Boy, the national news has been really grim lately.  Most of us aren’t old enough to have been around during the Great Depression, but anyone who’s read John Stienbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath can get a pretty graphic idea what those times were like.  The latest economic news has made it pretty clear that we could be headed there again.

Well, yes, on one hand that news is pretty gloomy.  And on the other hand, you have a choice about whether or not to let it effect you.  The dire predictions seem to me to be what my mother used to call “calamity howling.”  They are also very much future tripping.  Here is the way I see it:

Negative events are predicted by the media.  The predicted event is talked about on every television, radio station, and newspaper, and that news is repeated over and over again.  It isn’t long before almost everyone you know is talking about that negative event and becoming worried, scared, or anxious about it.  Eventually it is the main topic of conversation.  People are now feeling very stressed out and as though they have no control over what happens to them.  That is how we get into things called pack or mob mentality - where everyone begins to think and act like everyone around them, being swept away by the crowd consciousness.

That is not the only way the situation can be handled, though.  Here is another way:

Once you notice that you are feeling saturated by the negative news and it’s starting to make you feel worried, stressed, lethargic, whatever, it’s time take control of your life.  You can actively choose to stay from the crowd, so to speak.  Turn off the television or radio.  Refuse to let the news overshadow the good and fun things in your life.  Focus on the things that make you feel good.  And most importantly, remain present.

By staying in the moment and remembering to breathe deeply, you are experiencing the only reality that exists:  this moment.  Worrying about the future is just as useless and destructive to your body and mind as fretting about the past.  Those are two things that you have no control over - what was, and what may be.  Don’t waste your precious time on things that don’t even exist.  This second, this moment in time is what you have to work with.  And that’s manageable.