the line at which my life will be impacted by it, so it’s easier to ignore, and in fact, the more I’d learn about it, the angrier or more upset I’d be, seemingly without any agency to do anything about it.
I don’t consider myself the calmest person. And I’m sure you’d know I’m often keyboard mashing when I find something I absolutely love(omg if I see belly bumping pictures) but when it comes to difficult things I do try to take deep breaths and look at things as objectively. It’s not easy. This week in particular I’d been sequestering myself in my room whenever I had the free moment, and I didn’t have much focus for long periods of time. It’s easy to write about it here, but in the moment it feels a lot different and it’s a challenge to stay objective and put together. But it’s a lesson I’ll keep having to learn and improve on.
What about you? How do you handle hard situations like these? What have you found that’s helped?
Comments
Artie
I belive good will come out of this too! I guess it has been the worst during my work days as well, though for me its because I dont have much time to handle other important tasks. But I admit id be anxious in your position too. *hugs* We'll get through!!
Artie
That's a real interesting way of separating it! Thanks for sharing Sunny!
Working on my comic has been helping more than anything else. Wish I could do it all the time! I have also been keeping up with updates because I like being in the loop, especially with something that will eventually effect me. I’ve been going back and forth between keeping a level head and just getting really anxious about it, and my anxiety spikes around the four days I work since I still have to go outside and be around people ten hours a day - when I get to stay home during the weekend though, it’s a lot easier to stay relatively calm about it. It’s tough for all of us out there right now... I don’t blame you if you’ve been finding it hard to focus, it’s been so much worse at my job these last couple of weeks. We’ll get through this together though, and hopefully some good will come out of it.
Sarah Fozze
I’m definitely see where you’re coming from on all this, and I’m glad you’re taking steps to both inform yourself and take care of your own mental health! As for me, I actually thrive on learning about world issues and politics. I love learning in general, but I’m very driven to do everything I can in order to fight for what really matters. So I kind of absorb all the emotions that emanate from it, but with the knowledge and confidence that we can all make a change for the better, even with the smallest of actions. That’s what allows me to inherently distance myself from it while also being fully invested, even if sometimes I can get anxious about doing something wrong. Things that do really cause me pain are in a much smaller and personal scale, such as handling relationships, anxiety, depression, or school. Things that really won’t affect the world at large, but in reality affect self worth and thus the vision of reality as a whole. That’s my own crisis.
