LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – There is a lot going on in the world around us right now.
Things like protests and threats of war have filled social media feeds and TV programming for the last few days and weeks.
These current events may be taking a bigger toll on you than you think.
“There’s real health consequences to staying stressed out all the time and we know looking at these things going on makes us stay at heightened levels of anxiety,” said Professor of Psychology at UK, Dr. Christia Spears Brown.
Knowing what’s going on around you both locally and nationally is important, but Dr. Brown said the rate at which it’s happening is taking a toll on people’s anxiety levels.
“It just stays high because as soon as you wake up, there’s a new news piece that’s coming out.”
When this is the case, Dr. Brown said it can be hard for people to think about anything else because their focus is on what’s causing them to worry.
“Our heart rate goes up. We can feel ourselves kind of clenching up, our muscles clenching up.”
In this instance, it’s best to listen to your body.
“Think about the things in your immediate atmosphere,” said Dr. Brown. “Think about your feet on the floor. How does it feel when I touch my pants? How does it smell in the room?”
Something many have a hard time avoiding is ‘doom scrolling.’ This refers to endlessly scrolling through negative content.
“In the same way that it’s important to have vegetables and exercise, it’s also important to be mindful of ‘what am I consuming?’”
Dr. Brown said you can have the same reaction to something you see on your phone that you would have if it were happening right down the street.
“Maybe say ‘okay, between 9 and 10 I’m going to check in on this type of stuff, and then I’m going to purposely step away from 10 to 4.”
Dr. Brown said to start and end your day on a positive note.
More people are stressed over current events than they may realize.
“It makes it harder to do things like show kindness in the grocery store line and to be patient when the person in front of you in the car isn’t moving as quickly as you want.”
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