On Doom
There is a lot going on in the news right now that makes it easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless. I’ve found that if I’m not careful, one way I try to handle that is by obsessively reading about it all, and maybe then reposting it to social media. This is my way of trying to minimize that anxiety by giving myself like an active participant in everything that is going on. Then I end up feeling frustrated with the world and myself—- despite the fact that I read so much and thought so much about it, things didn’t go the way I wanted them to! The world remains full of people who don’t understand things the way I do, even though I posted about it online! But of course, I have no control over the news of the day—- in my entire life as a news reader, voter, teacher, etc, I doubt I’ve done one thing that had an impact on the national news or the direction the country was headed. My sense of control over the events is entirely an illusion.
So I have to try to limit that impulse. I have to stop myself from doom scrolling and doom reposting But it is difficult to to just excise some behavior from your day, because the reason it was in your day in the first place was because it filled some kind of need, or you’d tricked yourself into believing it was filling a need. You have to replace it with something that more effectively accomplishes the goal. So, as for me, I’m using this writing project to focus on the small ways I am able to have a positive impact on the world. For example, over the three day weekend, I…
-Went for a 3 mile run. It was my best training run to date and felt like real progress on my recovery from last Fall’s injury
-Replaced all the smoke detectors in my house. It involved shutting off some circuit breakers and rewiring the connections. Since I have no real handyman skills, doing this without burning the house down was a real achievement.
-Assembled an Ikea set of bunkbeds for my kids. It took about four hours and was really hard, but now the boys get to share a room and have the other room as a designated playroom.
-Actually, I assembled an Ikea set of bunkbeds with my wife, without arguing, and had some good conversations with her without the kids bothering us.
-Gave my dog at least 30 minutes of exercise every day even though it is bitter cold outside.
-Took time to relax on my couch and enjoyed watching all four NFL playoff games.
Those are the kind of small, everyday wins that actually give some meaning to my time. I have to make myself spend time reflecting on those kinds of experiences every day. That’s how I avoid feeling hopeless and powerless.
This is also why I’m doing this project—- this blog is here to document my thoughts and experiences while training to run 5 half marathons in 5 states in July, which is fundraiser I’m doing for the National Diaper Bank Network. If you’d like to do something that will have a positive impact on the world, I’d love it if you clicked the Donate button up at the top of the page and made even a small contribution. Talk to you next time!
