When the News Feels Frightening this is a little reminder to breathe

There seems to be a lot of frightening news at the moment and it is hard to avoid it.  Every day the news is worrying, with very few positive stories.  This obviously can impact our mental health. I don’t listen to main stream media, or watch television, but it is still creeping into my life through conversations and social media.

Energy prices are going up. We are being encouraged to keep extra food and water at home. There are stories about possible blackouts, devastating weather, food shortages, international tensions and the frightening possibility of war.

It is very easy to spend a few minutes reading or listening to the news and suddenly feel as though the whole world is about to fall apart. If you have been feeling anxious, unsettled or simply fed up with it all, I want to offer you a little reminder:

You do not have to carry the weight of every possible future problem today.

Prepared doesn’t have to mean frightened

There is nothing wrong with being sensible.

Having a few extra tins in the cupboard makes good sense.

Keeping a torch where you can find it  saves stress.

Having some food that doesn’t need refrigerating or cooking is being organised.

Knowing where your candles, blankets, and batteries are is sensible.

But there is a huge difference between quietly preparing for the possibility of an inconvenience, and living every day as though disaster is already happening.

One can make you feel secure. The other can rob you of your peace.

For those of us who enjoy a simple, frugal life, I think there is a lovely middle ground. We can prepare without panicking.

Look at what you already have

One of the wonderful things about a frugal home is that you may already be more prepared than you realise.

Your cupboards probably contain rice, pasta, flour, oats, beans, tinned tomatoes, soup, cereal or other foods that will keep for a long time.

You may have a full freezer or dehydrated items..

You may grow a few vegetables.

Perhaps you have blankets tucked away, a camping stove, a torch, candles, a flask or a battery pack.

Maybe you have a little store cupboard simply because you like shopping less often and making your money stretch further.

That’s not “panic buying”.  That’s simply being organised.

You don’t need to rush out and spend £200 filling your cupboards because a newspaper headline frightened you.

Use what you have. Rotate it. Replace things as you use them. Build your supplies slowly and naturally.

That is the frugal way.

Don’t let the news decide how you feel

This is something I think we all need to remember.

News organisations have a job to do. They need people to click, read, watch and come back tomorrow.

“Everything is fairly normal today” isn’t much of a headline.

“Could your home survive the next crisis?” certainly gets our attention.

The result is that we can spend far more time thinking about frightening possibilities than we do thinking about all the ordinary things that are going right.

So perhaps give yourself permission to step away.

You don’t need to know every development.

 Many predictions are exaggerated or false, any way.

You definitely don’t need to scroll through social media before bed.

Choose a reliable source for important information, check it occasionally, and then get on with your life.

There is a difference between being informed and being consumed by information.

Come back to what you can control

When the world feels enormous and uncertain, bring your attention back to your own little corner of it.

Make a cup of tea.

Cook something from the cupboard.

Bake some bread.

Sort out the freezer.

Put £5 into your savings pot.

Hang the washing outside if the weather allows.

Plant some seeds.  There is still time for some winter crops.

Take the dog for a walk.

Phone someone you love.

Have a tidy-up or a declutter.

Read a book.

Light the fire.

Sit in the garden.

Make plans for something lovely.

These things may sound very small when there are enormous problems happening elsewhere in the world.

But small things are not meaningless.

Small things are where our lives actually happen.

Frugality can be a form of resilience

Perhaps this is one of the reasons I love simple living so much.

Frugality teaches us not to waste.

It teaches us to make do.

Frugality teaches us to cook from what we have, mend things, reuse things, grow things, save things and think ahead.

It teaches us that we don’t necessarily need to rush out and buy something every time we are told we might need it. Perhaps most importantly, it teaches us that we can live quite happily with less.

So if energy prices are worrying you, look at the things you can change.

Could you reduce wasted energy? An example is putting a cup full of water in the kettle instead of filling it before you make your cup of tea.

Maybe you can make a couple of inexpensive or meat free meals each week?  I sometimes cook in my pizza oven, on top of my wood burner, or firepit to save money

You could you use up the food already sitting in your cupboards.  Maybe you could do a freezer or cupboard inventory.  |I bet you have more food than you actually think.

Could you start a small emergency fund, even if it is only a few pounds at a time?  If you don’t have much in the pantry you could just spend £3 a week extra by buying things like oats and pasta, baked beans, tins of tomatoes, flour, etc.

Maybe you could make your home a little more efficient or insulated? Something like a blanket at the back of the door, turning the heating down by a couple of degrees, or pulling plugs out.

Small changes really add up over time.

You don’t need to solve the world’s problems.

You only need to make your own household a little stronger.

And what if something really does happen?

That’s a reasonable question.

We cannot know what the future will bring.

There could be storms, power cuts, supply problems, price rises or other unexpected events. The government is now encouraging households to take some straightforward steps to be better prepared for disruption.

Being prepared doesn’t mean sitting at home worrying about everything that might happen. It means quietly thinking:

“What would make life a little easier if something went wrong?”

Then doing what you reasonably can.

 Make sure you have a torch. some drinking water, a  few days of food you normally eat anyway.

Check that you have some basic first-aid supplies, may be a little cash, and important telephone numbers written down.

Nothing dramatic or frightening. Just common sense.

Once you’ve done what you reasonably can, you are allowed to carry on living.

Don’t postpone your life

This is perhaps the loudest thing that I want to say.

Please don’t let frightening headlines steal today’s happiness.

Don’t put off that nice day out with your friends.

Still make your plans.

Keep laughing with your family.

Don’t stop looking forward to Christmas, your holiday, your garden, your next walk or that little project you’ve been meaning to start.

There is no point spending every evening imagining the worst possible future.

We have always lived in uncertain times.

Our parents and grandparents experienced wars, recessions, shortages, strikes, power cuts, political upheaval and frightening headlines of their own.

 People still baked cakes.

They also grew vegetables.

Many fell in love, got married, and had babies

They sat around kitchen tables eating meals together.

Birthdays were celebrated

They laughed.

Despite shortages they still made Christmas dinner.

People carried on.  Perhaps that is the quiet lesson we can take from them.

We don’t need certainty in order to enjoy an ordinary day.

So, take a breath

If the news has left you feeling overwhelmed this week, turn it off for a little while.

Look around your home.

Realise what you already have.

Make a sensible plan for anything that genuinely concerns you and then put the kettle on.

Cook dinner.

Give someone a hug.

Go outside.

Watch the sunset.

Do something that makes you smile.

We can be sensible without being scared.

Preparation will be better without panic.

We can be frugal without feeling deprived.

 Acknowledging that the world has problems without allowing those problems to take every bit of joy from our own little lives is maybe a new skill that we all need to learn.

The future will arrive one day at a time.

Today is here now.  It is yours to enjoy.