Carve out your turf.īegin by showing yourself that you can make a difference in the world, suggests Catherine. So what are we to do? How-when this fast-changing world seems bent on keeping us anxious and unsettled-do we work, feed the family, get Dad to his doctor’s appointment on time and still keep our own feet planted firmly on the ground? 1. Nordal, Ph.D., the APA’s executive director for professional practice, “We’re surrounded by conversations, news and social media that constantly remind us of the issues that are stressing us the most.” Searching for Solid Ground “Parents are stressed, kids are stressed,” she says.Īnd, says Katherine C. “This is a crazy time,” says Catherine Mogil, Psy.D., director of training and intervention development for UCLA Nathanson Family Resilience Center and a consultant for the National Military Family Association Operation Purple Family Retreats. In a 2017 national survey, the American Psychological Association (APA) reported that 57 percent of us view the current political state as a source of significant stress. And that’s in addition to the tumult of everyday life-coping with moody teenagers, watching over aging parents and navigating workplace politics. Negative noise surrounds us as we become dependent on instant news, social media and plugging in. Recent economic, social and political events may trigger changes that can come at us so quickly that we run in circles trying to figure out how our lives will be affected six months or a year down the line. Today the sense of feeling deeply rooted, deeply centered and able to handle anything is a gift. Gently, I reach out to touch the bark of a tree nearly 1,400 years old, close my eyes and take a deep breath of the richly scented air that surrounds me. ![]() ![]() By the time it touches the moss and pine needles beneath my feet and sparkles across the brook that nourishes giant roots that seem to have grown since the beginning of time, the constant state of hypervigilance that seems part of my daily life has dropped away, the tension that keeps me ready to run at a moment’s notice has gone and the sense that-in an hour, a minute, a moment-the sky will surely fall has simply disappeared. Sunlight pierces the forest canopy and moves down deeply grooved bark until it reaches the forest floor nearly 300 feet below. Walking along a trail through an ancient redwood forest deeply rooted into the rocks and cliffs of the Pacific Coast, I stop for a moment and inhale a deep, refreshing breath of earth, ocean and pine. Find balance when the rest of the world is shaking.
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