All of us will process what’s happening in the world in a different way, and that’s totally normal. A concept that I was recently introduced to, which has been working for me, is the idea of habit stacking. This is essentially doing a set of small tasks every day, ideally in order, which improve your life in some small but measurable way. For example, I have a reminder set to do squats every morning; I do 12 of them to improve my hamstring flexibility. I’ve got a reminder to do my Duolingo, to make my bed, etc., etc.
Recently, I added to that list a task to do something good for the world. It doesn’t have to be a big thing, in fact it’s better if it’s not, because the idea is for the process to feel sustainable. Most days, I’m just micro-donating to a cause I support. Today for example I gave $5 to United24, which is Ukraine’s governmental charity arm which takes donations from abroad and uses them for whatever purpose you indicate, such as Medical Aid. $5 is the amount I’ve chosen to donate daily because it’s meaningful but sustainable.
If you can’t afford to give actual cash or just don’t want to, there are other ways to help, such as picking up trash in your neighborhood, volunteering your time, making phone calls for a charity, etc. But I do find that simple monetary donations are convenient for a daily exercise.
Why do this? Because doing good consistently like this builds a reflexive habit of reaching out into the world and doing something useful. Repetitive donations like this build a “muscle” to think about others and they make us feel like we can do something to push back the tide of darkness.