What is going on with the world right now? I cannot stop worrying about things.

@Megalomentaurus Hi. I totally hear where you are coming from. I too have problems with these frightening images of the future. I’m going to tell you what my way of coping has been. It’s not perfect, it is short term, but it’s better than panic. I have to keep coming back to these techniques because the panic returns, but that is to be expected given the nature of the issues you and I are facing. They are real things in the world and rightly worrying. I imagine others might have told you to chill or relax and that may make the panic feel even worse.

Today, at this minute I am safe. I have air conditioning, I have eaten, I have food. Living in the future is not possible. Try to breath a bit deeper, try to pay attention to how your body is feeling. When I do this initially my mind screams, “My body feels panicked, what do you expect it to feel like!?!” Then I try to focus on just one small part of my body or on my breathing. I try to pay attention to how that feels in as much awareness as I can. Rest your hand on your leg or a table. Pay attention to how the hand feels at the outer skin layer, and internally. Can you feel the pressure of your hand on what it is resting against. What about the inner flesh of the hand. Do you feel warmth, throbbing, tingling or maybe it feels “neutral” and there seems like nothing there to pay attention to. Switch attention to any other part of your body, let your attention follow whatever sensation you can find. While doing this your mind will probably continue it’s monologue about the impending future disasters. Just say to it, kindly, “not now mind, we can talk about that later.” You may have to remind yourself to quiet the mind like this several times. Try to resume the focus on your body and this very moment.

If you try to do this for at least a period of five minutes, and maybe Do it several times a day it can help give you a short break. The future you fear may indeed be your reality one day, but then again, we humans are really good at worrying about bad future events that never happen. We can also be blissfully unaware of impending disastrous things that maybe someone should have been more careful to avoid. The sinking of the Titanic was one of those things that seems like someone might have been justified in worrying about before it occurred. But the thing is we aren’t great at making predictions either about good or bad things. I imagine a lot of soldiers at war think they will never make it home alive. They are justified in their worried assessment but many do survive despite the odds. All of us, soldiers, civilians, rich, poor, all of us live a life of uncertainty. There are literally no guarantees. We try to build a picture of the world as a stable unchanging place, but this is really not reality. Sometimes it is nice to assume it is stable and go on in our life as if it were. Other times it helps to realize that every bit of every atom in the universe is moving and changing and that’s the reality and nature of it. Wishing it was otherwise just adds to our worries.

You’ll have feelings about all of this. It doesn’t feel good to face what we have to face. I keep saying that I’d be doing so much better if only life was like it was a few years ago. Feelings are temporary though. They are a phenomenon just like the weather. They change and although we sometimes think the bad feelings are here to stay, a lot of times it’s only true because we let our thoughts run amok. Our thinking goes something like, “Condition A is bad…” and upon this thought our body starts pumping adrenaline and we pay really close attention to that thought. The thought is a “danger” thought and we have learned through evolution to pay extra attention to danger thoughts. That’s why you’re great great great grandfather survived, and why you’re here. Our mind then says, “Oh no, if condition A is bad then it may lead to condition B…” And then we are off to rapidly linked and an ever more disastrous dialog in our head.

Yes the world is scary right now. You and I have one really important job - to not panic. By not panicking we are doing not only a service to ourselves but to everyone around us. In a state of more calm (no need to try to achieve perfect calm, but just less panic) we can perhaps come up with creative ideas to help us survive and maybe even help others survive and maybe even solve some of the worlds problems. None of us is smart enough or powerful enough to fix any of these things by ourselves. Personally we can choose to be overwhelmed by them or to find some small hope to get through. I don’t know about you, but every time I get to this fork in the road of “giving up”, it’s more depressing than trying, really trying to keep moving forward. Trying to move forward with some tight jawed attitude like I’m a super tough soldier isn’t healthy. That’s why I return to my meditation practice - most often just a few short moments during the day to focus on this second and how my body is feeling. The Titanic may indeed sink but at least I have a few moments of relaxing my mind and body.

I hope this perspective helps a bit. The only one I know. I hope you find whatever helps you. Dismiss whatever is not helpful to you, but keep searching for what does. Wishing you all the best.