The world might currently feel saturated by threat. It doesn’t help that weaponized social media and a 24-hour spin-and-spew news cycle relentlessly triggers our mental, physical, and emotional stress responses. This bombardment of adrenaline can leave us locked into confusion, doubt, and fear, when what we need most is to trust ourselves and act with clarity, wisdom, and decisiveness.
So how exactly might something as toothless as mindfulness help when scary or unjust things are everywhere? Terror can lead to tunnel vision, causing us to act in ways we might later regret—whether we’re responding to the latest barrage of news, or encountering the personal stressors that challenge us in everyday life. Mindfulness can help us both focus and widen our attention, which can be extremely helpful when life brings the unexpected.
Trust Your Intuition
For instance, a friend was singing with a band at a big children’s party in a Legion hall. At the back of the hall, he saw someone he didn’t know come staggering into the room. Like a scene from a horror movie, the stranger picked up the large, pointy knife laid out to cut the birthday cake, hid it from view, and menacingly approached the stage. Most of the band stepped back, but without thinking, my friend found himself stepping forward to meet the guy, with no idea what to do.
