If you pull up basically any news website, the landing page will likely be covered in doom and gloom: hurricanes, wildfires, corrupt politicians, celebrity gossip. It seems like there’s a never ending stream of awful things happening all around us.
In this world where we’re surrounded by chaos, how do we cope? Do we have to be obsessed with every breaking news story on our Facebook timeline and Twitter feed?
The answer is no!
Self care is incredibly important, now more than ever. Whether you have to unplug your cable box, delete your accounts on social media, or avoid the subject in friendly company, do not for one second feel bad about it.
No matter what’s going on in the world, someone else’s suffering doesn’t negate your own.
This is one of the most important lessons I’ve been taught throughout my life. When it comes to world affairs, events fall into two basic categories: things you have control over and things you have no control over.
If you have the power to elect someone new to improve the well-being of your town, state, or country, then by all means dive right in and learn as much as you can about the issues and act accordingly (vote, rally, petition, whatever).
If you have no control over the suffering of those effected by a natural disaster or the decisions of a person already in power, it’s perfectly fine to not involve yourself in it at all. There’s no reason you should torture yourself or let your mental health suffer over things that are out of your hands.
And you shouldn’t feel bad about it for one solitary second.
This is your reminder to take care of yourself. You don’t have to “accept the things you can’t change.” because sometimes those things are extremely unacceptable. Even if some people want to say that posting/sharing information about issues all over social media is “slacktivism,” sometimes it’s all you can manage. But if you personally can’t do any more than that, you still did something. You can only do so much and you shouldn’t stretch your spoons on those things when you have your own life to worry about.
So if you want to drown out all that doom and gloom with a pumpkin spice latte, or a Netflix binge session, or internet memes, by all means do so! It’s 100% okay to like things that are seemingly meaningless– obviously it means something to you.
The moral of the story is: do what you can. But don’t overextend yourself. Enjoy your pumpkin spiced life.
Melissa Pegley 