For the Love of Facts
For the Love of Facts is a podcast where two therapists, Dr. Zamzam Dini and Dr. Kadija Mussa, unpack the truths behind love, relationships, and healing. In a world full of noise and myths, we bring culturally grounded, evidence-based conversations that center faith, connection, and care. No fluff—just facts.
For the Love of Facts
Grounded In A Chaotic World
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The world feels like it’s moving too fast, and our nervous systems are trying to keep up. We open by asking how you’re really doing, then follow the honest answers—anxious, numb, angry, protective of routine—into a practical, compassionate guide for staying grounded. As clinicians and educators, we unpack survival mode without judgment and share the small, repeatable actions that help you function when everything around you feels uncertain.
We get specific about grounding techniques that actually work: slow, extended exhales to calm your body; body scans to map where stress hides; five‑senses check‑ins to return to the room; and movement like walking, stretching, or dancing to metabolize tension. We also talk about social regulation—why a phone call to a friend can be as therapeutic as a meditation app—and how routines aren’t escapism but anchors that restore predictability and control. Along the way, we tackle news overload, vicarious trauma, and the reality of a global village where unfiltered crisis footage reaches us in real time. Boundaries with media, trusted sources, and timed check‑ins can protect attention without abandoning awareness.
Community threads through every part of this conversation. Collective pain calls for collective care, whether that looks like showing up in crowds, joining smaller circles, or simply witnessing solidarity when large spaces feel activating. Validation matters: hearing your feelings named can make isolation give way to connection, even when opinions differ. We close with a reminder to give yourself permission to cope in the way that fits today—routine as resistance, reaching out for support, or choosing quiet. Build a personal toolkit, update it often, and let people help carry the weight.
If this resonates, subscribe, share with someone who needs steadiness right now, and leave a review to help others find practical mental health support when the feed won’t slow down.
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Hi everyone, welcome. We want to start this episode by asking you how are you doing? Really though, how are you doing? As you know, a lot is happening right now, and we are feeling everything right now, and we feel anxious, alert, sometimes angry and defensive, and sometimes we feel protective of our routine. And I have just been telling Zam that, and I feel like my way of coping in this time, in this situation, we find ourselves in is really to focus on myself, do the things I do normally, and bring some sort of order into my world. So thinking about what's happening in the world, Sam, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think I think I'm in that like zone of, you know, let's just continue working and functioning and just try to not really sit with what's actually happening. And you know, that goes like and when I when I notice myself showing up that way of like I'm going to like not, you know, sit in it, I know that like it's it's like a survival mode, right? Where I'm just I just need to get through the day. And as an experiential therapist, right, who focuses on the present and you know, like helping folks acknowledge what's happening in the room. When I show up the opposite, I know that you know something needs to change, or I need to kind of recalibrate myself and try to find things that fill my cup so that I'm not in this, you know, mode of like trying to ignore what's happening outside in the world.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think I started this by asking how people are doing to just try to normalize all reactions, right? Some people feel good by being in community and resisting, but as a collective, doing things together, right? That fills their cup, and also to recognize that they are not alone, right? They find like, oh, the world is with me in this, and like their outrage, their anger is shared. So that gives them that grounding that they need, and others isolate at this time. I think we just have to recognize everything all people do is normal, and that's how people are just trying to find a way to regulate their nervous system, right? Because it also just it just feels like constant, right? And it's okay. However, you're responding right now, that's okay, right? And finding community, um, being with other people, if that's helpful to you, then that's what you do. Feeling you know, connected to your loved one.
SPEAKER_00:A hermit crab and you know, be in your shell and to ensure your own safety, that's also okay too.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, that's completely fine. Do what you need to do to feel grounded, to feel like you can get up the next day to take care of what needs to be taken care of, right? Do we you feel like we need to talk about grounding techniques or tools for people to regulate themselves? Or I think they can do this on their own.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we can just give brief examples, just like, you know, what does grounding actually look like? You know, for some people, it's more of like a physical, like body, you know, focus where deep breathing, right? Slowly inhaling, exhaling, doing a body scan, looking around the like you know, the five senses. So like really slowing down how you are taking in information around you. For others, the grounding can look like staying connected to others, whether it's your family, your friends, having folks that you can reach out to. So having like emotional connection. For other people, it can look like you know, like activities, whether it's going for a walk, stretching, you know, dancing, like moving your body. And like, you know, like you said earlier, for you, Kudija, you said maintaining your routine, right? Because that that could be like a ground, a way to ground is like the world may be in chaos, but my schedule is, you know, not, right? And and put pouring kind of energy into I I need to make sure that my schedule is as predictable as possible because the world around me is not right now. Yeah. So those are some examples, but they're not, you know, an exhaustive list. And so finding what fills your cup, what makes you stay connected and grounded and safe, and leaning into those things.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. That that is, I think you touched on everything. And I would also say like limiting exposure to the news, because the news cycle is like 24 hours, seven days a week these days. You don't have to watch it all the time. Yeah, right. You can find trusted sources and check in every now and again just to stay and know, know what's happening, but you don't really have to engage with it all the time because that can be stressful.
