Between global conflicts, political chaos, and the ever-present climate anxiety, it’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed, helpless, or just plain exhausted by it all. But even in what can feel like endless chaos, there are meaningful ways to protect your peace and find pockets of joy that sustain you. Here are the practical ways to maintain your hope and find genuine joy, even when it seems like the world has lost its mind.
1. Switch Up Your Routine And Approach
Sometimes, the fastest route isn’t the most nourishing one. In a world obsessed with efficiency and instant gratification, deliberately choosing the slower, more hands-on approach can be surprisingly fulfilling. Walk to the store instead of driving, cook a meal from scratch rather than ordering delivery, or write a letter by hand instead of sending a text.
These “inconvenient” choices force you to slow down and engage more fully with your surroundings and activities, as noted by The New York Times. They create natural pauses in your day where you can breathe, notice details, and appreciate small pleasures. Plus, there’s a unique satisfaction that comes from doing something the long way—a sense of connection to traditional skills and simpler times that can be grounding when everything else feels chaotic.
2. Remind Yourself The World Is Troubled And Beautiful
When the world seems overwhelming, our thinking often becomes rigid and binary—everything is either terrible or fine, hopeless or fixable. But reality usually exists in the messy middle. Training yourself to embrace “both/and” thinking means acknowledging that seemingly contradictory things can be true simultaneously: the world can be both deeply troubled AND full of beauty; you can be both concerned about global issues AND joyful in your daily life.
This mental flexibility creates space for nuance and prevents you from spiraling into despair. When you catch yourself thinking in all-or-nothing terms, gently challenge that pattern. Remind yourself that pain and joy coexist, that progress and setbacks happen simultaneously in different areas, and that finding moments of delight doesn’t minimize the seriousness of difficult situations. As Psychology Today explains, this balanced perspective helps you stay engaged without burning out.
3. Schedule Unstructured Play Time
Remember when you were a kid and could spend hours building forts, making up games, or just daydreaming? That unstructured play wasn’t just fun—according to UW Health, it was essential for developing creativity, problem-solving skills, and emotional regulation. Somehow, as adults, we’ve convinced ourselves that play is frivolous or unproductive, when it’s actually vital for our wellbeing.
Set aside time with no agenda other than to engage in activities that have no purpose beyond enjoyment. Build something with your hands, color outside the lines, make music badly, dance in your kitchen, or climb a tree. These moments of playfulness aren’t escaping from reality—they’re essential acts of resistance against despair. Play reminds you of your capacity for joy and creativity, even in difficult circumstances, and helps reset your nervous system when the weight of the world feels too heavy.
4. Create a “Good News Only” Group Chat
The doom-scrolling cycle is hard to break alone, but collective positivity can be powerfully contagious. Start a dedicated chat group with friends or family where the only rule is sharing positive news, heartwarming stories, or personal wins—no matter how small. This creates a sanctuary from the overwhelm of negative headlines and a reminder that good things are still happening everywhere, every day.
What makes this approach particularly effective is the communal aspect. When you’re responsible for contributing positive content, you naturally begin noticing more hopeful things in your own life and the wider world. You’ll find yourself thinking, “Oh, I should share that with the group!” about moments that might otherwise slip by unappreciated. Before long, this practice reshapes your attention to spot joy and progress more readily, even outside the context of the chat.
5. Take Care Of Something Living
There’s something profoundly grounding about being responsible for another living thing, whether it’s a garden full of vegetables, a single houseplant, or a pet. The simple act of nurturing growth connects you to the fundamental rhythms of life and provides tangible evidence that care and attention make a difference. Even on days when everything else feels meaningless or out of control, your tomato plant still needs watering.
This responsibility creates a gentle structure and purpose that can be an anchor during turbulent times. As Marcus Bridgewater shared with Wondermind, it pulls you out of abstract worries about the state of the world and into concrete, meaningful action in the present moment. Watching something thrive because of your care is also a powerful antidote to helplessness—a daily reminder that your actions matter and that life persists, even in challenging circumstances.
6. Deliberately Seek Out “Helper” Stories
When disaster strikes, Fred Rogers famously advised looking for the helpers: “You will always find people who are helping.” This wisdom applies not just to children but to all of us navigating a world that often seems broken. Stories of compassion, ingenuity, and selflessness exist alongside every troubling headline—you just have to be intentional about finding them.
Make a habit of seeking out news about community solutions, scientific breakthroughs, and everyday heroes. Follow social media accounts dedicated to sharing stories of human kindness. Read books about historical periods when people faced seemingly insurmountable challenges yet still found ways to help each other and create positive change. These narratives aren’t just feel-good distractions—they’re reminders of our collective capacity for goodness and innovation, even in dark times. They provide both perspective and practical models for how you might contribute in your own way.
7. Find A Fun Niche You Like
The world’s problems can seem impossibly vast and complex when viewed all at once. Instead of trying to stay informed about everything, consider focusing your attention and energy on a specific area that genuinely interests you. Maybe you’re fascinated by regenerative agriculture, passionate about early childhood education, or drawn to innovative urban planning—whatever sparks your curiosity and hope.
