War in Ukraine, climate change, the absolute state of global politics.
There’s a lot of reasons to feel existential dread right now. To have a vice gripped around your heart – half grief, half dread. Your chest feels tight, perhaps even to the point of aching. Breathing feels confined. Perhaps your blood runs cold, venomous through your veins with want for stability and hope.
You can stop living like this. Walk with me, as we venture through the garden of growth.
The “Worse” Before the “Better”
Take time to sit with your existential dread, your feelings of terror, your deepest fears and worries and concerns. Sit with them, and truly feel them in their full intensity.
Let your body shake with fear, let your tears flow freely. Feel the weight of an oppressive future in each of your limbs. Let it consume you.
Now, process it.
Procedures for Processing
Write things down, create art, bake cake, scream at the top of your lungs into the vast nothingness of nighttime to feel kinship with the wolves.
Put on music, loud, angry music. Feel your heart thrum with the baseline.
Talk to someone. Ask them what their hopes are for the future. Remind yourself that there are people who fall in love every day, babies are born, young adults graduate with bright eyes & hope. No matter how bad things get, there are a few immutable beautiful things about humanity and our continued existence that we can focus on.
Take a walk through a field of flowers, reconnect with the nature around you. Get lost in your city, find somewhere new to eat.
And when all of the above is done, and your existential dread is still there – nagging quietly at the back of your mind – take control.
Fuel Your Fire
Your dread can debilitate you, it can become so large, so overwhelming, that it paralyzes you.
Or, you could harness it as fuel. Wrap your dread in a blanket, swaddle it like the wriggling petulant child it is.
Find your drive, whatever that is. What motivates you? What do you want to achieve? Now, take that squirming, swaddled, baby of dread, and toss him into the furnace that fuels you.
From now on, when existential dread rears its head, rather than paralysis – think fuel.
YES!!!! Things are objectively terrible, focus on what you can control.
Anxiety Is Motivation
We feel anxiety in a multitude of circumstances. Before a test or a job interview, for example. In these situations, the anxiety we experience motivates us and helps us perform better. Without test anxiety, we would have little to no motivation to study for the test. Without job interview anxiety, we might be too relaxed and forget to do our due diligence in asking questions.
What if we could treat our existential dread the same way? Instead of viewing it as an unhelpful monster that sits on your shoulder, reminding you of all the ways in which you’re powerless. Use those reminders as an opportunity to twist the narrative of your dread. Okay, so you can’t change who is currently president of the US of A, but you can change how much news you read about it. Or how often you read the news. Or your social media consumption. You can also use that anxiety to start making changes.
Recent events have made mutual aid and community networks more important than ever.
Go for a walk and talk to your neighbours. Spend some time in your local parks, get to know the people who frequent them. Make new connections.
People Are The Problem – And The Answer
Connections are key. Make sure you know your helpers and healers. Get connected with your local community, an online community, or a small batch of weirdos you find at the local mall. Whatever suits you best! Connect with someone you can talk to, really talk to. Someone who will listen to you vent your insecurities about the state of the world, someone who will reassure you that sanity exists somewhere even if it’s in smaller portions than you’d like.
Hold your loved ones fiercely, tightly, and closely. Don’t let go. Now is the time to rebuild bridges that have burned, you may not have many more opportunities to do so. Spend your energy wisely, treasure those who show up for you. Focus on what, and whom, matters most.
There is a lot of pain in the world right now, a lot of hurt, and a lot of violence. Resist the urge to perpetuate the cycle. Resist the urge to give in to anger, or hopelessness. Give yourself the gift of peace.
If you’re struggling to find peace, you might need to attend one of our workshops! Talk to your HR rep about bringing Sprout Together into your workplace.