Surviving the News: Buddhist Strategies for Staying Sane, Engaged, and Not Completely Furious | Pascal Auclair
Meditation teacher Pascal Auclair joins Dan Harris to discuss how to navigate stressful times, particularly around elections and news consumption, without overwhelming your nervous system. They explore Buddhist concepts like karma and equanimity as tools for engaged action and mental well-being.
Deep Dive Analysis
10 Topic Outline
Introduction to Managing Election Anxiety
Grounding Through Breath Amidst Chaos
Balancing Difficult News with Beauty and Attention Sovereignty
The Buddha's Practice in Challenging Times
Understanding Karma as Intentional Response and Agency
Historical Context of National Founding and Human Complexity
Meditation's Role in Engaged Action vs. Passive Observation
Strategies for News Consumption and Mental Health
The Importance of Consuming Diverse News Sources
Supporting Journalists and Prioritizing Self-Care
4 Key Concepts
First Foundation
In Buddhist teaching, the 'first foundation' refers to inviting attention to land back in the body, specifically the breathing body. This practice helps create space and ground oneself in the present moment, reducing the immediate impact of external stressors.
Attention Sovereignty
This concept highlights the importance of consciously choosing where to direct one's attention, especially in an era where algorithms are designed to capture and manipulate it. It's about reclaiming control over one's focus to balance engagement with well-being.
Karma
In the Buddhist understanding discussed, karma is primarily about intentions, reactions, and responses. It emphasizes that while we cannot choose what happens to us, our agency lies in how we respond, and these responses have an impact on our present and future mind states and relationships.
Samsara
Samsara is described as the realm we are born into, characterized by exploitation, disease, death, oppression, and uncertainty. It represents the inherent messiness and suffering of existence, which cannot be entirely fixed but can be responded to wisely.
6 Questions Answered
Return your attention to your breathing body to create space and ground yourself, recognize that challenging times are opportunities to clarify values, and skillfully shift your attention to beauty and joy to balance the negativity.
Buddhists understand karma as the law of cause and effect, focusing on intentions and responses. While we don't know the specific consequences for others, our own agency lies in how we respond to events, which impacts our own mind and future.
Meditation and mindfulness are tools to better understand situations, develop courage and non-denial, and engage with the world in a wise, creative way. It's not about passive observation but about gaining clarity to respond appropriately and make change.
The right amount of news is highly individual; mindfulness helps you assess what your nervous system can handle. There's no need to know everything, and if news is causing distress, it's wise to titrate your intake, as there are no severe consequences for not being constantly updated.
Actively consume news from sources with whom you thoughtfully disagree, focusing on those whose intention is to reflect and think, rather than stir emotions. This helps understand different viewpoints from a position of accuracy and can be soothing.
Encourage them to prioritize self-care, especially sleep and meditation, as taking care of oneself is not selfish but essential for effectiveness. A well-rested and regulated individual is better equipped to perform their demanding job and contribute to a functioning democracy.
8 Actionable Insights
1. Practice Grounding Breath
When feeling overwhelmed by news or strong emotions, return your attention to your breathing body. This practice, known as the first foundation in Buddhism, can help create immediate space and ground you in the present moment, reminding you that there may not be an immediate physical threat.
2. Cultivate Attention Sovereignty
Actively choose where to direct your attention to avoid being sucked into negative news cycles designed to keep you anxious. Skillfully shift your focus to beauty, joy, and what is working in the world, recognizing that multiple truths always exist.
3. Clarify Personal Values
Use challenging times as an opportunity to clarify what values you want to live by. Observing others’ actions, even those you disagree with, can help you define what you want to put out into the world and how you wish to respond.
4. Engage Wisely, Not Passively
Utilize mindfulness and meditation to better understand situations and respond creatively and courageously, rather than becoming a passive observer. This involves accepting what cannot be changed and actively engaging with what can, through personal actions, community involvement, and continuous learning.
5. Approach News with Intentionality
Before engaging with news, consciously set an intention to approach it with good qualities like honesty, curiosity, care, patience, and love. This reframes news consumption as an act of engagement and understanding, rather than reactive fear, and helps manage your mental state.
6. Titrate News Consumption
Listen to your nervous system and adjust your news intake based on what you can handle without becoming obsessive or losing sleep. Mindfulness helps you notice when news is not sitting well, allowing you to reduce exposure or change the format (e.g., reading instead of watching videos) to protect your well-being.
7. Seek Diverse Perspectives Thoughtfully
Actively consume news and opinions from sources with whom you thoughtfully disagree, avoiding echo chambers. This helps you understand different viewpoints from a position of accuracy and non-ignorance, even if you still disagree, which can be surprisingly soothing for the nervous system.
8. Prioritize Self-Care for Effectiveness
Recognize that taking care of yourself through adequate sleep, meditation, and personal time is not selfish, but essential for being effective in your work and in helping others. You cannot pour from an empty cup, and a well-regulated nervous system allows for better performance and resilience.
5 Key Quotes
I don't get to choose what is thrown at me exactly. What government is in power, what is in the news. I don't get to choose these things. But if there is agency, this might be one place where there's some playroom. And that's karma to me.
Pascal Auclair
There is another war going on, Dan. There's a war on attention going on. There's a tension, sovereignty.
Pascal Auclair
This is excellent time to be alive in a way, not what we would wish for, but it's excellent to actually nurture values, like to clarify what are my values? What am I going to live by?
Pascal Auclair
There is a misconception that to take care of yourself is somehow selfish and self-indulgent, but you can't help the people you care about if you're a mess.
Dan Harris
I want to go in with good qualities. I don't want to go in with reactivity, impatience, fear. I want to be, to go in with honesty, with curiosity, with care, with patience, with love, really.
Pascal Auclair