11 Ways I'm Staying Sane

It’s been a heck of a week already. More rights are being stripped away and there is chaos. I fear for people who have less than myself. I fear for those who are seeing the illusion fade. I fear for my sanity as I spend too much time scrolling on social media and not enough time caring for myself.

So in order to reduce the noise and the firehose of news, I’m planning to follow this guide to help me in the coming weeks and months.

1. Write morning pages daily. It will help me clear out my scrap heap. Morning pages are 3 pages long-hand that you write stream of consciousness. Otherwise known as, “hot pen”. This was created by Julia Cameron and made famous by her book The Artist’s Way. It’s a practice to help you mentally clear your slate and I have been tragic at doing it so far, but it really helps me when I do.
2. Feed my inner child weekly. I would like to do this much more often, and this is also a recommendation from The Artist’s Way. This means doing something fun and creative without bounds for your inner child - like going to the dollar store, going to a museum, creating a new thing, painting, etc.
3. Listen to music and dance whenever possible. Music can have healing and restorative powers, also it’s just good fun. Turning on the record player and spinning something up also feels good.
4. Keep learning new things. Lately my partner has been sharing with me a lot about the Cretaceous period, for which I know shockingly little and it has been fascinating to learn more about pre-historic time. We’ve been watching YouTube videos about it and diving deep into rabbit holes about it.
5. Stay informed but stop doom scrolling. I’ve found that I want to be so dangerously informed this go round that my doom scrolling has gotten out of control. My goal is to be informed as possible without giving into the never ending deluge of posts and reels that my algorithm so generously shares with me. I think this will help me most of all.
6. Find community. My goal here is to find new ways to help others and to also join a network of support.
7. Eat well and stay hydrated. This is a consistent way to make sure that I have energy to function throughout the day and that my energy is vibrationally positive.
8. Prioritize sleep. No use talking to me until I’ve had eight hours. Sleep is so fundamentally important for my mental and physical health I’ll do a lot to protect it. My goal here is to learn to put the phone away before bed and to read a book or do something else before sleep.
9. Look for the joys. Our world may be veiled in shadow right now, but there are small glimmers of hope, joy, love, beauty, and peace within it still. I plan to look for them and find ways to share them with others.
10. Find the helpers. A very Mr. Rogers throwback here. In addition to sharing joys, I want to share when I see helpers or things going a positive way, recording wins.
11. Practice gratitude. Just simply listing all of the things that I am grateful for, in a journal, or under my breath at night like quiet prayers.

There are many other things I could be doing but these are a good start for me. What would be something you would add?