Diving deep into a niche allows you to develop a nuanced understanding and see incremental progress that might be missed in broader conversations. It connects you with communities of like-minded people working on solutions rather than just discussing problems. This focused engagement often feels more meaningful and sustainable than skimming the surface of every crisis. You’ll likely find that your specialized knowledge gives you a sense of agency and purpose that generalized doom-scrolling never could.
8. Create Tiny Moments Of Wonder
Wonder doesn’t require grand vistas or extraordinary experiences—it lives in the smallest details of everyday life when we’re paying attention. Train yourself to notice the perfect spiral of a fern unfurling, the rainbow shimmer on a soap bubble, or the exact moment when the sun sets. These micro-moments of awe are always available, even in the midst of challenging circumstances.
Cultivating this attention to small wonders is a practice that gets stronger over time. Keep a wonder journal where you record one surprising or beautiful thing you notice each day. Lie on your back and watch clouds transform. These brief encounters with beauty and mystery remind you that the world, for all its troubles, remains astonishingly intricate and worthy of your attention. They create tiny resets for your nervous system throughout the day.
9. Take Social Media Breaks
Your attention is one of your most precious resources, and social media platforms are specifically designed to capture and hold it through triggers like outrage, comparison, and variable rewards. Taking regular, deliberate breaks from these environments isn’t self-indulgent—it’s essential self-stewardship. Delete the apps from your phone for a weekend, a week, or even a month to recalibrate your attention span and emotional baseline.
During these breaks, notice how your thought patterns and focus change. Many people report feeling more present in their immediate surroundings, sleeping better, and experiencing fewer comparison triggers. You might also discover how unconscious your scrolling habit had become. When you do return to social platforms, do so with clearer boundaries: unfollow accounts that consistently leave you feeling drained, use time limit settings, and be intentional about when and why you engage. Your mental landscape is shaped by what you repeatedly expose it to—choose wisely.
10. Create Memories With Tomorrow In Mind
Think of yourself as the archivist of your own future nostalgia. When you’re engaged in a moment that brings you joy—a conversation with a friend, a perfect autumn day, the satisfying completion of a project—pause to fully absorb it while consciously thinking, “I’m creating a memory I’ll treasure later.” This dual awareness of present enjoyment and future remembrance deepens your experience of positive moments.
This practice also involves deliberately documenting meaningful experiences in ways you’ll revisit. Take photographs that capture not just how things looked but how they felt. Keep a joy journal with specific sensory details rather than general summaries. Create time capsules or memory boxes with physical objects that anchor you to significant experiences. These collections become powerful resources during difficult periods, reminding you that joy has been present in your life before and will be again.
11. Move Your Body In Fun Ways
Exercise doesn’t have to mean punishing yourself on a treadmill or forcing yourself through a workout you hate. The most sustainable physical activity is the kind that feels like play—that you look forward to rather than endure. Rediscover movement forms that bring you genuine pleasure: dancing to music you love, swimming in natural bodies of water, shooting hoops at a neighborhood court, or hiking through beautiful landscapes.
Pay attention to how different movements affect your emotional state. Bouncy, expansive motions like jumping or dancing often create feelings of joy and possibility. Flowing movements like swimming or yoga can induce calm and presence. Rhythmic activities like walking or running might help process thoughts and emotions. Your body isn’t just a machine to maintain—it’s your primary vehicle for experiencing the world. When you move it in ways that feel good rather than obligatory, you reclaim a direct, physical source of joy that’s available regardless of what’s happening in the news.
12. Be Kind To Strangers
In a world that often feels divisive and hostile, small acts of kindness toward strangers are quiet but powerful forms of resistance. Leave a generous tip with a kind note for your server. Pay for the coffee of the person behind you in line. Compliment someone’s garden as you walk by. Help someone struggling with heavy bags. These tiny connections remind both you and the recipient that goodness exists in unexpected places.
What makes these interactions especially valuable is their randomness and lack of agenda. Unlike many of our interactions, these moments aren’t transactional—they’re small affirmations of our shared humanity. They create tiny ripples of goodwill that extend beyond the immediate exchange. Research shows that practicing kindness activates the same pleasure centers in our brains as receiving gifts ourselves, creating a natural antidote to despair. In times when you feel powerless to address big problems, these small actions restore a sense of agency.
13. Build An Emergency “Joy” Kit
Just as you might keep a first aid kit for physical emergencies, create a collection of reliable mood-lifters for emotional emergencies—those days when hope feels especially hard to find. Fill a box or dedicated shelf with items that reliably shift your state: favorite books that transport you, a playlist of songs that always make you dance, sensory items like essential oils or soft fabric, photos that remind you of beautiful moments, or letters from people who love you.
The key is to prepare this resource during better moments, when you can clearly identify what works for you, rather than trying to figure it out when you’re already struggling. Include instructions to your future self about which items help with specific feelings—what soothes anxiety might differ from what helps with sadness or anger. Having this kit readily available acknowledges that difficult moments are part of being human while also affirming your capacity to move through them. It’s a tangible reminder that you’ve prepared for this, that feeling better is possible, and that joy—even in small doses—remains accessible.
