Deleted.

a walk in the woods does help a bunch.

things haven't changed all that much, its just we hear about it 24/7 from all sides. so turn off the news, take a slow quiet outdoor hike (even if just a quieter part of a city park) and get back in touch with nature.

breath deep. life ain't so bad...

oh yes, and pet your dog!

I agree with Wiley Coyote on all his points stated.

The more someone tries to rush me, the sooner I turn everything off and go for a walk!

My question to you is how these events have affected you directly? I try and not fret over those things I have little control over and try to implement mitigating actions for those events that I can in some way influence. In all three cases (bombing, attempted poisoning and explosion), the events were localized and had no direct influence over my situation. While I grieve and pray for those affected, I have not let the events influence my current psychological well being.

Having been involved in emergency services for over 20 years, I attempt to compartmentalize adverse events and make every effort not to allow them to influence my daily life. Preparing for emergencies without dwelling on them, at least for me, helps me to focus on the positive and not the negative.

My 2 cents-
Pete

I occasionally think that I'm in a parallel universe, and that there is a distinct hard wire disconnect between the thought processes of others and me... then as Pete said, if you can't effect the outcome let it go... work for the outcome you can effect... I automatically delete e-mails from certain friends that I know will jack up my blood pressure

One of my CERT teammates was at the Boston Marathon. I'm pleased to report that she and her children were uninjured.

I'm directly and significantly impacted by some of the REDACTED going on.



This is a healthy attitude that I try to emulate with varying degrees of success.



Psychologically, preparing and being prepared gives me significant comfort, allowing me to sleep better at night. Some folks I have known have told me that they can't prepare because then they'd have to think about what could go wrong, which would be upsetting to them. I'll have to self-moderate again and not discuss how I feel about this attitude.

Different corner of the world here, but same sensory overload and the reasons are not very different.

My "bug out" action plan is :

- Work : working on new projects I haven't done before which requires all the brain storming and knowlege I can.

- Family: Daughter has math exam and I have to be homeschooling her.

- Home : Some plumbing and spring cleaning

Oh, and the garden ... enjoying a nice crop of tomatoes.

... and , off course, the never ending job of reviewing/upgrading the emergency kits.

Yes, horror seems to come fast and furious this week.

Turn off the television, get away from the Internet and take your dog for a walk. Always works for me.

And here's another option that scientists say may help for "existential anxiety:"


http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/1440/20130418/tylenol-eases-existential-anxiety.htm


Tylenol Eases Existential Anxiety


.

Sounds surprising, but I read it and yes, indeed, some researchers have found this effect.

Wish I had known this before I did my taxes last week!

But in all seriousness, it's definitely a time of a lot of anxiety and uncertainty in the world. Turning off, tuning out, and spending time in nature and with loved ones (including four legged ones) should certainly help ground you.

When it's something like this, that doesn't directly impact my life or my loved ones, my first step is to take a deep breath and break the news cycle - walk away from the news and stop the mental and emotional barrage. Second is to spend time with my kids and husband and reassure myself that we're all safe and sound. Third is to confirm that we're as prepared as we can be right now for the realistic threats in our AO, and that those threats or the potential for them hasn't actually changed because of this, even though it might feel that way. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

Temperature is rising in our corner of the world, so taking a hike isn't as pleasant as it used to be in the last few months. So, one of the additional options I am exploring now is diving into the local stock market. You will be so focused on YOUR money that you won't know what is happening elsewhere.

I gave this same advice to a relative who wouldn't relax no matter what his closest friends advised him.

Iwhile these event's are sad they don't affect me directly so I simply let them roll off me. Sounds cruel, I know, but I can do nothing about it so why bother getting upset? I have a friend who is LAPD. Had it happened there and he was hurt, or another old friend who live in the area had been hurt, then our entire twisted little group of misfits would be out there using our assorted special skilkls to find those responsible. Just take deep breaths and focus on something pleasant Teacher.

With events like this, there are two questions i ask - (1) Is there anything I can do to assist? (2) What lessons can be learned from the incident?

The afternoon of the Boston Marathon, I was scheduled to donate blood. Unfortunately, my hematocrit was 0.1 too low, so I am scheduled for an appointment next week. Now of course, my pint is not going to find its way into the veins of any of the Boston victims, but there are plenty of others between southern California and Boston who will find it useful. Donating blood is simple, easy, and a good thing to do.

Go fishing with my buddies, then a few pints of beer at the Fisherman's Tavern in Broughty Ferry then feed the swans in-between the Lifeboat station and the castle just across the road.

