Mindful Monday

This week’s #MondayMotivation

The past month or so has been absolutely horrible politically in the US.

Roe v. Wade overturned, EPA neutered, revelations of the Jan. 6 commission, and even more in the span of about 7 days.

I’m not the only one who thinks so — Cenk Uygur replied to my question on air for TYT agreeing that the week after Roe v Wade was overturned was the worst week of news he had to cover on The Young Turks in its 20-year existence. (Here’s the tweet I sent with my question from July 1’s Young Turks; if I find a clip of his answer I’ll update this post.)

Two decades’ worth of bad news within a week’s time. Or you could even say 5 decades considering Roe was the law of the land for over 49 years.

These are dark times not just for progressives, but for our country. It honestly makes me look back and wish I could tell myself back in 2016 that things were only going to get worse, much worse. Either I would have worried less then or braced myself better for what’s happening now.

As someone who suffers from bipolar, anxiety, and trauma, through outpatient treatment and therapy I’ve learned techniques that help me deal with depressing, unexpected things without going (almost literally) crazy.

One of them is practicing mindfulness. Some people will roll their eyes at something that sounds like a gimmick or like it’s nothing they would ever need, just like I used to think techniques like this were useless or overhyped. But mindfulness really can help.

A quick and easy way layman’s way of describing it might be taking a mental break and “grounding” myself in the here and now. Not forgetting the past or the future, but not letting worrying about it control me.

I’m not qualified to talk about psychology, so I’ll link to a site from a psychology group that talks about mindfulness so you can read up more about what it actually is.

Here’s just one way of thinking of mindfulness that I found — I definitely recommend exploring more on your own if you’re interested.

When I first started getting therapy, after suffering most of my life with what I later found out were serious mental health issues, I had to do a LOT of practice with mindfulness and other techniques. It was a hard, years-long journey, but my life is so much better now.

Up until a few months ago, little by little I’ve had to consciously use strategies less often; being mindful started to happen more naturally at least for me. But now, with everything going on in the world and some more stress at home, it’s a struggle some days again.

I find myself having to take a break to make sure I’m doing well and not getting stuck in a bad place mentally again.

Mindfulness actually helps, for me at least. Whether it’s just taking a mental break, taking a personal day, meditation, or whatever works for you, please make sure you’re taking care of yourself too.

Whether or not you want to try mindfulness—or seek out other help or support—hopefully it helps you, just like it helps me, to know that other people are feeling the same way about how the country and world is going.

Some of us are losing hope, others are depressed—whether diagnosed or not. These are normal reactions millions of us are dealing with. You’re not alone.