Do you try to keep sane by not worrying about things you can’t control?

This is a good question.

Keeping my peace of mind is a serious topic for me. Old time members here know I live with a mental health diagnosis. Stability is vitally important to me, and I work very hard at it.

The key is a core of regular practices, and some have become habits.

I meditate every morning. The length varies, but I at least sit on my stool and ground myself.

I take medicine as prescribed.

I go to psychotherapy as often as I can. In May, I started with a new therapist and have been making rapid progress using his technique. It helps that he’s also a gay man close to my age.

There are a few other personal habits I use to keep myself well like eating a vegetarian diet and trying to get good sleep.

These things sound simple, but they do require discipline. I do these things, because I know what illness is like, and I want to avoid it.

As for the problems of the world, I take care of my tiny piece. I act responsibly for the environment. I vote with a compassionate mindset.

I watch no American news media on TV. This is important. American news, as it has evolved, is always in crisis. Elections are portrayed as battles. Actions in Congress are broadcast as fights. It’s always one group versus another.

I challenge you to stop watching and stop reading American news media for a month and get all your information from other sources to see the profound difference it will make to your mental health. I get all my news from the local paper, the Guardian, and the BBC. I am well informed, and I’m not constantly worried about what’s happening in Washington, DC.

Thanks for the question.

When I left High School, I considered becoming a farmer for exactly this reason. A farmer’s worries are their own.
They focus on what directly affects them. Weather, market values, and labor. They can ignore everything else.

My mental health is very good. Sometimes I only watch headlines, and other times I watch sources I have come to trust. I use the information I receive as a guide to how to pray, and I have operated this way for years. It’s quite a ride!

I tried to keep sane for so long. Gave up. Maybe sanity in an insane world is overrated.

There is no trying, you just have to learn to let go. Focus on the present. People who are anxious live in the future, and people who are depressed live in the past. You still need to be wary of the future and learn from the past, but you disconnect them from emotions.

Yes and no. For things like politics, war in other countries, and other things that are so beyond me having any control and I know I will not be taking any significant action to influence the situation, I can disengage from worrying about it for the most part.

Things that are applicable to my every day life or intertwined with decisions I am making it’s harder. I can kind of turn it on and off though.

Yes I worry but it’s not something I dwell on. Life always seems to crack on regardless of all the tragedies.
After years of nuclear war drills as children, tornado drills, stop drop and roll, we were conditioned early to accept death as inevitable. So why worry now?

I try not to worry about that which I can’t control. I don’t think doing otherwise would cause me to become insane. I like the Jewish proverb We plan, God laughs. We control very little.

I’m an engineer. Like all engineers, I like data. We live by the engineer’s mantra: “Without data all you have is an opinion.”
What does this have to do with your question? A lot.
I have been letting my Garmin 265s data tell me what to do. I look at my Body Battery and Stress numbers and follow their lead. If I am in a situation where Stress is high, I move or change the situation. For example. If someone is spouting conspiracy BS I will invest a fraction of a BB point and move on to let them stew in their ignorance. I no longer engage with morons. Body Battery stays high, stress stays low. and I feel better.
If someone want to discuss politics, or religion – no problem – they can do it with someone else. If they want to discuss science or food, or the latest tech or investments, great! Count me in. Stress is low and my BB is discharged less.
If I can’t change a situation I either deal with it or move on. There is no point in stressing over it. I knew this to be true but could never quantify it.

But now, thanks to my 265s, I have the data! Garmin says: Hey! That guy really is a moron! Don’t talk to him! So I don’t. Do I want to waste 2% of my Body battery on an idiot? Nope! I move on.

No. I worry about almost everything.

Last half hour I was worrying if I worry too much.

I worry about things I cannot change. Politics, the price of gas and food. I try to escape my thoughts by diving into a book or listening to music or working on my hobbies. It doesn’t always help or work, but I’ve been a worry wart all my life.

My mother taught me a wonderful saying “Who is going to remember or care in 100 years?“I have modified it to include the previous 1,000 years.

If it were an Olympic sport, I could probably medal in Worrying About Things I Cannot Change.

I only actually worry/am anxious about things in my immediate sphere, like, When are they going to get me in for that MRI?! or What if I can’t find the right building in time and am late?! What if I get on the wrong plane?! I’ve done that, I actually got on a pitch black plane thinking it was mine Anxiety is felt in the body and mind while worry is in the mind alone.

https://www.stress.org/the-difference-between-worry-stress-and-anxiety

As for worry about the big things like the climate crisis, I feel angry, then I feel helpless, then resigned, and finally glad I won’t be around when we destroy the earth.

No, because I’m an avid sports fan. I crazy-glue myself to the TV, for hours at a time, passionately engaged. I get highly emotional about games and events that are completely beyond my control, and about players I’ve never met.

The bright side of all this: I fully accept that my sports fixation isn’t something I can control, so I stay sane by not worrying about it!

I’ve done the work to see that I’m a spiritual being having a human experience. Part of the human experience is worrying about stuff, so I can (often) forget for a while that I’m a spiritual being and worry about things, and then I see again that I’m a spiritual being, and things are fine. This is more difficult in relation to things that have too strong a hold on my attention, which these days seems to be personality-disordered-women-who-are-ruining-important-experiences (enjoyment of my home, my work, a family cabin, and for a short while my meditation group). I’m not trying to disparage women, it’s just the situation I find myself in.

Have you read This is Water?

If you preference is a non-spiritual alternative, I’d suggest overindulging in your drugs of choice or pursuing your worries with every ounce of your attention until those energies are truly exhausted. The former will numb you, and the latter will bring you an epiphany.

^^ Oh how I wish I could indulge in the drugs of my choice – without the negative consequences. Yeah, I said it – I love drugs. Don’t do them anymore though.

I can’t afford to worry about anything I can not control. I just don’t have the bandwidth.

Recently my life has been changed by my wife’s illness. Her physical illness manifested in non-physical and emotional symptoms, so it was several years before we knew what was the matter with her. I was thrust into the role of caregiver without really knowing what was going on. I was to the point where I was (barely) tolerating her behavior. now,however, we have a clearer picture of what is happening, and i kow what to expect and how to handle her symptoms. It is still stressful, but much less than it was when we didn’t know.