When the News Feels Heavy: How Mindfulness Helps Us Cope

Pause for a moment. Place a hand on your belly and notice…

When we hear awful news; a sudden act of violence, a senseless death, it’s as though the ground beneath us shifts. The body remembers: our breath becomes shallow, our heart tightens, thoughts race. It’s all too human to respond with shock, fear, anger, or helplessness.

Recently, the murder of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University has shocked many. It’s one of those moments where the world feels raw, exposed, and painfully unpredictable. (Reuters)

In times like these, mindfulness and embodiment practices can help us ground ourselves, even a little, especially when external events feel overwhelming.

Take an intentional pause, just breathe.

The Body Speaks First

When you place your hand on your belly, what do you feel? Tightness? Softer spaces? Perhaps tension that you didn’t even realize was there. The body often reacts before the mind fully catches up. It stores grief, rage, shock - even if we don’t consciously hold those emotions.

If you’ve been reading or hearing the recent news about violence, political tension, or loss, you might notice symptoms:

• waking up in the night with your mind racing

• stomach butterflies, heaviness, chords of anxiety

• difficulty concentrating or feeling disconnected

These are all valid. Your body is doing what bodies do: trying to survive, trying to make sense of what’s unsafe.

Why Slowing Down Matters

In moments when fear and upheaval are in the air, slowing down is a form of resistance. Not resistance in a political sense necessarily, but resisting fear’s grip over our nervous systems. When we slow down:

• We allow ourselves to feel the impact, rather than pushing it away or numbing out.

• We give the mind a chance to pause its loop of "what ifs" and worst-case scenarios.

• We let our body decompress even a little—the belly softens, the breath deepens.

Embodiment practices are especially powerful right now because they help reconnect us to the present moment. They bring us back into our own skin, which is where healing begins.

Practical Steps: Gentle Embodiment in Troubling Times

Here are a few practices you can try when the news or world feels heavy:

1. Belly-hand pausing

• Find a quiet moment. Sit or lie down comfortably.

• Place one hand gently on your belly (or both, if that feels better).

• Breathe in slowly, feeling the belly rise, then exhale, feeling it fall.

• Repeat this simple breath for 5-10 cycles. Notice what changes.

2. Grounding scan

• After a few belly breaths, shift your attention to your feet, to your seat, to your hands. Notice points of contact with whatever you’re sitting or lying on.

• Allow any tension to soften. Let gravity help.

3. Brief journaling

• Write for 5 minutes: “I’m feeling ___ because ___.”

• Don’t judge what comes up. Let it be messy. Let it be real.

4. Nature ritual (my personal favourite)

• If possible, step outside. Even a 5-minute walk, or just standing in the fresh air. Let the wind, or sky, or trees hold you for a moment. Notice what your senses pick up: light, movement, smell.

Cochrane, Alberta

Connecting Inner & Outer Worlds

The news of a murder, especially one that seems so public and shocking, ripples outward. It’s part of a larger story of division, fear, and often people being pitted against one another. It’s easy to feel powerless.

But here’s what embodiment reminds us: we are not only our thoughts. We are not only what the world does to us. We are what we do with our inner world, too. We cannot always control external events—but we can learn how to tend to our body, our nervous system, our mind.

When we breathe, pause, feel, we choose a different kind of power: the power to reclaim our internal peace, to stay grounded enough to act — with clarity, with compassion, with intention.

A Gentle Invitation

So: Pause for a moment. Place a hand on your belly. Notice the breath. Notice what it’s like to just be, here, now.

If you’re feeling raw, triggered, or numb after hearing difficult news, know you are not alone. Know it’s okay to feel. Know that your body holds wisdom for how to come back to yourself, even in small ways.

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If you’d like support in learning how to do this more regularly—through The Nourished Self Program, or in solo embodiment and mindfulness sessions—I'm here, and you don’t have to carry it all alone.