I Stopped Reading the News First Thing in the Morning

Dear Delyara, I thought I was staying informed. And part of me was. But another part of me had become addicted to immediate alertness. Wake up, phone, headlines, worry, world pain, urgency, bad news, outrage, fear. Then straight into school, work, family, money, life — as if my body needed global distress added to personal strain before breakfast in order to qualify as responsible. This week I stopped. No news first thing. Just water. Window. Breath. Then the day. The difference was physical. My mind entered the morning less jagged. My body did not begin in attack mode. I was still living in the same world. I was no longer letting the world seize me before I had even entered my own day properly. That is a habit I do not want back.