SPEAKER_00:Well, especially, you know, we live in a global village where we get news from every corner of the world in real time, right? And so seeing all of that at once can can be overstimulating or or overwhelming in in many ways.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. You're right. The world is super connected, and we don't see tragedies just at home, but across the world. It's just processing all the things that you see. It can be difficult, right? And it can maybe, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but think about like before social media, you know, news used to come a couple of days or a week later, right? It was tempered, right? Where it's like now everything's happening live, there's breaking news, right? Where you know everything is happening right now in this moment. And that's I think it's different, that's different from maybe 10-15 years ago.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it's like something doesn't just get reported once, and it's like it's presented from every angle all the time. So it is really overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we even bypass the news. We just we we get videos from the people who are experiencing the horrors themselves, right? It's happening, yeah, right. And then we see that too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I believe that's vicarious trauma, right? Of like, I'm we're consuming your direct trauma.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think uh in this moment we have to recognize for some people this is a very, very traumatic experience. Like they're uh experiencing it actively, and how they choose to cope with that. I think all forms of coping is okay. I think we need to give ourselves permission to be human, but then also give others permission to also be human that it's okay.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um how they're feeling, what they're doing, that feeling. And what are some things that can be protective, right? Thinking about like how can we deal with this as a collective?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that is important because you know, like when we are experiencing collective trauma or pain, it has to the healing or the recovery has to be at that same systemic level, right? Of collective healing, collective resilience. And so how do you find community? How do people come together, right? How do people stand up for each other? Yeah, and yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I like myself, I think I just shared with Sam before this. I get overwhelmed being in very large crowds. It's activating for me, but then seeing it on the news makes me feel like there is solidarity, right? Like, oh, I can appreciate what other people are doing. And it also then makes me feel like I'm not alone, right? I'm not isolated, and just that universality of that experience of the human pain, feeling like you're connected to that. Yeah, it makes you feel like you're not alone in the world. And yeah, so we can't appreciate what others are doing, even if we're not able to do it ourselves. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that feeling of connection, you know, means like it's less burdensome on me, right? Somebody else is holding up this weight alongside me. And, you know, that that brings in hope, right? That brings in, you know, opportunity for growth, for healing, for maybe eventually, you know, this weight is isn't going to be as heavy anymore. And so reaching out to people and that itself, right? Reaching out when you are feeling unsafe can be very scary. And that's a risk, right? Of like, you know, how is this person going to respond? But that is part of you know building community. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Just not just building communities, I'm I think about like co-processing what's happening because sometimes I'm in disbelief, right? You're just so shocked by the things you're hearing, the things you're seeing, and you're just like, oh my god.
SPEAKER_00:You need validation, right?
SPEAKER_01:Like, what? Am I crazy for feeling this way? Or really, you do need because the world there's so much chaos, you do need that validation. And I do appreciate people that can voice what's happening, yeah, and speak, right? Like and give it word and description so that you don't feel so isolated, you don't feel alone. You're like, oh, okay, then I'm not overreacting, or like this is, and at the same time, we have to understand that we don't have to have like the same opinions, right? Yeah, that's not going to be shared. As long as we have that some commonality of understanding, and as our reactions can be different, and that's okay. Yeah. I I've seen people saying, like, oh, you know, a different a group, you know, a different group didn't do this or a group didn't do that. And I think whatever feels all right to people to do at this time, we just have to find a way to support one another.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, right. It's like recognizing that people respond differently and that's okay. And also recognizing that, you know, learning about what I need to help regulate myself, like what works for me, and how do I seek that out?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think that's the point we're trying to drive home because we don't want to be out of touch with reality and not acknowledge at this moment in time. Because it's specifically for me, right? I'm in the midst of it as far as location. And, you know, like I said before, my my way of coping with everything is like, I'm just gonna go about my day and I'm gonna have my schedule as it is, and I'm going to do what needs to be done. That's that's a form of coping and a form of resistance, and I think uh for everybody finding what can help them. And we cannot emphasize enough to have real people in your life to talk to. Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you all for joining us today. Like, could we decide we didn't really want to make this business as usual, but wanted to acknowledge as like systemic, you know, clinicians and educators, that the world outside does impact us from a very deeply personal way. And not acknowledging that doesn't make it go away. So thank you all for joining us today, and we hope to see you in another episode.
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