Blog Post

Keeping Our Perspective and Sanity in an Insane World

How we do this  varies greatly according to our personalities and personal tastes. But unless you are seeing what life is throwing our way these days from an entirely different aspect than I am, you need ways to cope.

      Let me suggest it is absolutely crucial in keeping ourselves from a frequent state of anxiety or anger to be careful what we expose our brains to, or for how long.

      It was very interesting to read an article yesterday about Jenny Phillip's reasons for launching a successful home schooling curriculum company.  She discovered her daughter's rude attitude was coming from the books she was reading from her school library! 

     Now the brains of children are more spongy than ours are and as such absorb everything around them.  As adults we often need to spend more time to absorb, but we still need to be aware of just how much we can take at one time.

     In order to tolerate the injustices, ineptness, tragedies, put forth every day via multiple media settings - not to mention locating sources that you can trust to provide you with a semblance of the truth - can be emotionally stressful for the most well grounded of human beings. 

     This exposure comes not only by reading, of course, but by the airwaves as well. I would suggest that after first of all being discerning about where we get our information, we would also learn to know when it's time to step back. When is it time to turn off the radio, the evening news, to push aside the newspaper or to close the website article?

     Instead, turn on the classical music, bake a batch of cookies, work in the garden, or go for a walk. Call someone you care about and focus on them. Pray.

    Find a book to read that relaxes or inspires you - or both.

     One of my current reads is Say To This Mountain, the 3rd book in the Shiloh Legacy series by Bodie Thoene.  The author is brilliant here in describing the situations of several different individuals in various situations in 1929. The characters range from the strongest to the weakest, the kindest to the most hard-hearted and cruel.  It is done so realistically it reminds me once again fiction can be used to teach and inspire. The reader senses the presence of God in the joys and the sorrows.

     I found inspiration and endless food for thought in the true account, The Insanity of God, although it put me in tears more than once.  

     Winspear's Maisie Dobbs mysteries provide a wonderful respite with an admirable heroine and absorbing stories. 

     Definitely, what I read is a tool for keeping my own perspective healthy and maintaining my sanity in a world that is offering less and less of either.