Making time for your own wellbeing is paramount in order to preserve yourself in a time which feels ever more hostile. In today's world, we face divisive culture wars, looming challenges such as climate change, and the harrowing possibility of regional conflicts boiling over into all out war. Through social and mainstream media, we face an unrelenting barrage of negative news, interspersed with unrealistic highlight reels displayed by influencers. It is easy to feel that we are not enough, that we are not achieving the same feats as others, and that we are lagging behind, squandering our potential. The prevalence of negative content online, due to its sensational nature, means that we are developing a distorted few on the world, imagining that it is a worse place than it really is.
Taking time for yourself, and looking inwards, can remedy this chaos by allowing us to focus on stillness, gratitude, and grace. John Milton, in his historic book, Paradise Lost, wisely pondered, “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..” The problem with the negativity that comes from the news and social media is that it disrupts our own internal world. We might not realise the damage it is inflicting upon us as it tends to occur gradually. If we can take a moment in our own minds, breathe, and try and ground ourselves, tuning our senses into the subtle tones and nuances of our immediate environment, we can begin to foster calm, peace, and fortitude, which makes us more capable of facing genuine adversity when it arises.
