Tips from your friendly local woman with a job that gives people vicarious trauma.
- get a creative hobby. Self expression helps and so does practicing skills that use your hands if that’s an option for you. Coloring counts.
- schedule downtime. You aren’t a bad person if you need a break from the Horrors. You can get up to speed later. Turn off news alerts and stay off social media. Find something engaging to do and immerse yourself. At least a day or two a month. For best results, take your downtime with another human and talk about something other than the Horrors.
- get a physical hobby, if that’s accessible for you. It’s unfortunately true that exercise gives you endorphins. It’s also good to get out of your head and into your body. Swimming is extra good because immersion in water triggers your mammalian diving reflex and calms your nervous system.
- mindfulness is another thing that I’m annoyed works but does. YouTube meditations, walking meditations, restorative practice yoga, etc.
- if you’re like me, you may also need your own cannon of readings to fall back on- they don’t have to be scripture from your faith (though those also work) but can be passages, poems, and song lyrics from any work where you find meaning. These help ground you and remind you of your role in all this tragedy.
Seconding all of this but also adding:
Don’t just sit in all the misery and then log off and try to forget about it for a while just to sit in it again. *Do* something. It is much easier to unplug and take some time for self-care when you know that your time has been well-spent, that you’ve actually done the best you can do to help out, and that you are now *taking a break* so that you can return to help again. You don’t need to do world-changing things. You just need to *genuinely* do what you know is the best of your ability. If you can fundraise? do that. Protest? Do that. Write/call your representatives? Educate your community? Provide comfort to people in need? Do that. Remember that you are part of a community, and your individual actions are not about changing the world, but helping to add another drop into the pool that will ultimately bring about change. Pick 1 cause, maybe 2. Do the things that are fully within your means to do and separate out that time so you can do that work and then give yourself time off. Even if you “only” donate a few hours of your time or a little bit of money or whatever, you are building up to something bigger.
