Stressed or overwhelmed by the state of the world (or both)? In this episode I share practical mental health tools for chaotic times to help you protect your peace and reduce anxiety when it feels like everything’s just one great big endless mess. So, Let’s Talk About Mental Health!

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Episode Overview:

How do you protect your peace with all the chaos going on in the world? Does the state of the world leave you feeling tense and exhausted, like the world is a mess both outside and in your own head? Do you find yourself feeling a bit guilty sometimes for trying to just get on with your life when so much is going on?

In this episode of Let’s Talk About Mental Health, I’m talking about emotional overload, empathy burnout, and how constant anxiety and overwhelm about global chaos can quietly wreck your mental health. I’ll share simple, realistic self care tips to protect your peace: how to stop doomscrolling, reduce news anxiety, set boundaries for mental health, and build a calmer mindset even when you’re living with uncertainty.

This episode is for you if you care deeply about what’s happening, but you also need practical ways to reduce stress and anxiety and feel more grounded in everyday life so your head doesn’t explode. 

👉 Ready to feel calmer and more in control, even when the world feels like a mess? Then let’s talk!

💡 TL;DR: Stressed or overwhelmed by the state of the world (or both)? In this episode I share practical mental health tools to protect your peace and reduce anxiety when it feels like everything’s just one great big endless chaotic mess. 🙂

New here? Hi! Let’s Talk About Mental Health is your weekly dose of practical mental health advice for real life. I’m Jeremy Godwin (hi! 👋) and I keep things simple, honest, and doable so you can feel more in control of your life and your mental wellbeing. If you’re not already a free subscriber, sign up below to have episodes and transcripts land in your inbox every Sunday:

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Episode Transcript:

The world is a mess: protect your peace

The world being a mess is unavoidable… letting it live inside your head is optional.

The noise, the news, the conflict, and the constant feelings of “What’s next?!” doesn’t just make you sad or angry… it makes you exhausted, tense, and kind of hopeless about the future.

So today, I want to help you get really clear on what’s yours to carry and what isn’t. Because you’re allowed to still enjoy life, even when the world is chaotic.

We have a lot to discuss, so let’s talk about… protecting your peace in chaotic times.

Hello and welcome back to Let’s Talk About Mental Health! I’m Jeremy Godwin, and this show is all about practical mental health advice for real life. This week we’re talking about something that has been coming up a lot on this show over the past year or more, and that I’ve been getting lots and lots of comments and questions about, and it’s how to look after your mental health in spite of the world feeling a bit like a flaming dumpster full of horse manure some days. So if you’re sitting there thinking, “Yes, that’s exactly how it feels sometimes… or all the time!”, I just want to say to you upfront: you are not overreacting. The world really is a lot right now. It’s noisy, tense, and unpredictable. And for a lot of us, it feels like we’re being asked to absorb crisis after crisis while still trying to show up at work, pay our bills, keep our families going, and hold ourselves together… oh, and somehow also find time for self-care and looking after our mental health too.

Of course it’s not that easy at the best of times… but it’s even harder if you’re already dealing with challenges or struggling to hold things together. And that kind of constant pressure doesn’t just sit in the background. It lands right in your mind and body on a daily basis, like being slapped repeatedly by some invisible force. This episode will not magically fix everything, but it will help you protect your peace. Because your peace is not a luxury item. It’s what lets you function, care, think clearly, and it’s what keeps you moving through your life without being swallowed whole by everything that’s happening out there.

At the end of the year, and over the holidays in particular, a lot of people try to switch off but probably can’t… or they might feel guilty for even wanting to. And so I want to give you a grounded way to look after your mental wellbeing in the middle of chaotic times without pretending that the world isn’t a hot mess. We just have to be realistic about it. And since this is the first episode of 2026, and Happy New Year by the way, I thought we’d just have a realistic and honest conversation just in case this year becomes “2025 The Sequel: Return to the Dumpster Fire.” Although… I’m going to cling to my realistic optimism and hope here, and really hope, that 2026 will be much, much better. Thankfully, it’s got a pretty low bar to start from… so fingers crossed!

Alright, so let’s be serious and let’s talk about…

Why the world feels like too much

So… what I’m talking about is that feeling of being mentally and emotionally flooded by the state of the world. You look at what’s happening politically, socially, financially, environmentally, globally, and your brain feels like it just cannot find solid ground. You might be doom scrolling, even though you hate it. You might be snapping at people you care about because you’ve got nothing left in the tank energy-wise. You might feel frightened about the future, angry about what you’re seeing, or just numb because it’s all too much to hold at once.

