Episode #68: Staying Informed While Taking Care of Your Mental Health
Date 10/13/2026
The X-Podcast: Real Conversations About Mental Health
A Conversation About: Staying Informed While Taking Care of Your Mental Health
Episode #68: Staying Informed While Taking Care of Your Mental Health
In this episode, The X-Team reacts to a YouTube video by Terri Cole titled:
Listen to this episode at https://podcast.show/studio_talk_mental_health/episode/155713225/
How to Stay Informed Without Losing Your Mind (7 Simple Steps) - Terri Cole
YouTube Channel Video
Terri Cole
Mental Health Professional in the US
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFoGakNV5Tc
A follower asked her on her YouTube channel: What's the first recommendation for maintaining your sanity during the 24-hour news cycle?
Feeling overwhelmed by the shit show that we are living in right now in the US.
In her video on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFoGakNV5Tc, she has created a psychological survival kit. Feeling overwhelmed by the 24/7 news cycle? Struggling with anxiety, fear, or nervous system burnout during these chaotic times?
Below is her copy from her video (Terri Cole)
In this episode, I’m sharing a Psychological Survival Kit to help you stay grounded, informed, and emotionally regulated without losing your sanity. You’ll learn how to calm your nervous system, set boundaries with media consumption, protect your energy, improve sleep, and practice self-care in practical (and free) ways.
If you’re experiencing news anxiety, hypervigilance, emotional exhaustion, or stress from everything happening in the world, this video is for you.
You are not alone. And there is a way to stay engaged without burning out.
Free guided meditation included
Nervous system regulation tools
Boundaries with toxic negativity
Grounding & emotional self-care strategies
Terri Cole’s 7 Simple Steps:
Curating news consumption
Body Wisdom and Rest
Sleep hygiene and Energy Protection
Meditation practice
Physical movement
Social boundaries
Kindness and community action.
My show notes refer to her video. Paraphrasing in some/most parts. Xiomara A. Sosa
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, it is normal, especially if you live in the United States.
But it is everywhere else, too. There is a lot of unrest everywhere. But it is pretty intense and bad here in the US right now if you are staying informed and paying attention to what is going on.
In her video, Teri Cole provides her top 7 things you can do to take care of your mental health and maintain your sanity during this time we are living through.
She refers to our nervous system activation. We were not designed as humans to be in this hyper-aroused state of fear and stress for as long as we have been. Our bodies are simply not meant for this.
We are subjected to this 24/7 news cycle, which is not normal or healthy. It is overwhelming and unnecessary.
It is set up so that we have to actively want to and know how to opt out of it.
It is pervasive on social media outlets. We struggle to find a balance between doing our part to combat what is going on and being well-informed, good global citizens, and being buried underneath this tidal wave of information, narratives, death, and destruction, murders/killings, and all the negative things that are polluting the information platforms.
She made this video because so many people are reaching out to her because they are feeling it. The overwhelm. Feeling hopeless, feeling depressed. Anxiety.
In her video, Teri Cole gets into how important self-care is. Not the commercial nonsense self-care - the real mental health self-care. Especially right now, during these unprecedented, insane times we are all struggling through in our country (US).
There is a way to stay informed and grounded. Replenished and engaged, compassionate and active.
It starts with prioritizing your self-care. We just have to!
She created a quick list of non-negotiable things that we really need to do for ourselves to feel grounded in the present moment.
We were not meant to be in this hyperaroused state. Our nervous systems can not sustain this in a healthy, long-term way.
Plenty of people who grow up in an abusive household, or who live in a war zone, have had to. And it takes its toll. We see it in our professional field regularly. It is so taxing on our bodies, minds, and nervous systems.
There are things we can do to help ourselves. Free. Changing our minds about things, not materialistic things.
This new norm of a 24-hour news cycle is at the root of this sickness. It is not normal or necessary for the human mind to be subjected to that.
Didn’t use to be this way. Nightly news was one or multiple professionals at 7 pm and 10 or 11 pm. Someone reporting on the news of the day. No editorializing. No talking-head pundits giving their ideas and opinions on the news of the day. The news was simply professionally reported. Now it is propaganda, no guardrails, unprofessional, alarmist, biased, and so unhealthy.
The news has become a big, unprofessional money-making circus. It stopped being professional journalism a long time ago, and it is now at its absolute worst.
So she created this psychological survival kit to properly deal with this shit show we are living in.
Like me, she feels personally interested in staying informed. It’s our country, our life. As active global citizens.
Take charge of what you see in your feeds as much as possible.
Decide how and where you will get your news from, and if it is really news or noise and propaganda. Less biased news sources like BBC and Ground News - they tell you exactly where they get the information from, and if it is right- or left-leaning.
Like me, she does not want to be in an echo chamber. We want to decide for ourselves, which means we need to be discerning about where we get our news.
For my nervous system, I read my news - that is how I consume my news. I eliminate being shown things I can not unsee and therefore am now dealing with a nervous system affront and them having to manage the intrusive thoughts from seeing it.
Some of us are like that, and some of us are not like that. For those of us who are, we need boundaries we can control. Reading allows us to control the intake, when to stop, and take breaks.
Pay attention to your body - it sends you signals. Stop when it does. Take breaks, rest more - especially when we feel hypervigilant.
20-minute naps - brain health - body health.
When we are feeling jacked or aroused, that’s our nervous system - hum, hands into cold water - go outside - that helps to ground us - go outside and breathe.
Focus on your sleep - as much as you can. Do what you can to sleep. No phone, no blue light, cool space, no light. Sleep and rest more!
Grounding techniques and meditation are in the show notes. Sit in stillness and silence to be less reactive - for a few minutes.
Move your body - stretch - to the best of your ability. Just do what you can -
How much time do you spend with people who are doom-and-gloom, the sky is falling kind of people? Limit that. Discern who you talk to and how much time you spend around them. Boundaries are your friend around those kinds of people. It’s ok to limit it.
Your inner circle. Protect your energy.
Choose to be kind. Look for the helpers. Mr. Rogers - in the 60s - his mom said some people care and are doing the right things. Look for the helpers. Bestow kindness on others. Curate your feed to include people doing good things to help and improve what is going on.
Support local. What can you do in your community, your neighborhood? Someone to help. Random act of kindness. It helps.
#TheXPodcast #MentalHealth #Counseling #Therapy #SelfCare
Listen to this episode at https://podcast.show/studio_talk_mental_health/episode/155713225/
Listen to all episodes at https://podcast.show/studio_talk_mental_health/
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Resources
https://www.thex-studio.org/resources
https://www.terricole.com/guide
If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, please call 911, go to your nearest emergency room, or contact one of the crisis hotlines listed below:
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org, available 24/7.
Region Ten Emergency Services: 434.972.1800, available 24/7
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