How to read the news and not panic

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The news of recent weeks causes anxiety, fear, panic in most people. People start to fear for their future and the future of their children. The flow of information is endless, the news changes every minute. The information space is now full of different, often contradictory information, and with each piece of news, the level of anxiety increases. This is also facilitated by discussing the current situation with friends, relatives, and colleagues. How to reduce the impact of news and how to stay on topic while maintaining mental health will be discussed in this article.

1. Allow yourself emotions

Anxiety is a normal emotion. Every person feels this feeling along with others. Yes, anxiety is a negative emotion, but it has a right to be just like any other negative emotion. And this must be understood. You need to tell yourself that it's okay to feel different feelings. You should not drive this state away from yourself, you need to accept it. The faster a person drives away fear, anxiety, the stronger these feelings and emotions roll in and take up more space inside. It should be realized that thanks to fear and anxiety, the mechanism of self-preservation and protection against external adverse conditions is activated in a person. In essence, these negative feelings help us survive, find new ways of doing things, look for options. If the anxiety becomes obsessive and painful, you need to stop and try to relax in any known way. These can be breathing practices, meditation, body relaxation exercises, or any other activity that calms you down.

2. Reduce time spent watching news to two hours a day

It is necessary to quickly reduce the amount of information. If you cannot give up watching the news, then set a clear time for it. For example, an hour before lunch and an hour after.

3. Turn off all notifications if you use smartphones to view the news

It is worth doing so that every sound of the smartphone does not return to anxiety and fears. News, especially in messengers, issue several updates per minute. And each person has more than one channel. Imagine how much time these messages take. You cannot concentrate on work, on your duties. It's like an alarm clock, which every minute makes you distract yourself from life and fall into anxiety. Turn off such a toxic alarm clock.

4. Choose 2-3 sources of information

You should not disperse and read everything in a row. Stop at a couple of publications that cover the situation coldly, soberly without an unnecessary emotional background. Remember that you should trust information only from official representatives. This concerns the operation of infrastructure facilities. You should not trust the information that someone vaguely said in passing or that you simply heard somewhere. The information may turn out to be just rumors and nothing more.

5. Focus on the here and now

Look around. If you are not in a zone of active hostilities, assess that everything is fine with you, that nothing is currently in danger. Answer the question: “What can I personally influence now?”. Surprisingly, the answer will be very simple: you can only influence your life, right here in the moment. And this is where efforts should be directed. Analyze how you can protect yourself in this situation, what you need to do “just in case”. Do it and relax. Take a piece of paper and write down what you planned to do, but put off for some reason. Now is the time to do it. In this way, you will complete the tasks and change the focus of attention to the tasks that are useful for you.

The main thing is to remember that a person has two main strategies of behavior in difficult and unclear situations. The first is to freeze. Not understanding anything, not feeling, not really assessing the situation. Just freeze and wait for everything to be resolved. The second is to act. Look around in all directions. Understand where you are, what is with you, what and who is around. Assess what is happening and what impact it has on you and your immediate environment. Start looking for options and act. Any crisis is a collapse for one, and new opportunities for another. And this should be remembered, try to find new perspectives.