The other day my friend and I were chatting about the weather when the conversation turned to climate change.

My very knowledgeable friend explained how we’ve breached seven of the nine planetary boundaries, meaning we’ve critically destabilized the home we live in.

Feeling a wave of fear rise in my chest, I paused and said:

Can we talk about something less apocalyptic?

Not to bury my head in the sand, but everybody’s nervous system needs to recalibrate at times. And these days almost any conversation has the potential to turn into a discussion about threats to humanity:  AI, the war in Iran, domestic politics, the shifting world order.

It’s all fearsome and easy to dwell upon.

And in the face of it all, mindfulness might seem like a tepid cup of tea.

Yet, I truly believe that the more mindful we are, the less likely we’ll be to obliterate ourselves. So mindfulness has everything to do with what I’ve come to call the “horrible horribles.”

At an individual level, when I’m mindful, I have the capacity to skillfully respond to circumstances – even those that seem hopeless. I’m more aware of my reactivity and fear, and I can work with them, noticing when they arise and jangle me even during a conversation about climate change.

As a result, I can take more effective action to change what I believe needs changing. Or, at the very least, I can make an effort to be kinder, adding one less sharp elbow into the mix.

I can also focus on the good still happening in the world. Doing so doesn’t mean papering over things with positivity; it means including what’s also a part of my experience to counterbalance the stress of daily life.

Three small examples of goodness that we can take heart in:
1) After winning a grueling, five-set quarterfinal U.S. Open tennis match, Frances Tiafoe sprinted to the other side of the court and embraced his opponent, 22-year-old Alex Michelsen. As he hugged him, he told Michelsen he knew how much it hurt to lose – that he had been there. He also told Michelsen he would win matches at a Grand Slam tournament many more times in his bright future. Tiafoe basically loved Michelsen up, who, in response, cried like a baby in his arms.

2) Recently I learned about an organization called More Love Letters. It’s a global community that uses its platform to invite others to write letters of encouragement to those in need. I wrote my first letter a few weeks ago to a single father whose young son has cancer. People like the man I wrote to receive hundreds of letters from others whose sole intention is to uplift them. How great is that?

3) The other day I sat down at a café to write, and realized I didn’t have a pen. (Yes, I still write by longhand sometimes.) I asked the man sitting at the next table if he had one I could borrow. He happily lent me a very nice pen. When he got up to leave, I called to him to give him his pen back. His response? “Keep it.” And I did just that, completing the small cycle of asking, giving, and receiving that’s the foundation of generosity.
None of these good acts negate the bad ones we read about every day.

But they do keep me going.

On My Mind