When Bad Things Happen

In light of the shootings today at the Empire State Building, I thought I'd take a moment and discuss how we deal with bad things.  It seems that more and more awful things are happening in our country - shootings, death, abuse.  It seems quite distant from us sometimes, but the reality is that things like this can happen anytime, anywhere.  How are we to cope with it all?

I was watching a portion of a video blog about today's shooting in NYC and, at least for that segment, the focus seemed to be on why no one is talking about gun control.  I only saw a portion of their discussion, but that seemed a bit nonsensical to me.  Gun control laws are not going to fix the problem (sorry, not trying to get on a political soap box here).  I think focus should be on why these things happen in the first place.  As I'm writing this, the story is focused on apparently there was some sort of dispute between the shooter and a coworker.  The reality here that applies to a much bigger picture is that many people are stressed, we have trouble focusing on the positives in our lives and the world, and gratitude in general seems to be low.  That's not to say these are the only issues factored into bad things happening, but just my take on the state of situation. (Now stepping down off my box!)

When bad things happen in our county, state, neighborhood, or home we are faced with emotional challenges.  Our brain generally operates through a sort of filter - using past experiences to guide us on how to deal with new ones.  But if we don't have a similar past experience, sometimes we struggle (sometimes we struggle anyway!).  So here I've listed just a few of my suggestions for dealing with bad things:

• Spend time with positive friends/family
• Turn the news off - rehashing it on every TV channel isn't helping fix the hurt, fear, etc
• Take a walk - research has shown that exercise can help improve your mood
• Use your normal healthy coping skills
• Stay away from drugs and alcohol
• Talk to a friend, family member, teacher, pastor, counselor, etc
• Seek professional help if negative feelings don't' go away on their own

These suggestions sound simple (and they are) but in a time of emotional distress, they are sometimes hard to remember.  There are of course many more healthy things you can do, but these are just a few of the simplest and easiest (for me anyway) to remember.

How do you cope with bad things?