There’s so much to be afraid of. I hear “the world is going to end” so frequently, I think I’ve become desensitized to it.
I hear “another shooting,” and my reaction is just ‘oh, that’s horrible.’ I’m not even shocked anymore.
“More people have been killed in bombing strikes,” has become the new “just another Monday.” I feel like everything’s always on fire.
Trump declared war, and I didn’t have any more clean pants, so I had to do laundry. He said he’d send Iran “back to the Stone Ages,” and I had to cook dinner, when all I wanted to do was cry.
This is bonkers. This is absurd.
Can we stop for a second and just breathe? I feel like I haven’t had a proper exhale in three months, minimum. In…. and out. Do it with me, maybe you’ll feel better too. In (count 2… 3… 4…), and out (2… 3… 4…).
The world is burning, and I’m BURNT OUT
I have a biography to read by next week, and I’m only forty pages in. Every time I see it on my desk I feel stressed. There’s just so much to do, all the time, and I don’t have the capacity for any of it.
So lately, I’ve been practicing what I call “zooming in,” inspired by Big Rock Theory. If life is a bucket, and I have some big rocks (important, large goals) and many small rocks (chores), the best way to fit everything into life is putting the big rocks in first, and pouring the small ones on top and around.
The idea is to organize your life around the big rocks, and do the small tasks represented by the pebbles in your spare time.
But if each day is a much smaller container, like a mug, you won’t fit all the big rocks in, no matter how much organizing you do. So today my big rocks were going to class, going to my appointment, and writing this. I have two other big assignments and a grocery trip that I need to do, but my day is a mug! All of those won’t fit!
And it’s exhausting. I see all the rocks that still need to fit, and guilt rises in my throat knowing I can’t get it done.
So I “zoom in.” I pick a few tasks, the most urgent ones, and I tell myself, you’re going to do these and nothing else.
Where’s your Waldo?
Another application of my “zoom in” strategy is not trying to solve every problem by yourself.
In the popular children’s visual puzzle “Where’s Wally” (in North America, known as “Waldo”), you must search a page full of people to find a person in a red and white striped shirt and a beanie. These pages are often very busy, making it incredibly difficult to spot one character.
Imagine every single person on one of these pages had a name and a backstory, and to play the game correctly, you had to know ALL OF THEM.
That’s what it’s like trying to keep up with everything happening in the world at once. It’s simply too stressful, tragic, horrifying. So find “your Waldo.”
Pick one issue to care about, and then go care about it as intensely as you can.
Rest is productive
So often, we sacrifice a little sleep, a little personal time, to get everything done. Overachieving is really common. It’s also really not good for us.
I’m a college student. Sometimes my “zoom in” means just doing my schoolwork. I often don’t have the capacity to go to protests, or speeches, or volunteer. So am I a bad person for prioritizing school?
Short answer: no. I am going to school for a purpose. I am learning so I can have a positive impact. My degree will help me get a job in an industry where I can advocate for the accessibility of creative writing. This is a good thing! But I have to study so I can do that.
I read a wonderful article recently called ‘Achievement Isn’t Everything: Inside Student Burnout.” The author, Marina Michele, describes how perfection is expected of high-schoolers, and how that expectation is unsustainable. It’s important to rest, take care of yourself, and not try to sprint the marathon.
I want to make a change for good in the world, and I’m not going to do that today or tomorrow. I’m preparing myself for spending the rest of my life making those changes.
Remember: the world hasn’t ended yet. I’m still alive, and so are you.
We’re all looking at the same moon
If we want to create change, we must take care of ourselves. I can’t protest if I’m exhausted.
It might seem like silly, obvious advice, but go touch grass. Leave your phone, leave your headphones, and go on a walk, or just sit on your doorstep and listen.
Try not to think too much, ignore any stress and deadlines, and just exist in reality. Let this ground you.
Look at the world we live in. The world hasn’t ended yet. It’s so hard to be hopeless when we see how grand the earth is, how insignificant our emails and assignments are in comparison.
Some people may say this pessimistically. I’ve heard over and over, “If nothing I can do compares to the vastness of the world, why do anything at all?” I want to turn that on its head.
