Author: Swati Tamhankar Mohandas
‘Are you okay?’ A few days ago, someone dear to me asked this. And I ponder, am I okay? Should I simply reply fine and move ahead with the conversation or do I reply how I am ‘actually’ feeling?
Scared! Worried! Yep, that’s how I am feeling.
So many unfortunate events are happening all around us, a drunk teen driver ramming his car and killing two innocent people or a young girl getting ‘wrench-ed’ in broad daylight by her beau due to a love gone sour or the many road rage incidents or many people getting killed due to illegally constructed hoarding. The global news gets quite overwhelming sometimes and feeling of uncertainty, anxiety or a loss of control over my own life and plans gets too much on my mental state. I fear for my safety as well as for the security of my near and dear ones.
I am certain that many of you reading this blog are experiencing stress when faced with a constant barrage of headlines about social injustice, corruption and violence as if the world is spiralling downwards.
We are inundated by news from many sources like newspapers and social media platforms, you can’t really escape from them. I don’t think we are meant to be exposed to every disaster happening in the world as for some of us, isn’t it too much to bear!!!
More or less, I also think due to the human tendency to lean more towards negative news, this kind of news gets more coverage. It is human nature that we instinctively gather facts to protect ourselves from possible harm or danger.
There are endless things we cannot control in this world and for me, I try not to engage in the sad or depressing news as these are not beneficial for my mental wellbeing. I only go through news which are relevant to me and frankly, I don’t want to be overloaded with all the happenings of the world. If the news is creating a negative impact on me, better to shut it off and read a novel instead.
About the Author :
I am a Philosophy graduate and a certified computer professional from Mumbai and based in Pune with my family from the last 2 decades.
Literature always fancied me. I pen down short stories, blogs, poems and has forayed into freelance content writing. I even published an award-winning book of collected poems titled ‘Myriad Whispers’ which is available on Amazon.
When not writing, I enjoy listening to music, exploring the outdoors and scanning local bookstores.