Empathy

It can be really exhausting to exist sometimes. Don't get me wrong - it's not that I abhor existence or anything of the like; it is a complete and utter blessing and gift every single day. However, let's not sugar coat things. Some days, some weeks, some months can be utterly exhausting. 

I mean, I feel a lot of things. Often, I am a ball of empathy yarn. I am woven to fit situations and then unwoven and strewn about, tangled with everything in my midst. And then repeat. 

At the end of the day, the yarn is going to be pretty beat up, right? Right. That's where a conversation I had a few weeks ago that enabled an 'aha!' moment for me. The person that I was speaking with explained to me how she had stopped watching the news because that was, for her, misplaced empathy. This meant that she focused her energy instead toward particular people or causes that she felt she could productively aid, instead of expending empathy and emotion toward tragedies around the world that were out of her reach. 

I take this to mean that instead of absorbing the news - which is often saturated with sadness and tragedy - you seek out causes that you want to support and give time, money, and energy to in smaller,  concentrated doses. In this way, you're able to exert yourself most productively in terms of 'charity' (in one form or another), and you're also able to ration your energy most effectively in regards to your own mental well being. 

This doesn't mean you should pull a veil over your eyes and be ignorant to anything and everything happening in the world, but merely be more conscious of where you are knitting your empathy yarn and for what direct purpose and result.