The world right now can seem like a chaotic and frightening place. Especially if we allow thoughts about what’s going on to permeate our waking hours and take us away from what’s truly important to us.
In this post, I want to explore how deliberate self-care activities can make a positive difference. No, they won’t end a trade war or increase global democracy – but they’ll help you navigate exposure to news about these challenges in a more sustainable way.
What is self-care?
In my first post in this series, I described self-care in simple but inclusive terms as ‘the things we do intentionally to invest in our wellbeing’. When we practice self-care, we’re doing the things that will improve our situation, even if they don’t feel wonderful in the moment. And yes, while that could having a nap, it could equally be sorting out some unpaid bills, or as I’ll explain this post, turning off the news.
Now, more than ever, it’s critical to have a self-care toolkit in place. A set of activities and routines that will contribute positively to your health and wellbeing. Because current events – and our responses to them – have the potential to erode not just our happiness but our wellbeing too.
It’s always been uncertain, right?
I personally dislike it when writers and presenters lean into the VUCA acronym, because frankly, the world has always been a bit of an unpredictable and chaotic place. That said, I think the difference between the people who lived through massive upheaval in previous centuries is that they didn’t have access to instant news updates or a hyperactive digital hive-mind (thanks, Cal Newport!) to erode their focus and overwhelm them with ‘breaking news’.
With this uncertainty and volatility in mind, I’d like to share some perspectives that I review with my coaching clients as they transition through significant personal change. Think of it as exploring self-care through the lens of navigating change, most of which you haven’t instigated!
Principles, not rules
As ever, these recommendations are principles, not rules – nobody needs more rules to follow in life. Review the list below and reflect on how you might be able to bring them to life in your own routines. If ‘current events’ are slowly increasing your anxiety and distress, then they could be very helpful indeed.
1. Focus on what’s in your control
It’s very easy for us to get upset and wound up by things that are happening in the world, often very far from us. Our empathy for people who are suffering is part of being human. However, if we spend all of our time and dedicate all of our focus to terrible things happening far away, we’re going to miss out on what’s happening right here and right now. So be aware when your focus moves to things that are far outside of your control. Global politics. Climate change. Conflict and injustice. The big issues facing us as a species.
Instead, bring your focus back to what’s going on for you personally and take action on what is within your control. Of course this could include acting and donating and publicising issues that are close to your heart. But without helpful action on things that are absolutely in our control, we can feel powerless and remain upset.
2. Consume with intention
A phrase I use when coaching individuals to build their flexibility is to become a ‘choosy consumer’. What this means is to reflect on the ideas and thoughts that they’re buying into and to consume what their mind gives them with intention, rather than in an automatic way. This means acknowledging that a lot of what our mind gives us is nonsense or irrelevant. In short, remembering that a thought is just a thought.
And so it is with the news and social media. A shortcut to feeling overwhelmed and anxious is to let the news interrupt us constantly and to buy into every outrage and trend on social media. Instead treat these sources of online information as resources that you want to dip into when the time is right. A helpful first step might be to turn off all of those breaking news alerts that only ever seem to announce bad news.
3. Let values be your guide
As a human with a mind you’re probably all too aware of how easy it is to let your emotions and your anxieties exert quite a bit of control over your behaviour. However, we do have another resource that we can use to guide our decisions and our daily actions: our values.
Values are the aspects of us that we want to bring to life in our behaviour. They can act like a compass, giving us a sense of direction. So instead of allowing a flash of emotion or a nagging doubt supplied by our mind to tell us what to do, we can try to be our best selves and let these evergreen values guide us in the moment. The bonus here is that bringing values to life regularly contributes positively to our wellbeing.
Check out this video all about values and how they differ from goals.
4. Invest in your sleep
Whenever you’ve had a bad night sleep, you’ll know that the following day is just that little bit more difficult to navigate. Research consistently demonstrates that sleep disturbance means it’s harder for us to be aware of our emotions and to manage those emotions as they manifest. We’re more likely to act in a reckless and risky way. And we’re more likely to have a negative impact on the people we spend most of our time with.
The last thing we need when the world around us is in a state of crisis is to deprive ourselves of sleep and thereby amplify the negative thoughts and emotions we’ll experience. Instead make sleep a priority. It’s not something that is going to happen automatically, nor can we control it. But we can cultivate it. Reflect on how your evenings can be sleep promoting rather than sleep preventing. A gentle wind down routine, for example – rather than consuming upsetting news via your iPad in bed.
Check out this video on sleep and its relationship with wellbeing.
5. Focus on the present moment
Global events can easily cause our mind to bring us to the future, particularly an anxiety inducing future. The human mind has a fantastic ability to paint detailed and compelling pictures of events that haven’t happened yet. In a sense it does this to help us be aware of the threats that we’re facing. But this threat activation can be triggered by things that have nothing to do with us. Just like focusing on what’s in your control it’s beneficial to focus on what’s actually happening in this present moment, because that’s the only time and place where we can have an impact.
The way you behave in the here and now is far more important than the imagined scenarios your mind gives you. Doing this also helps you experience emotions that are based on what’s happening here and now, rather than emotions conjured up by scenarios that might never happen.
Check out this video where I explain the important differences between planning, predicting, and playwriting.
5. Schedule your self-care routines
It’s all very well to believe that self-care is important and to have positive intentions. We all also know that events and commitments can get in the way. So rather than rely on your intentions, make sure your self-care routines and activities are actually scheduled. Just like all those meetings you need to attend each day, the visual reminder of self-care activities in your calendar can be powerful. Plus it means you don’t need to rely on your memory.
Blocking our time for your hobbies, your life admin, exercise, connection with friends and so on, means it’s much more likely to happen. It can also be a handy reminder of just how you’re investing your limited time each week.
Check out this podcast episode where we discuss how to boost your prospective memory: how we ‘remember to remember’.
6. Manage your boundaries and signpost your needs
As with all things, in the absence of boundaries, our time and attention will be overwhelmed by the noisiest and most demanding people (or events!) we’re exposed to. So consider what you need to recover and recharge, and let those around you know. After all, they can’t read your mind.
This could mean changing the topic when current affairs come up over coffee, turning down social invitations so you can rest, or making judicious use of muted terms and block lists when using social media. Indeed, it includes putting a bit of friction between you and your social media apps in the first place.
7. Cultivate your psychological flexibility
Getting distance from unpleasant thoughts and feelings is a skill. Combining this with a focus on the present moment and using values intentionally and you have a skill set called ACT, which increases our psychological flexibility. With practice, this boosts our wellbeing, increases our focus, allows us to persist through discomfort and do more of what matters to us.
In a sense, it’s the perfect skill to guide you through a period of ambiguity and threat like…2025. You can find out all about psychology flexibility on this resources page, including how to sign up for our self-directed course focused on boosting your wellbeing with these same skills.
Find out more
- Visit our Thriving at Work hub to learn more about wellbeing at work and the importance of self-care.
- Check out these mistakes to avoid when it comes to self-care.
- And take a look at this framework you can use to organise and plan your own self-care activities.
