Remember THIS When The World Feels Overwhelming | The Mel Robbins Podcast

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Your body tells you how the news is landing before you name it

  Dr. Thema Bryant says to start with bodily awareness. How is your heart? How are you sleeping? Have you lost your appetite or started emotional eating? Are you snapping at people, or have you shut down with no words? Noticing how you're showing up lets you connect what you're feeling with what's causing it, instead of saying 'I'm blessed, how are you?' when you aren't.

• 02

  'Homecoming' begins with telling yourself the truth

  Homecoming is the title of her New York Times bestseller and the core of her advice. She defines it as telling yourself the truth and then living based on that truth. Being honest about how you're really doing is where liberation and healing begin. Journaling, art and therapy help connect the larger story in the world with your individual one, because what is happening out there is also, to some degree, happening within you.

• 03

  Everyone is feeling it, just in different ways

  Bryant's first message is to release self-judgment. People assume they're the only one who is overwhelmed, the only one who can't stop crying, or the only one who can't access their tears. She says everyone is affected, and that dropping the rules about how you 'should' feel is how you become a soft place to land for yourself.

• 04

  Be informed, not overexposed

  Knowing nothing about the world means you've checked out of the human family, Bryant says. But a 24-hour visual news cycle means absorbing nonstop images and sounds of violence and death. Her line: 'The number of hours or minutes I consume it is not the measure of my care.' Give yourself permission to stop watching all day. She also praises the humility of people online who admit they're confused about a long, complex history.

• 05

  Post-trauma healing is different from homecoming during continuous traumatic stress

  Bryant notes that the term PTSD was developed with veterans and assumes the danger is over, like an adult who survived child abuse or escaped an abusive relationship. People living with perpetual conflict or community violence don't get the luxury of 'post.' Waiting until it's over to reconnect with yourself could take a lifetime or generations, so the task becomes staying near to yourself while the world spins.

• 06

  Two ways to nourish yourself while it's still happening

  First, spiritual practices such as meditation, prayer, gathering with people of your faith or reading a sacred text. Connecting with nature counts too, even by visualizing the beach or your favorite tree if you can't get there. Second, narrative therapy, which means telling your story to people who won't judge or reject you, because 'we heal in relationship with each other.'

• 07

  Judging your own numbness doubles the problem

  Drawing on mindfulness, Bryant says that if you feel numb and then criticize yourself for it, you now have two problems. Instead, notice it with compassion: after so much loss in recent years, it makes sense that you're not really feeling. Whatever you feel, given your life's journey, it makes sense.

• 08

  Hopelessness is a failure of imagination you can push back on

  Bryant says hopelessness is being unable to imagine anything better than now. Her counter is to deliberately reawaken imagination and picture what it would look like for people to be safe, free and treated with dignity, even if you've never seen that in your community or nation. She adds: 'This moment does not have the final say,' and trauma affects us but doesn't define us.