A thing I don’t recommend saying to yourself or to anyone else is: “HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET THROUGH THIS?”Statements like this are too open-ended and signal to your brain and body that you are in distress. They are non-productive. Be aware of how you talk to yourself and others. What we put out and how we focus our minds will either drain or create energy. At the very least, you want to maintain equilibrium.
Pay attention to how certain phrases and mantras activate anxiety and despair in your body. What is the point of that? Is it motivating? Is it helpful? No? Then compassionately consider other ways to direct your thoughts. Instead of cries of dismay or distress, consider the moment. What are you doing? What are you focusing on? Is there a direct threat coming at you? If not, then you are almost certainly able to adjust your focus from “AUGH” to learning and contributing. Set yourself a task. Research an organization, agency, community or individual that is doing the kind of resistance and support work you know is needed. Make yourself a student of their materials and how to get involved. Don’t expect anyone else to do this for you right now. It is your responsibility. If you want to know how we’re going to get through the next four years, ask yourself how YOU are going to get through the next 24 hours or week.
Adjust your oxygen mask. If you have children, they come first. Elders in your care are also a priority. You have to attend to your own mental and physical health, eat, sleep, earn money, keep your home and car functioning. Start looking at what is coming in small doses. You don’t need to follow the news every day. Think strategically without panic. Stay open, curious, and strong. If you have never considered that ours is an essentially violent, aggressive, brutal, sadistic, destructive species that occasionally manages eras of peace and generosity for small populations of people across the globe while others suffer, reflect on it. Adjust to it. It will help immensely. This is nothing new, and until you are facing the firing squad, you should not fall apart. Even when facing the firing squad, remember Fyodr Dostoevsky.