And we’ve been dealing with this stuff for a good few years now. And a sneaky part of it is guilt. It’s guilt for wanting to switch off, guilt for maybe laughing at something, guilt for living your normal life while other people are suffering. I had guilt just a moment ago. I cracked a joke at the… at the end of the opener and thought, oh no, maybe I should have been more serious. It’s like your brain has suddenly decided that feeling awful is some sort of civic duty that we all have to obey in order to be worthy as human beings.

Here’s why this stuff hits you so hard though when you’re already struggling, or if you’re dealing with challenges… like most of us are. It’s because your nervous system wasn’t built for constant crisis updates. We are wired to respond to threats that we can do something about, not to a never ending stream of massive complex problems that live outside of our direct control… and for which it looks like, to our minds, there’s no solution, at least in the short or medium term. So your mind does what minds do: it tries to keep you safe by scanning for danger, by predicting worst case scenarios so you can be prepared and staying alert for them.

That’s really useful for crossing the road. It’s not so useful when the ‘road’ in question is the entire planet! Add in social media algorithms that push outrage, because outrage keeps you scrolling and earns the owners more money, and you end up living in a state of low-grade ‘fight or flight’. It’s exhausting. You can feel it in your body. It’s tight shoulders, shallow breathing, ‘churny’ stomach, restless sleep, that background hum of dread.

There’s also the emotional side. If you’re a caring person, and if this episode resonates with you at all you probably are, then seeing harm or injustice affects you negatively. But compassion without boundaries turns into compassion fatigue. You start to feel hollowed out, cynical, or just permanently on-edge. If you’ve lived through instability before, things like family chaos or financial stress, trauma, years of anxiety or depression… I know that one very well; actually, I know all of those very well… you’ll likely find that current events can and will poke at your old wounds. So your brain goes: “I’ve felt this unsafe before… I don’t like it!”, and it reacts like it’s happening to you now.

This is about how the world being a mess erodes your ability to protect your peace. It’s not because you’re a snowflake who can’t handle reality, but it’s because peace requires space… and you can’t create space when your head is packed wall to wall with other people’s emergencies or just a sense of insecurity and distress. The world, though, doesn’t need you to be constantly in distress in order for you to be a good person. What it needs is for you to be well enough to keep showing up in the ways that actually matter.

There are two things that I want you to hold onto here as we continue through this episode. The first is that being informed isn’t the same as allowing yourself to be consumed. And the second is you are allowed to care and to have a life. And look, I am not saying ignore everything and just think happy thoughts. That’s not realistic, and it’s not real life… and it’s not even kind. I’m saying that there’s a difference between staying engaged with what matters versus letting the chaos camp out in your head like it owns the place. Because honestly, if the chaos wants to live there, then at the very least it can chip in for the electricity. Am I right?!

And in a minute, I’m going to walk you through one core shift and a small set of actions to help you stay connected without being swallowed whole. Because protecting your peace in chaotic times isn’t ‘a vibe’. It’s a practice. And we’re going to talk about it right after this quick break.

[AD BREAK]

And welcome back! So now let’s talk about…

How to protect your peace

So first, a couple of immediate actions. These are things that you can do today or in the next day or two, just to create some breathing room for yourself. Number one…

Contain your intake and mute your triggers.

OK. Make one clear decision about exactly when you’ll check the news or socials today, and stick to it. Put it in your diary if you need to. And at the same time, mute a couple of accounts or topics that reliably spike your stress. So I’d also say there if there are particular news services that make you want to throw things at the screen, or grab the screen and throw it at things, then please find a less frustrating service to watch! Or even better, switch to reading your news online from an objective independent source rather than getting people’s opinions, which are not news. You’re not ignoring reality with these choices, you’re choosing what gets access to your head and when. Next…

Do a one-minute reset after heavy content.

After you’ve read or viewed something that affects you emotionally, don’t just go and roll straight into the rest of your day like nothing just happened. Stand up and feel your feet on the ground. Maybe take 10 slow and deep, deliberate breaths. Or you could do a quick check of your five senses, one by one. Anything that tells your body, “We’re here in the present moment, and we’re safe in this moment.” It’s a tiny reset that stops stress from taking up residence.

OK, so now I’m going to move on to some quick actions for you to practice over the next few weeks. These are about changing the patterns, not just surviving the moment. So first…

Use a capacity check before you take anything in.

Before you open the news or scroll, ask yourself: do I actually have emotional room for this right now? If the answer is no, delay it to your next chosen window of time. That one question will shift you from automatic intake to intentional intake, and it reminds your brain that you’re the one that’s in charge of timing. Because… let’s be honest: some days your capacity will be, “Sure, I can handle a quick update,” and other days it will be, “If I read one more horrible thing, I might start yelling at the microwave”… and both of those are entirely valid! Next…

Move from endless intake to ‘informed, then exit’.

