How to Handle Financial News Without Stressing Out

This week's financial wellness content is brought to you by Wealthfront. (upbeat music) Headspace Studios. Hi, my name is Lindsay, and welcome to Radio Headspace and to Friday morning. If you've watched the news at all, ever, especially recently, it can feel like the world is falling apart and that can trigger emotional responses and actions that may not be in your financial interest. So let's talk about how you can maintain your mental health in the midst of a wild financial news cycle. When it comes to social media, the 24 hour news cycle and our mental health, you don't have to read a peer reviewed study to know that the longer you're on your phone consuming this news, the worse you feel, right? But studies do back that up and research shows that there is a deep connection between doom scrolling, and our stress response, specifically vicarious trauma. Vicarious trauma is a type of trauma that we get that could also be called secondary trauma. So you personally didn't experience a scary thing, but you saw it on your phone, you heard it on the news, so you feel like you've experienced it. And the way that these algorithms work, as we all know, is that once you watch something that has some sort of intense emotion to it, often anger, right? Then your newsfeed is going to keep showing you more things that elicit anger and frustration. And instead of taking that anger and moving it somewhere, we say, what's the point? This system is broken. This person isn't doing what we elected them to do. So and so says there's no point. We start to believe that, and instead, I want to lean on something else that I've heard this younger generation say, which is we need to listen to our ancestors. What I take that to mean is we need to look to history for how other people have survived hard times. And what we know is that burning it all down may feel really cathartic, but what we actually know is that when we say what is the good here? What is the hope here? What is the joy here? That is how we can rebuild a society that is safer, more equitable, healthier, and more sustainable overall. You have to move from that frantic reshare to, I'm gonna show up to that community meeting, or I'm going to show up to that volunteer event. And what you'll see there is that you'll meet other people who are also frustrated and heartbroken and overwhelmed and anxious, but you'll also see people who are saying, it is worth it to me to spend a few hours with my neighbors pulling weeds and laying down mulch and making sure that this park is available to people who want to be in it. Yes, doing this one action may not change the world, but it does improve this little corner of the world in which I inhabit....