54| When the World Feels Too Heavy to Carry

• Do you feel like the world is giving you more fear than you know what to do with?
•  Do you keep checking the news or social media, even though it leaves you feeling worse?
•  How do you stay informed without letting anxiety take over your life? 

The world feels heavy right now, and for a lot of teens and young adults, it is hard to know how to carry it without getting crushed by it. Between wars, violence, climate fear, economic pressure, and constant updates on social media, it can feel like you are supposed to care about everything, know everything, and somehow still keep going like normal. 

In this episode, Jessica Davis talks about what happens when your nervous system takes on more than it was built to hold. She explains why the news and social media keep pulling you back in, why anxiety gets worse when you are constantly consuming fear, and how to protect your peace without feeling selfish or uninformed. 

You will also learn seven practical ways to stay grounded when the world feels overwhelming, including how to limit what you consume, reset your algorithm, stop feeling guilty for not knowing everything, and focus your energy in ways that are sustainable and meaningful. Stay until the end for the reminder you need if you have been feeling like the world is too much lately. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode 

 • Why the world feels so overwhelming right now
 • How nonstop news and social media affect your anxiety
 • Why protecting your peace does not make you selfish
 • How to set limits without feeling guilty
 • Ways to reset your algorithm and take back your attention
 • Why focusing on one cause helps more than carrying everything
 • How to stay informed without letting fear run your life 

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This podcast was created by Davis-Smith Mental Health, offering counseling for teens & young adults in Illinois (only). We accept BCBS PPO, Aetna PPO, and self-pay clients.

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⚠️ Disclaimer:  Block Out the Noise provides personal insights and practical stra...