For the next couple of weeks, adopt this new rule: one deliberate check-in, then get out of there. You read what you came for, then you close the app and do one grounding thing right after. So maybe that’s make a cup of tea or coffee, put some music on, go outside for a bit, talk to someone… whatever it is that brings you back into your actual life. By doing this, you’ll be training your mind to stay engaged without getting trapped in the flood. Think of it like visiting a messy friend: you can pop in and see what’s going on, but choose to leave before they drag you into a three hour sermon about their latest drama. Next…

Turn care into one tiny doable action.

Pick one small way to channel your concern into something constructive. It could be a donation, if that’s right for you, doing something kind in your local area, having a respectful conversation with someone, getting involved in a community group… whatever fits your values, and your capacity. This is not about ‘fixing’ everything. It’s about hope, and reminding your nervous system that you can influence something… and that you can contribute to positive change in the world. Helplessness fuels anxiety; agency calms it. I talked about hopelessness recently in Episode 297, if you’d like to learn more.

OK, so then I want to share one longer term change for you to build over the coming months. This is the deeper shift that makes everything else easier, and it is…

Strengthen your ability to live with uncertainty.

Chaotic times light up the part of your brain that demands certainty, so it starts trying to predict the future… usually in ‘worst case possible’ ways. So that’s why your mind keeps on going, “Ugh, what’s the world coming to?!” or, “Things are only going to get worse!”… even when you know those thoughts aren’t really helping you. The long-term work here is learning to notice those ‘predictions’ that your brain makes, naming them as thoughts rather than facts, and then bringing yourself back to what’s real and what’s within your influence today. That doesn’t make you naïve. It makes you stable enough to function.

A simple way to practice this is to ask two questions when you feel yourself spiralling: “What’s actually happening in my world right now?” and, “What can I control or influence today?” Sometimes the answers are going to be small: it’s your routine, your boundaries, how much you expose yourself to, how you speak to the people you love, a choice you make that aligns with your values. But ‘small’ is the point. You’re building your tolerance for uncertainty by anchoring yourself in the present… and the present and the future are made up of small moments. And choosing to act where you do have power is how you make a difference. That’s how you stop the chaos from hijacking your mind. Plus small actions add up over time to huge results.

If you want to go deeper on this specific skill, check out Episode 291 about focusing on what you can control. It’s basically the longer version of this idea, with a lot more detail on how to build that habit even when life feels out of control. The main point about learning to live with uncertainty is that you just cannot think your way into safety by consuming more and more crisis. Safety comes from setting boundaries, from being consciously present, and from choosing your next right step one at a time… even when the world is loud and chaotic.

Alright, so those are the tips. Now, don’t try to do them all at once. Just pick one or two to focus on at first and then slowly build on them over time. And if you want to, let me know in the comments which one or two you’re going to try, I would love to know!

Conclusion

Here’s the main thing that I really want you to take away from all of this today. The world being a mess is real… but you don’t have to let that mess live in your head all day. You’re allowed to care about what’s happening and also protect your peace. Because that’s how you stay grounded enough to keep living your life, and showing up in the ways that matter.

So here’s a reflection question I want you to consider: When the noise out there feels overwhelming, and you’re struggling to hold things together, what would protecting your peace actually look and feel like for you? In a way that keeps you informed, but doesn’t cost you your sleep or your hope or your relationships? Just sit with that thought for a moment. Because the answer doesn’t need to be big. It just needs to be honest.

Because when you boil it all down, you can’t fix everything in the world by yourself… but you can choose how much of it you carry.

Each week I like to finish up by sharing a quote about the topic, and I encourage you to take a few moments to really reflect on it and consider what it means to you. This week’s quote is by an unknown author, and it is…

Be proud of yourself for choosing peace in a world addicted to chaos.

Unknown

Let me repeat that.

Be proud of yourself for choosing peace in a world addicted to chaos.

Alright… that’s it for this week! If you’d like to support the show, my Patreon gets you early ad-free episodes; it’s linked below.

Thank you very much for joining me today. Look after yourself and make a conscious effort to share positivity and kindness out into the world… because you get back what you put out. Take care and talk to you next time!

Join me next week to talk about why work drains your peace of mind. And check out my episode on mental overload next. It’s linked in the description. Plus follow or subscribe to never miss an episode!

Let’s Talk About Mental Health is an independent program. Discover more at ltamh.com.

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Let’s Talk About Mental Health.
Making Mental Health Simple.

Let’s Talk About Mental Health. © 2025 Jeremy Godwin.

The information provided in this episode is for general awareness on the topic and does not constitute advice. You should consult a doctor and/or mental health professional if you’re struggling with your mental health and wellbeing. You’ll find additional information on the Resources page of this website.