Protect Your Peace

About a month ago, the internet wasn’t a very nice place to be.

The weight of the world seemed to be landing on everyone’s shoulders at once. Every time I opened a social media app there was another crisis, another headline, another argument, another thing to worry about. It felt like an endless stream of bad news and outrage.

So I did something simple.

I hit pause.

Not forever. Just long enough to step away and come back to a different landscape.

I don’t believe in ignoring the difficult things happening in the world. Staying informed matters. But I also don’t believe our nervous systems were designed to carry the emotional weight of everything happening everywhere, all at once, all day long.

We were never meant to process global problems in real time while trying to live our everyday lives.

Protecting your peace isn’t denial.

It’s often necessary.

When we regulate our own nervous systems, we think more clearly, we make better decisions, and we show up better for the people who rely on us.

So instead of scrolling, here’s what I’ve been doing.

Reading a Good Book

I picked up The Secret Life of Bees, a book I’d never read before.

Within a few pages I was completely drawn in. This is a story where you connect with the characters and their lives.

And unlike social media, books don’t demand your attention every thirty seconds. You control the pace.

Moving Bridge Into the Real World

I also moved my bridge playing into the real world.

Now, to be clear — I am fairly hardcore when it comes to online bridge. I play a lot and I love it. But I decided to join a local bridge club and play in person once a week.

Cards and people can be more challenging in real life than they are online.

But we need to challenge ourselves and step outside our comfort zone.

Real conversations, real concentration, real interactions. It’s new and different.

Clearing Space at Home

I’ve also been clearing space at home.

A bit of spring cleaning, a bit of decluttering, and letting go of things that had quietly accumulated over time. It’s amazing how much lighter a space can feel once you remove the excess. We don't need so much stuff.

A tidy house helps create a tidy mind.

A Few Good Films

Another thing I’ve been enjoying more of lately is simply sitting down and watching a good film with the kids. No second screens and no scrolling in the background.

We watched Million Dollar Baby together. Hilary Swank and Clint Eastwood are incredible in it — Without giving anything away, it’s one of those films that stays with you long after the credits end.

We also watched a film from my own childhood, Cool Runnings. I hadn’t seen it in years and it was just as funny as I remembered. The kids were laughing the whole way through. Beneath all the humour though, there are some really lovely messages about resilience, belief, and having the courage to try something that seems impossible. It's a bit like me down at the bridge centre, like I've landed in from another planet.

The kids also recommended a short film to me: “Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom.”

If you haven’t seen it, it’s a brilliant little Irish short film about a Chinese boy who decides to learn Irish and move to Ireland because he believes it’s widely spoken here. What follows is hilarious and thought-provoking.

It’s very funny, but there’s also a slightly sad message underneath it about how little our own language is used in everyday life.

Three completely different films, and I enjoyed them all in equal measure.

Appreciating Quality Time

One of the highlights of the past few weeks was a Mother’s Day lunch with four generations sitting around the same table.

I’m very aware of how lucky I am to still experience this.

The World Will Still Be There Tomorrow

The truth is, the world will still be there tomorrow.

And most of its problems are nothing to do with you personally.

Our brains naturally have a bias toward negative information — it’s part of our survival instinct. But social media platforms amplify that instinct. Bad news spreads faster, arguments get more attention, and doom-scrolling becomes very easy to fall into.

That’s why sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is step away.

Delete the apps.

Reset your attention.

Return when it suits you.

The funny thing is… nobody even notices you’ve gone.

Meanwhile, you’ve been reading books, meeting people, clearing your space, and enjoying the kind of real-life moments that social media can never replicate.

Sometimes protecting your peace simply means stepping away from the noise and back into your own life