Transcript

The Weight Of The World

Jessica N. Davis 0:07

A client texted me recently, not about their life, but about the world. They wanted to know if I was worried. And honestly, that question stopped me for a second. Because yeah, the world is a lot right now. Wars, violence, economic pressure, climate fear, that feeling that things are getting closer and harder to escape. If you've ever felt that weight like the world is too heavy to carry and too scary to ignore, this episode is for you. Hi, and welcome to Black Out the Noise, a space to quiet the noise of anxiety, self-doubt, and overthinking. I'm Jessica Davis, licensed therapist, mindset coach, and the creator of the Courage Method. I specialize in helping teens and young adults build confidence, courage, and purpose. If you've ever thought, I know what to do when I'm calm, but I forget everything when I'm anxious. That's exactly why I made the free anxiety survival toolkit. Hit the link in the show notes and save it for when you need it. And a quick reminder: this podcast is here to support and guide you, but it is not a replacement for talking to someone in real life. If you're struggling with your mental health, please reach out to a therapist. And if you're in crisis, contact emergency services or a local helpline. You don't have to go through it alone. Today we're talking about something a lot of you have been feeling the weight of the world and how to stop letting it crush you. I get it. There's this pressure that says if you're not informed, you're choosing ignorance. You're not woke. You don't care. And that pressure, it can feel just as overwhelming as the news itself. So what are you left with? Keep taking everything in, even when it's destroying your mental health, or step back and feel guilty, like you're privileged, uninformed, and selfish. That's a really unfair place to be put. Especially when you consider the state the world is in today. Global warming debates, Russia and Ukraine, the conflict involving Iran, the US, and Israel, cartel violence, school shootings, homicides, and kidnappings that feel closer to home than they ever used to be, even the Epstein files. It feels like you need to know everything about every conflict or situation. And on top of all of that, for a lot of you, there's this real fear about the future. Will you be able to afford a home? Will the economy give you a fair shot? Will there be a larger war by the time you graduate? These aren't small concerns, and I'm not going to stand here and tell you to just stop worrying about things that you can't control. What I will tell you is this: you were never designed to carry all of this. No one was. We were wired to respond to things happening close to us, things that we could see, feel, and actually do something about. But now the entire world is in your pocket, every crisis, every conflict, every tragedy available to you at any moment. And your nervous system doesn't know the difference between something happening across the world or something happening right outside your door. It responds the same way. That exhaustion you can't quite explain. That's not a you problem. That's what happens when your nervous system takes on more than it was built to hold. Here's something I want you to really sit with. The news is no longer just about reporting. And I'm sure you're thinking, yeah, duh, of course. It's about keeping you watching. What keeps you clicking? What keeps you coming back? And what does that fear, outrage, sadness? When you're scared, you don't want to look away. Because what if you miss something important? What if something is coming and you didn't see it? That fear of not knowing keeps you glued to things that make you feel worse by the minute. And social media does the same thing. I'll be honest with you, I recently found myself going down a rabbit hole of homicide cases on social media. There were so many of them, and I just kept reading, which of course just pushed more and more of them into my feed. I say that because I want you to know this doesn't just happen to you, it happens to all of us. That's how these platforms are designed. They learn what makes you stop scrolling, what makes your heart race, what makes you feel something strong enough to pause or click, and then they serve you more of it. But here's the part that really gets me. All of that consuming is not changing anything. You're not fixing the situation by watching it, you're not helping anyone by reading every detail. What you are doing is feeding your anxiety more and more reasons to keep you stuck. Because when you take in that much fear and devastation, it's hard to feel motivated to do anything. Why try if the world is falling apart anyway? Why plan for a future that feels so uncertain? It leads to paralysis. And the algorithm doesn't care about your mental health. It cares about your attention. So when that client texts me asking if I was worried, I didn't pretend the world was fine. I said, yeah, the world can be scary, and yet there's still a lot of beautiful things in it, too. We talked about how easy it is to get consumed by things we can't control and how that consumption will literally suck the life out of you if you let it. And then I said something that I want to say to you too. You get to craft your own little world, your friendships, your family, how you want to live, how you communicate and engage, what you give your energy to. That is yours. No headline can take that from you. Now, I said that to that client, but I also know that there's privilege in that statement that not everyone has. Some people are being raised where war is going on. And sometimes the war is within your own home. But I still believe that finding your own way to craft your little world or find a way to craft your own peace is vital, not just for living, but survival too. And then they asked me, what about America being bombed? And I said, honestly, this was my text. If we go out, don't you want to go out living? I'm serious about that. Because here's what I've learned personally and professionally. You have to figure out how you're going to navigate this. Parents navigate the fear of school shootings every single day. Your generation is navigating feeling unprepared for adulthood, being robbed of so much because of COVID, stepping into a world that feels more uncertain than ever. That is real and it is a lot. But the answer isn't to consume more. The answer is to be more intentional about what you let in and what you don't. I am super protective over my energy and my mindset. I can't take on the world's problems. And when I try, when any of us try, we end up so consumed that our lives start feeling insignificant. Like we should just drop everything and go fix something we don't even know how to fix. That's not sustainable for most people. Now, some people do drop everything. They volunteer, they do service work, they move somewhere and pour themselves into that community. And if that's you, that's super amazing, and I applaud you. That kind of commitment makes a real difference. But that lifestyle isn't for everyone. And that's okay too. What matters is you finding something that's sustainable for you. So how do you find something that's sustainable? Let's talk about seven things you can do to help you stay grounded when it feels like the world is falling apart around you. Number one, limit how much news and social media you're consuming. I actually challenge my clients on this a lot. If you're noticing an increase in your anxiety or your mental health is struggling, one of the things that I ask them is what are you watching and following? The news is no longer just about keeping you informed, it's about keeping you hooked. Now, I don't tell them to go cold turkey, but to be intentional. Give yourself a window of time to check in. And when that window is done, close it. Number two, take social media breaks and reset your algorithm. So this one is an interesting one. I have had clients who have just removed social media off of their phone. Some of them would have to log into a computer to actually check things. Some have just decided to not look at it at all. And again, it's just their way of trying to protect their peace. Another option is to go through and see who you're following, unsubscribe, unfollow, remove people or things that are not helping you. And do something then intentional. Start searching things that bring you joy or help you grow. If you're trying to figure out what you want to do with your future, search that. If sunsets make you happy, search that. If you love cooking or fashion or fitness, search that. Your algorithm will shift. It won't happen overnight, but it will shift. And you get to decide what fills that space. Not an app that profits off of your anxiety. Number three, don't feel guilty for not knowing everything. This is a big one. If you don't know about something going on in the world, that doesn't make you a bad person. It doesn't make you selfish. It doesn't mean you don't care. It means you're protecting your peace, and that means something. Some families are really into following every new story and every political development. You don't have to stay present for all of it. You don't have to engage in every debate. And here's the truth about those debates because most of the time you're not going to change someone's mind through back and forth social media or through back and forth conversations with your family. Nobody wants to admit their thinking is wrong. So instead of trying to bring change by challenging someone, bring change by connecting, by engaging, by living. That kind of change is the kind that lasts. Which is exactly why I love the quote from Maya Angelou. People don't always remember what you said or what you did, but they'll always remember how you made them feel. Number four, find one thing you're passionate about and focus on that. Since we can't fix everything, I think it's really important to pick one cause that you're really passionate about. It could be recycling, conservation, gun protection laws, social media safety, mentoring kids in the community. It doesn't matter really what it is as long as you choose it. And then put your energy there. Because when you're trying to carry every problem, you end up carrying nothing well. But when you pick one, you can actually make movement there. Number five, volunteer. There is something that happens when you show up and give your time to something bigger than yourself. It pulls you outside of your head. It gives you face-to-face with real people and it gives you evidence, real tangible evidence that what you're doing is making a difference. I truly believe one of the best ways to work through mental health is volunteering. When you start to help someone else, it just gives you an opportunity to not be in your head and be really present for someone else or something else. So start local. Find something in your community because when the impact is close, you can actually see it and seeing it changes you. Number six, donate when you can. Now, I want to be clear, giving to people or causes far away definitely still makes an impact. You might not always know exactly where your contribution is going or what it's going to be used on, but that shouldn't stop you from giving when you're able to. Even small contributions add up. And that act of giving even when you can't see the outcome shifts something in you as well. It moves you from feeling helpless to feeling like you're part of something. Number seven, fact-check before you react. This one is so important. I use AI to fact-check things that I see on social media because it doesn't take much to get swept up emotionally in something that turns out to be almost completely false. Sometimes what you see is literally like 85% of a lie and a 15% true. Sometimes it's even worse than that. Sometimes it's 95% a lie and 5% true. So before you share it, before you spiral over it, before you let it ruin your day, check. Because a lot of what's designed to make you feel afraid isn't even real. Here's what I want you to walk away with today. You get to set what works for you. We don't have to let social media or the news predetermine how we feel. We can be informed and still find a way to protect ourselves. Everyone has to figure out how they want to deal with how much we're inundated with. And here's the thing: we weren't meant to know this much. But now that we do, we get to figure out how we want to navigate it. That's going to look different for everyone. And that's okay. Do what's best for you. Just know it's okay to do that. You're not selfish, you're not uninformed, you're not a bad person. You're someone who's trying to take care of yourself in a world that makes that really hard. Thank you so much for listening. Also, if this podcast has helped in any shape or form, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps more people find us, and this is my way of helping generations to come. Help me make that change by doing something that takes you less than five minutes. Consider you doing something that brings about change. Either way, no matter what, keep moving forward, trust yourself, and never forget you have what it takes to block out the noise.