The world has been overwhelming lately—a bit of an understatement, I know, but it’s true. From genocide in Palestine to school shootings to the results of the 2024 election, current events over the past few years have felt overwhelmingly bad. From there, add half a cup of seasonal depression, a teaspoon of holiday stress, and a healthy dose of doomscrolling, and, if you’re anything like me, instead of holiday cookies you have a recipe for some pretty bad anxiety. Here are a few tricks you can try to keep yourself from spiraling and to help improve your mental health. 

1. Ground yourself.

Practicing mindfulness helps you pull yourself out of your head and back into the present moment. If you find yourself starting to spiral, try a grounding exercise or two. 5-4-3-2-1 grounding is a personal favorite method—what are 5 things you can hear right now? 4 things you can see? 3 things you can feel or touch? 2 things you can smell? 1 thing you can taste? 

And if that’s not your cup of tea, there are plenty of other grounding exercises you can try. You can physically ground yourself by putting your hands in warm or cold water. Hold an ice pack to your chest. Sit in a chair and take stock of your body—feel your feet against the floor, your clothes against your skin. Pick a category, like dogs or movies or flowers, and list as many different things you can think of that fall under it, either in your head or out loud.

2. Take a deep breath.

Breathing can be difficult if you’re feeling panicky, but the reverse is also true: it’s hard to panic if you slow your breathing. When you control your breath, you can trick your nervous system into calming down. So breathe in for 4 beats. 

Hold your breath for 4 beats. 

Breathe out for 4 beats. 

Hold your breath for 4 beats. 

Repeat. This is a breathing exercise called box breathing, or square breathing, and it’s helped me calm down after an anxiety attack more times than I can count.

3. Talk to someone you care about.

When everything feels overwhelming, it can be pretty tempting to isolate yourself. Speaking from experience though, being alone tends to make everything feel worse. So call or text a friend or loved one. Keep people in the loop! Letting people in sometimes makes us feel like we’re less alone in our feelings. Have a virtual video call hang out. Have lunch with someone whose company you enjoy. Whether you end up venting or spend an hour or two with a happy distraction, whether you reach out for help or just send funny animal videos back and forth for the day, you may end up feeling a little better for it.

4. Take care of your body.

Giving your body what it needs to function can have a huge impact on your mental health. When was the last time you ate or had a drink of water? Even small problems can feel enormous if you’re hungry or tired. Eat a snack. Make yourself some tea! Take a shower! Take a nap! Go for a walk, if you can. I’ve always found that I handle the world’s problems a little better once I’ve had water and a granola bar. 

5. Be kind to yourself.

Being hard on yourself isn’t going to make the world around you any nicer, and it’s probably just going to make you feel worse. Instead, try practicing self-compassion. Try to think about yourself kindly. Don’t beat yourself up for making mistakes or not doing enough—be nice to yourself like you would be to a friend.

I do have a confession: I’m a bit of a hypocrite. I’m not always the best at being kind to myself. Sometimes I forget to eat until I’m lightheaded, or hole myself up in my room instead of phoning a friend. 

But I’ve also used these tips to pull myself out of panic attacks, or to feel better after a rough day or too much time spent reading horrible news. In the end, we do what we can to help improve the world around us—we volunteer or advocate or donate—but we can’t forget to practice self care to help improve our own mental health. The world can often feel like it’s too much to handle, but hopefully these tips can help you feel a little better and calmer, despite everything. Take a breath. Feel the floor under you, and remember to drink some water. You’re okay.