How To Cultivate Resilience in Changing Times [#3]

5 ideas to stay sane in a world that spins faster every day

“The only constant in the world is change.” - Stephen Hawking

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” ― Antonio Gramsci

We live in crazy times.

Look back 20 years to 2005. And imagine what has changed since then.

Financial Crisis. Technology. Smartphones. Social Media. A pandemic. Artificial Intelligence. Ecological emergency. A war in Europe. Polarisation. The re-rise of Nationalism. And so much more.

This can get your head spinning.

Compare that to what happened the 20 years before that (1985-2005) and you get a sense that change is accelerating.

“Time is money”

Our lives and developments are getting faster and faster every day.

But to what end? Many people understandably can’t keep up.

Anxiety and burnout are rising.

Economies still grow, but ordinary people are worse off.

There doesn’t seem to be an inspiring vision for the future.

I believe the next 5 years will be even crazier.

Old systems and institutions will crumble. A Great Unraveling will happen.

And then the Great Turning will compost the old and build a new life-affirming society.

We don't exactly know what it will look like yet.

But for that to happen, we have to stay sane, protect our focus, and nurture resilience.

Here are some tips that have helped me to do that - I hope they do the same for you.​

Turn off the news

The business model of most “free” news nowadays is to sell your attention to companies via advertising.

They capture your attention through clickbait headlines (e.g., in Social Media newsfeeds) and by focusing on articles that often evoke fear and anger, which are some of our strongest emotions.

They keep us glued to the screen by having us in a constant state of fear.

“You are what you consume.”

If you think about it, what does it do to your mental health to read a curation of the bad news of the world?

Turn them off.

Delete your news apps from your phone or turn off notifications to not get constant updates.

Maybe get a local paid newspaper again, a slower way of consuming what’s going on in the world.

Or if you really like reading news, download an app for positive news like Squirrel News.

What you consume impacts your mind & thoughts and that in turn changes your action.

Good news rarely makes the headlines in traditional news outlets.

Reading less bad and more positive news will have a lasting impact on you.

Seeing many positive examples of change towards a better world reignited my hope for the future and inspired me to take action.

Maybe it does the same for you.

Reign in social media and reconnect offline

Trends, hypes, hashtags, lol.

Social media shows how fast our world has become.

It gave companies access to our brains, capturing our attention.

Advertising in out newsfeeds tells us buying that thing will make us feel better/ more beautiful/ less anxious.

But the reality is that this is just a quick dopamine fix that doesn’t last.

But there is a solution.

We can divest our money, time, talents, attention, and labor from this extractive system in order to weaken it.

The easiest step is to delete your Kryptonite social media app from your phone and just keep the browser version. That way you don’t completely lose access, but severely curb the ubiquitous influence of the apps.

(I, for example, still use LinkedIn as a tool on my laptop, but never again on my phone.)

We can then pour that newfound focus and time into something of real value in the real world, that gives us meaning: e.g.

• investing in relationships
• going for a walk in the forest
• supporting a cause bigger than yourself
• making art
• learning a new (offline) skill
• mediating
• growing food
• repairing something
• doing sport
• cooking a healthy meal

I know these things are harder than doom-scrolling, but they will help you keep sane in a changing world.

Online = never-ending information feed, overstimulation, anxiety.

Offline = sanity, slowing down, reconnection, grounding, meaning.

Feel all the feelings and focus on what you can control

Even if you radically reduce the negative input of news and social media, the accelerating rate of change will stir up emotions and thoughts.

And that’s a normal and good thing.

What has helped me to deal with this is 2-fold:

#1 Taking time to sit with whatever emotion comes up usually takes away that heaviness and lets the feeling pass.

Feelings are our superpower and help us take action.

If you feel angry about the state of the world, maybe it’s time you do something about it.

Meditation can help a lot here as well.

I use Insight timer to calm me down when I feel overwhelmed with emotions. Try it out :-)

#2 Focus on what you can control

This is easier said than done. But ruminating about what is changing and going on won’t make a difference, except to make you feel helpless.

Instead, use the Stoics’ advice and focus on what you can control: your thoughts, attitudes, and actions.

This is infinitely more effective in confronting problems than ruminating.‘

"We suffer more often in imagination than in reality" - Seneca

Unhappy about the state of democracy? Join a (local) organisation that does something against it.

Unhappy about the disconnection you feel in your neighbourhood? Visit a neighbour and introduce yourself, maybe have coffee.

Unhappy about your bank investing in oil and gas? Switch your bank to an ethical one.

Unhappy about the food system that’s making us sick? Buy local veggies from bio/ regenerative farmers.

You are in control of your life, and if you feel all the feelings, the motivation to influence the way the world changes increases 100x.

You are response-able. You possess the power for change.

Give up the illusion of control

We will all die.

Remember that.

Memento mori.

It might be uncomfortable to lean into that thought at first.

But once accepted and integrated, an incredible lightness appears.

If we all die, why not live a little more?

When living a little more, what to live for?

I like the idea of egoistic altruism.

You do something that increases your well-being, and at the same time, it will improve other lives as well.

You can’t control anything outside of yourself.

But you can take meaningful actions that make your life and those of others more joyful and meaningful.

That can be as small as offering help to someone.
Research shows it makes you happier than the other person.

Do not be attached to the outcome of your actions.

Do things because they are right, not because you expect something in return.

That’s how we build a more beautiful future.

Re-focus on where real security comes from

Uncertainty in changing times often comes from a lack of security.

Now, in our current Western worldview, security comes from money.

But let’s question that for a moment: money is losing value every day due to inflation.

You can’t eat money.

You can’t stay warm with money (well, unless you are Dagobert Duck and have enough cash to burn).

You can't heal yourself with money.

You can't drink money.

So is money really security in a fast-changing world with ecological resources dwindling?

I’m not convinced.

In a natural disaster (or worse: war), it might be difficult to go shopping. In these cases, security comes from communities coming together and helping each other.

If supply chains stop working because of a pandemic, or if the card payment system in your local supermarket was hacked, you won’t be able to buy food.

If your landlord decides to kick you out, because they want to use your flat themselves, what do you do?

These are scenarios that might sound dystopian, but in terms of building resilience, they are worth looking at.

So where does security come from?

Building a community that supports each other in times of need.

From knowing how to grow and process food to storing it. (And having a space to do that.)

From knowing how to build a proper shelter.

And most importantly, from inner strength when dealing with adversity.

In short, from self-sufficiency. Or better community-sufficiency.

These thoughts have led me to build a regenerative village.

And I understand that this is not something feasible for everyone.

But the thought might be worth entertaining: what will a resilient, life-affirming system of the future look like? And how can you be part of it?

We have enjoyed a period of long stability in Europe. That has made us a bit complacent.

Maybe it is time to invest more in our personal and collective resilience and not depend on entities that might not have our well-being on their mind.

Let's build local, cooperatively-owned, regenerative economies that meet needs locally.

It’s a long way, but we will only get there if we start the journey. :)

Recap:

1. Turn off the news - or use a good news outlet
2. Reign in social media and reconnect offline
3. Feel all the feelings and focus on what you can control
4. Give up the illusion of control
5. Re-focus on where real security comes from

Happy regenerating,

Jonas