Staying informed without falling apart

Photo by Planet Volumes from Unsplash

For most of my life, I treated staying informed as a moral obligation. As a deeply perceptive Pisces with a mind that catches every nuance, I felt responsible for knowing what was happening in the world - every conflict, every election, every crisis. My brain doesn’t skim; it absorbs. So when I took in geopolitical news, I didn’t just read about suffering or instability, I carried it in my body. Headlines became tightness in my chest, doom‑scrolling became a nightly ritual, and the idea of ‘tuning out’ felt selfish or naive. I thought the only choices were to be overwhelmed and informed, or calm and irresponsible.

What I eventually learned is that my nervous system was never designed to hold the entire planet in real time. I’m sensitive, responsible, and a systems thinker so together, means I feel global dynamics in a way that can easily slide into anxiety and over identification. I’m wired to sense patterns, to anticipate, to want to protect people. That’s a gift, but only if I put boundaries around it. When I don’t, I stop being helpful to anyone. I become a flooded observer, stuck between outrage and helplessness, refreshing news feeds for a sense of control that never comes.

So now, handling geopolitical news is part of my StarCozi practice, not an exception to it. I let myself be informed on purpose, not by accident. That means choosing a small number of trusted sources, visiting them at specific times instead of grazing all day, and asking one grounding question after I read: “What is within my sphere of care and action, and what must I consciously hand back to the universe?” Some days action looks like donating, voting, or having a hard conversation. Other days it looks like turning off the stream, making soup, and tending to my immediate community. I’ve realized that my role is not to be a 24/7 global sensor, but to be a steady, sane presence in my corner of the world - someone whose inner world isn’t completely overrun by the very noise she is trying to help others soften.