08/12/2019
I think we are all left feeling fearful, shocked, and just so sad that more shootings are occurring in the U.S. I hope that we can all do our part to work to bring more peace and safety to our world. While you are experiencing these tragedies it’s important to take care of ourselves, as well. I posted some simple strategies below. ✌🏻❤️ Also, if you have some positive news or news that we can celebrate, feel free to add it in the comments.
• Limiting your social media activity can be really beneficial during times of tragedy. If you follow many different news sources, you may want to cut it down to just a few that you feel offer the information that is important for you to know. You may also need to cut down the amount of time that you are on social media, by choosing specific times in a day or week that you will catch up on the news.
• Try to focus as much of your attention on what you have control of as you can. It’s very easy to become keenly aware of all of the chaos and loss of control in the world, and you can end up experiencing a personal crisis if you don’t redirect your attention to what you can really do. If you want to contribute to making changes, you might want join a social activism group, volunteer your time, or donate to related support groups or causes. You might find that you have become more aware of the preciousness of human life, and creating more time and space in your personal family or social life may be just what you need to express that and experience that meaning in your life.
• We all need support, and during times of crisis reaching out to one another is so important. There are many people who are experiencing similar emotions and we can get through this together. You might want to reach out to trusted friends or family or talk to a support group. If your emotions and thoughts are causing you distress to the point that it is affecting your daily functioning, talking to a mental health professional can help you to find more balance and control in your life, and will help you to implement positive and healthy coping strategies.
• Find positive ways to express your feelings and thoughts. Sometimes it may be difficult for us to verbalize our feelings during times of crisis, and finding creative ways to express ourselves can help us to process everything that we are experiencing. Creating art, drawing, writing, etc. are great ways to cope with intense emotions.
• When people witness tragedy, either in person or through media sources, they can sometimes feel a sense of guilt that their experiences weren’t as bad as others, that they survived and others didn’t. This sometimes leads to a wall that can keep us from healing from the tragedy. It’s important that we remember that we all have a right to our feelings. Just because another person’s experience may seem more horrible than yours, doesn’t mean that you don’t have a right to experience and express openly and honestly what you are going through. It can be very helpful for us to think about all of the things that we are thankful for in our lives; however, it’s equally as important for us to know that no matter how many things we have to be thankful for we still will have experiences that we have a right to talk about and even complain about, and we still will have overwhelming feelings we have a right to express.
• We live in a world with so much hate and violence, but there is also so much beauty and love in the world. You have to purposefully look for it when you are overwhelmed with tragedy, but it is there. Take some time every day to find the beauty in the world or even just in your small part of the world.