Breathe. Think of the brighter side of things. Whenever disasters and "stuff" occurs, start looking for the helpers. There are always helpers. These are the people that are reaching out and helping those in trouble. I don't necessarily mean trained first responders (nor exclude them) but I am thinking of the common man. When the bombs went off people scattered for sure. But others looked back and saw the grief and turned to help out despite the potential for more danger. Think about the best things in the human spirit, not about the insanity.

My first response to the bombings in Boston was, "are these really bombs?" Initially, the reports are terribly inaccurate. The "fog of war" and all that. Turns out I was wrong in someways and right in others. Just like everyone else, except I knew my reactions would likely be wrong. I'm currently living in NYC and there was some hype about danger here, its easy to forget I basically live in Harlem and my risk is actually higher from taxis and apparently getting pushed onto subway tracks than terrorism. No offense to Harlem, but there's not a whole lot to bomb around here. That said, I did look through my kit to reevaluate it. Conclusion: not much I can really do about a mass casually event. I carry a trauma bandage and a wash cloth, and I'm not adding more weight. My thermos and ipad make my bag heavy enough already.

REDACTED

For everything else, I have taken up knitting. My current goal is to make socks. I hear its difficult. Should keep me occupied.

Keep calm and carry on.

Cutting back on the web, including here and ZS. Turning off the tube. Turning off the radio in the truck, and making sure the disk changer is loaded with a good mix of stuff. Look at the bottle on the shelf and ask myself if I really, really need it- and feel pretty spiffy when I pour myself of a shot of jelly beans instead.

As talked about before, we can’t prepare for everything. We can only improve our odds.

As for how I deal, let’s just say we can’t discuss religion.

Edit: It helps to listen to “Scarborough Fair.”

Jeanette Isabelle

I feel overwhelmed too. I'm out of here, best wishes.

Deleted.

Security is illusory. At any moment we can be struck down with accident, illness, crime, disaster, or misfortune. From that perspective, most of us are actually doing not too badly. We're still alive and kicking. Life just has remained the gauntlet that it ever was. It's OK to be human, but we can overcome the grief we feel on behalf of the victims with compassion for them.

In the great Indian epic called the Mahabharata, the god Dharma decided to test his son and find out whether he has the quality of a king. Dharma asked his son many questions, and the final one was the hardest. What is the greatest miracle of all? Without pause, the son answered, "Every day, we face disease, disaster, and death. Yet we walk on as if though we are immortal. That is the greatest miracle of all."

So let's participate in the miracle of life. Now, I'm aware that we're drawn to emergency preparation because we are more sensitive to risks, and we want to optimize our chances of survival by managing the risks. So we walk on knowing that S might just HTF one day. But in the mean time, let's remember our enormous ability to put things in perspective, and accept that insecurity is the condition of human existence.

It does seem there's a "perfect storm" of troubles right now, but I have to agree with another poster- it registers in my mind but it doesn't really affect me. The media does all it can to whip people into a frenzy, and horrible events are the lifeblood of the 24 hour news industry. Certainly events like the bombing are terrible, but there's not much I can do about them.

I do what I can about the few things I can affect. That's all I can manage.

I just don't see how any of these events are relevant to me or mine. Like 9-11 - my overwhelming feeling was one of disconnect from the events of that day. Thousands died, many of them international or non-US citizens (look it up), but apart from one Amex person I knew personally, the victims of that day were no more known to me than the victims on the Titanic. My response was to secure the bit of critical infrastructure I was associated with, and that done, I moved on to 'combatting terrorist al Qaeda', which I have a very minor role on. I had a more direct involvement with the Nisqually quake where I drove to my kids' elementary school to make sure they were okay.

Now explosions at the Boston Marathon, and while I have a huge amount of empathy for the victims, I have no connection there either. With the fertilizer explosion in West, Texas, I am feeling a huge amount of loss for the volunteer fire fighters who lost their lives - I'm not a fire fighter, but I know a fair number of them locally, and I find their loss tragic, and depressing.

I am not so overwhelmed as I am reflecting on losses, which is hard. But direct empathy, I must confess, no - which some will say is unpatriotic or unfeeling, but in my personal damage assessment, just isn't there. Severe apologies for that to anyone who suffered a more direct or personal loss from these events. I am not overwhelmed.

I'm curious -- what about the firefighters and policemen who perished in the World Trade Center? What about the fact that a good number of the firefighters came from an ethnic neighborhood? Since Chinatown is next to the twin towers, and that area's fire department took a heavy hit.

On one level, why do we care much if the victim lived five miles away or five thousand? Nationalism and political boundaries aside, human beings are human beings. Why should the suffering of a fellow human in Africa concern me less than one in Boston?

I don't mean to imply we shouldn't care, I'm just puzzled at how we decide which things to fret over.