Trying to make plans to avoid doom scrolling my way through the next month or so. It's going to be a bad time to doom scroll. It's important to be aware, but I think it will be good to make intentional decisions about how & when we take things in. These are goals anyway.

The 24 hr news cycle is already a beat down. Our minds weren't built for this.

I will still be on here, but I have some reading/learning lined up and some offline stuff I will be working on. Gonna try to be diligent about therapy exercises. Gotta do the work of staying in one piece. Bc that's step one.

I hope folks are thinking about their needs in these terms as well.

One of the reasons I mention this is that, in addition to doom scrolling, I think we can sometimes develop a sense of obligation around not looking away.

It is important to bear witness, but you don't have to be a 24/7 witness. That's actually unhealthy, and doesn't usually improve anyone's situation. Bc most of us don't accomplish anything new by *always* staring at the barrage as it comes in.

So these are things I am reminding myself. Some days, I am sure these thoughts will be very useful. Some days, they will not be applicable. But I am a person that likes to plan contingencies. I find it comforting. So mapping out the month activity-wise is good.

A plan is a storytelling exercise. We make sense of the world in narratives. Even plans that ultimately get tossed out can offer us something in the time we spend creating them.