We Were Never Meant to Carry This Much
There is something quietly brutal about knowing too much.
Every tragedy, every crisis, every fight, every injustice, delivered straight to our palms before we’ve even had our morning coffee.
And then there’s the endless scroll of other people’s lives. Their joy. Their pain. Their opinions. Their heartbreak. Their big announcements. Their drama.
It’s not just the news. It’s everything. All at once. All the time.
We were not built for this.
Our brains are wired for village-sized knowing. For being attuned to a handful of people. For responding to the needs of our immediate environment.
Not for global grief before breakfast. Not for headlines on loop. Not for push notifications about disasters we can't do anything about. Not for being available to everyone and everything 24/7.
No wonder we feel scattered. Numb. Overwhelmed. Disconnected. Burned out. It’s not a personal failure. It’s a biological overload.
The brain wasn’t meant to hold the entire world’s suffering and celebration at once. It short-circuits. And then we shame ourselves for not keeping up. For not being informed enough. Compassionate enough. Productive enough.
But the truth is: constant exposure doesn’t make us more compassionate. It makes us more fatigued. And more disconnected from the people right in front of us.
We don’t need to know everything to care deeply. We don’t need to carry it all to be good humans.
You’re allowed to protect your attention. You’re allowed to take a break from the news. You’re allowed to miss a post, an update, a headline. You’re allowed to opt out of the overwhelm.
Because you were never meant to carry the whole world. Just your corner of it.
So what helps?
Not more scrolling. Not more shame. Not more urgency to “stay informed.”
What helps is narrowing your lens.
Coming home to what’s right in front of you.
Try this:
Tend to your own nervous system first. Take a breath before you open the app. Ask yourself: Do I have the capacity for more right now?
Set a boundary your brain can trust. Maybe it’s no news before 10 a.m. Or one day a week without the feed.
Reconnect locally. Offer care where your hands can actually reach. A meal. A check-in. A kind word. That’s real impact.
Let stillness be a choice, not a failure. Doing less doesn’t make you numb. It makes you human.
Want to go deeper? See this week’s free resource: Protecting Your Mind in an Age of Constant Information: A Survival Guide for When the Weight is Too Much.
The overwhelm isn’t personal.
But your peace must be.
You don’t have to carry the whole world to be a good person.
You just have to carry your corner of it, well, gently, and with presence.
Let that be enough.
Let that be sacred.
With love,
Dr. Zelana