I’ve been struggling with how to engage in the news and current events this year.

I used to be locked into the news–listening to podcasts and NPR, reading the New York Times, catching the latest analysis of the news on social media, discussing it with my friends and family–feeling a deep obligation to keep up with all the breaking news 24/7.

But that level of attention took its toll–ramping up my anxiety and ultimately leading to burnout. I don’t think our brains and nervous systems are meant to constantly take in and process the level of information/media stimuli we have access to. I was exhausted and dysregulated trying to keep up.

In the last year or so, I’ve had to set some better boundaries around my news consumption. Balancing staying informed with taking care of myself, I’ve slowly cut back on how much news I’m reading and listening to. Now, I allow myself to read a little bit of news each morning and have one or two podcasts I keep up with that discuss politics and touch on current events. 

At the same time, I’ve felt a lot of guilt for being more unplugged lately. I almost feel like I have a moral obligation to pay attention to the news as much as I can and if I’m not–if I step away or take a break or put a limit on how much news I consume each day–I’m somehow doing something wrong. 

It doesn’t help that the news in higher education and on the college campus I work on has been dismal lately. Cuts in funding, the unexpected death of a beloved professor, one of our graduate students taken off the street by ICE. There’s a lot to pay attention to and process, none of it good.

A month or so ago, one of our chaplains read a poem by writer Morgan Harper Nichols in a meeting at work. It was one of those things that was shared right when I needed to hear it. And it’s stuck with me since. I’m including an excerpt below though I encourage you to spend some time with the whole poem: 

Not all feelings have words.
Not all storms have names.

We are all going through this together
but the way we process will not look the same.

Some will find the good in a matter of minutes.
For others, this will take years.

There is no one way
of traveling through this
and I hope, on this journey,
there can be room
for each of us here.


Harper Nichols wrote the poem in 2021 in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but I found her words appropriate and comforting given the current circumstances we find ourselves in. And it spoke to my own complex feelings about navigating current events and the news, paying attention and staying informed while also avoiding burnout and emotional exhaustion.

When our chaplain read the poem aloud in our meeting, it was an affirmation for me that we must each process current events and news in our own ways and at our own pace. It’s been a mantra to help me resist the urge to be plugged into the news 24/7–“We are all going through this together but the way we process will not look the same.”

It was also a reminder that we must hold space for each other even as we each process and cope differently. That I can unplug at times if I need to even if others do not. Holding this space for our different responses and coping mechanisms can be a tall order for trying times but necessary if we are to build and sustain the communities that will support us and see us through.

Header photo by Himanshu Choudhary on Unsplash