Prepare for yet another meandering ramble... you've been warned!
Late yesterday and today, I felt somewhat "off center," at times feeling a little dizzy and almost like having a bit of vertigo, even though I was just sitting in my chair... with a cat sleeping in his basket next to me.
I didn't pay a huge amount of attention to it, although a natural part of the aging process seems to be that we grow a little more area of what's going on in our bodies since it might be something that's a precursor to warranting medical attention.
It wasn't until I read about the Turkish/Syrian earthquake disaster that I recognized how I had been feeling as very similar to how I distinctly remember feeling back in 2004 during/following the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, as well as during/after that Japanese earthquake in 2011.
Just to clarify, I had these feelings before the news reached me... but since I have a hypertensive heart condition I reach for a blood pressure monitor when I feel a little strange, not the news.
However, I am not going to turn this into a "woo woo post," although there is a fair bit of evidence that animals (or some animals) can sense natural disasters either ahead of time, or from a long distance away.
Anyway... some while back, I was talking to a therapist/friend and we touched on a subject that's perhaps the result of our modern instant and always-on news culture: "Empathy Fatigue."
Regardless of whether or not my "feeling strange" was in any way actually connected to a natural disaster I had not yet heard about... one thing is for sure, I have become a very real believer in Empathy Fatigue.
Hereunder... whereas I definitely care about the plight of the 10,000's of earthquake victims and the thousands of fatalities, I am likely going to ignore the news because it is simply exhausting to be constantly bombarded by so much pain and suffering.
Quite honestly, I find that I care less and less whether I am not particularly "well informed" about whatever society deems I "should" be aware of, as "common knowledge."
I just don't have the....???? to stay that up on things. At least not those kinds of things. I don't know whether I have simply grown weary of the violence of the world — after all, this has always been a violent planet; just think about Pompeii — and am ready to just let the news of it keep its distance. Perhaps there's a combination of factors involved... including the unending stream of violence and horror we humans seem set on visiting on each other.
It's just exhausting. And, truth be known, I'm not exactly some "fragile flower" or "snowflake..."
So, my closing observation here relates to fear.
Fear, in general, is very tiring. We experience elevated adrenaline and cortisol levels, get all tensed up, experience a rise in blood pressure and various other physiological factors which... on their downslope... require us to rest and recover, to some greater or lesser degree.
So here we have the news media — regardless of whether they are MSM or independent/alternative — peddling a constant diet of fear, fear, FEAR. So is it really any wonder that trying to stay apprised of all this causes exhaustion?
But hey, I'm not a doctor, and I don't even play one on TV!
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!
Thanks for visiting! Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!
Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT cross posted anywhere else!)
Created at 2023-02-06 23:47 PST
0740/1995