If nothing I do matters in the grand scheme of things: why not be happy? Why not get a little treat and wear my pretty dress and dance on my way to the bus stop? It’s the opposite of apathy.
How do we overcome the drowning, choking, overwhelming terror? With hope.
Hope will save us
In the recent Artemis II mission, humans traveled 252,756 miles from Earth. This sets a record for the greatest distance humans have traveled in space. Yes, so many terrible things are happening, but so many beautiful things are happening too.
Astronaut Reid Wiseman, part of the Artemis II crew, has now seen the moon from the closest any flyby mission has ever been.
It is absolutely spectacular, surreal. I know there’s no adjectives. I’m going to need to invent some new ones.
Reid Wiseman
His description of this experience is so full of awe. We must never lose our ability to be afflicted by wonder. We must never lose our ability to feel joy.
Recently, I have been thinking about a story I read online. The poster described how they lived by the ocean as a kid, and they didn’t see what was so special about it. Then one day, a stranger exclaimed how beautiful the ocean was, as they had never seen it.
The poster said that from then on, they saw the ocean in a new light. We live in an age of fear-based news and doomscrolling for hours. To survive, we have to remember that our world is wonderful.
Hope is HARD
You can’t just wake up and suddenly be really good at hope. This is a really random example, but I’ve been wanting to learn to ice skate. I am not in shape! I’m gonna fall on my ass!!
Like any skill, hope won’t come naturally. You gotta practice it, build up the muscles. Since it’s a mindset skill, this looks like cutting yourself off when you start getting all sad and thinking everything’s hopeless. This can also look like saying: “I’m still alive, the world hasn’t ended yet.” Say it out loud, even if it feels silly, or you don’t believe it yet. Go on, right now, say it.
I’ll do it too. I’m still alive. The world hasn’t ended yet.
Practice reminding yourself of this. You’ll get better at it over time. The more I practice hope, the less overwhelmed I’ve become.
Also, remember that you’re not alone. It’s easy to isolate, stay in your room, staring at your phone. It’s easy to get stuck scrolling in the dark and not text your friend back. I saw Project Hail Mary last night, and it reminded me of something incredibly important.
I’m not alone; neither are you.
This movie spends so much time on the friendship between two main characters, Rocky and Grace. We watch them learn to communicate, coexist and care for each other. Their friendship is the point— Project Hail Mary is a movie about the importance of not being alone. I needed that reminder, and I think so do many of us.
Zooming in, grounding myself, feeling joy, and practicing hope. I’ve gathered all these tools to help me feel steadier, less overwhelmed, less exhausted.
Now, I can dedicate myself to having a positive impact.
One hundred pennies make a dollar
It’s easy to think that even focusing your efforts on one issue won’t be enough. On a global scale, it’s easy to imagine that you’re a drop in the ocean. Since each one of us cannot singlehandedly save the world, it’s easy to give up.
We cannot give up. It’s hard to keep living, I know, but we must.
One of the biggest inspirations for my activism is, and I’m not kidding, Marvel’s Agents of Shield. One throwaway line in a TV show from 2013 really did change my life.
One person doesn’t have the solution, but a hundred people with one percent of the solution? That’ll get it done. I think that’s beautiful, pieces solving a puzzle.
Skye, Agents of Shield 1×02
Many small actions can and do add up to big change. You may only be able to donate one shirt, but one hundred people, each donating one shirt, is a lot of shirts. One hundred people, giving a tiny amount each, can put food on a family’s table.
It’s also important to remember that your energy levels will fluctuate. You might have a good day and a bad week. That’s okay. Sometimes your “zoom in” might be remembering to eat today. If that’s all you can do, that’s enough.
I’ll say again that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. The positive impacts we can have will be measured over years, not days. So keep living. Focus on school, spend time with your family. Make enough money to feed yourself, and see if you have enough spare to ask your local homeless shelter what supplies you can buy for them.
We can’t keep the world from ending if we’re all overwhelmed and terrified. So go outside, sleep, and be kind to yourself.
I’m still alive. So you are. The world hasn’t ended yet, and we still have hope.
