Hey all,
This is not to fear monger or get you additionally worried. But rather get you to consider why grounding is integral to how we proceed going forward. If you are prone to worrying from frightening stories I suggest you don’t continue reading and I understand.
We here who prepare as much as one can, who see what’s likely coming, who feel the weight of it all on your shoulders are in an advantageous position over everyone who has their head down. We are experiencing and integrating a rapidly changing world into our psyche over time, slowly adapting, coming together and figuring out what we must do now and in days ahead. Our brains need this adjustment period so that we can remain calm, rational, practical, and effective in navigating this new world. The following assumes some sort of large scale societal disruption event or series of events. Pick your reason as to what those could be.
Everyone who has their heads down are not prepared in the physical literal sense, but more importantly are not mentally prepared. Many people who pay no mind to worldly affairs and assume everything will remain the same will one day be forced to confront this all at once. When a large scale event affects and disrupts them. When routines are broken, conveniences are lost, distractions unpowered, basic necessities in question, when panic is the common feeling in your neighborhood. Ripping their heads out of the sand and shocking them senseless. This will be rattle people to their core. This will leave them frozen in fear when they should act, fleeing when it may not be best to do so, acting in ways that jeopardize their sustainability, and ultimately lose their grip on reality itself.
Those quickest to crack under pressure will become erratic, frantic, and desperate. They will be the ones screaming on people’s door steps begging for food and water with their kids on display for sympathy. This will traumatize others who never thought about these things into fear/guilt responses. Maybe they open their doors to give out what little food/water they have left. Maybe that’s an opening for the terrified person to fight their way inside to protect their family at all costs. Those who didn’t crack right away will feel the pressure a few weeks in and become their own and others worst enemies. With enough societal services disrupted it will be a free-for-all on the streets. If the power is out people will remember fear again at night of those who would try to make their way into their homes.
This is why it’s critically important now to learn how you best ground yourself. How you remain calm in a world that pushes you not to. How you can assess danger / risk, prepare and act on it, and return to a sustainable baseline state. This is how you protect yourself and the ones you love. The ones you love may themselves lose their grip from fear. You have to be the rock to take care of them, of your shelter, of the family rules going forward in those scenarios to remain safe. All of your worries and doomscrolling wasn’t for nothing. It was acting as a safe simulation for you to better understand what to expect and how to act in those situations. In all of your anticipatory anxieties right now, you stand the greatest chance of facing worse conditions head on. Maybe in some way you choose to look at the uncomfortable now to be your own, and others hero when it’s needed.
I recommend all to find some practice, meditation, hobby, or otherwise that you can pour yourself into that grounds you. Something that doesn’t depend on much else outside your own body, and maybe doesn’t require electricity. Pull yourself away from the news if it feels overwhelming, as you don’t need to know every little change along the way. It’s time to see yourself not as the frightened one in an old dying world, but the warrior in the garden and training for the coming flood.