How to Stay Sane When the World Goes Crazy
If you expose yourself to too much sun for too long, you’ll burn. If you expose yourself to a lot of negative ideas, your brain will get burned too. You’ll have a hard time staying positive, taking positive actions toward your goals or even having much fun. In order to stay sane, you’ll have to WORK AT IT. That means making sure to limit the amount of negative information going in and actively put good stuff into your head. Some suggestions:
READ, READ, READ–Read things that make you feel good, things that inspire you, things that remind you that life is worth living, goals worth achieving and people worth loving. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time each day but the payoffs can be huge.
LEARN a NEW SKILL–When you learn new skills, gain new knowledge, your confidence goes up. It’s almost as though your brain believes that you alone may not be up to the task, but you + this new info / new skills might just be able to pull it off. What new skills could you learn that would help you deal with your hard times?
TALK TO POSITIVE PEOPLE–We all know people who seem to be both grounded in reality yet not bogged down by it. Find these people and make it a point to call them. Let their natural energy and optimism rub off on you. Go out of your way to be one and associate with others. The conversations you have matter. Have good ones.
SHUT OFF THE UGLY–One of your very best strategies is the “OFF” button. Use it. Turn off the t.v. when it’s featuring only gloom and doom. Change the radio station when the d.j. starts complaining. Leave the room when the conversation turns negative. You have a choice about how much “ugly” you let into your life. In one of my favorite books, the author makes the point that it’s good to be informed but you don’t have to be inundated. A great way to stay positive is to let less negative in.
At the end of the day, the first rule of sanity is that it takes work to stay sane when the world around you goes crazy. The crazier the world, the more work sanity requires. Most people either don’t know or aren’t willing to do the work of staying sane. Be someone who makes that investment and you’ll reap major rewards.