Fill your senses with reality

When I’m feeling troubled, it helps to look around at reality. Am I in physical danger? No. I’m in a room. I’m safe. It’s a reminder that the trouble is in my head.

So I get away from all people and media, to avoid all viewpoints, opinions, and drama. I shut off my devices. I go to a place where the natural world is untouched by humans. Ideally deep into nature and stay a few days, but a beach or a forest for an hour will do.

I fill my senses with reality: wind blowing, waves crashing, plants and animals doing their thing. This place was about the same a million years ago, and a million years from now, when people are gone. Nature carries on. Humans are just another chattering species, making noise like birds and dogs.

Almost nothing people say is true. My thoughts aren’t true. Norms, obligations, the past, the future, and fears: none of it is real. They’re just thoughts formed into stories. Out here, they don’t exist.

I find this a better starting place for reframing.