War in Ukraine And Your Mental Health
Artists around the world are creating art that expresses their feelings about the invasion of Ukraine; painters, photographers, poets and craftsmen. Politicians wore blue and yellow to the State of The Union Address. Sanctions continue to increase on Russia.
Gas prices are surging, which will make food costs soar. If you google average American income, depending on which site you peruse, you can find out where your income falls compared to others. Bottom line is unless you loved your statistics class, you might be confused about the terms; average, median and variance. Even people who never notice the price per gallon of gasoline are probably noticing it now. Concerns about income is one of the biggest causes of stress.
United States citizens who were born in Ukraine or Poland and their American born children are triggered by what is going on over there. Generational trauma is a term created to explain the inherited stress people experience, because of their parents’ or generational trauma. Even if you did not grow up in a war torn county, if your parents did, you inherit stress from them.
Empathy vs. compassion.
If you have empathy for someone, you feel their pain. Many people are stressed just thinking of what people are going through in Ukraine. If you have compassion, you care for what someone is experiencing, but you do not take on their pain.
Worry is what happens in your brain. You may not be able to control your thoughts. Random thoughts pop into everyone’s head, but you can choose what to do with those thoughts when you wake up from them. Is this thought helpful to me? If the answer to that is no, then ask, What am I going to do about it? You can choose to take action or choose to redirect your thoughts. You have to consider what benefit are you getting from living in a state of anxiety? Your first reaction to that question might be, Are you out of your mind? There is absolutely no benefit to worrying! If you dig deeper, you might find a part of yourself that began worrying when you were very young.
With Internal Family Systems, you have the opportunity to explore your world from a somatic perspective as apposed to CBT which explores your thoughts and behaviors to create change. IFS works with the physical body to access memories from the past. If you are one of the people who has been filled with more worry because there is a war on our planet, IFS can help you connect with the very young parts of yourself that have never left your physical body and begin to understand why you have been a worrier for most of your life. With understanding, you begin to have less suffering.By exploring your internal family system, you can let go of burdens such as worry and anxiety and with the burden lifted, you are able to get back to the creativity and energy you experienced as a child. With your creative self, you can express your feelings about the war in Ukraine in a more positive way.
