Ask HN: How do you stay sane in the face of everything?

Stop using social media :)

Listen to classical music.

Eat well. Perhaps fast (if health allows) 1-2 days per week (i.e. every Tue and Thu).

If you don't work out (at all) start doing 5 push-ups every 6h. Every week add 1 push-up (every 6h). If you don't work out (at all) start doing 5 squats every 6h. Every week add 1 squats (every 6h). (enter exercise.. do 5 and add 1 every week)

If you don't already, start an excel file and every 1st of the month, write down your net worth. Columns: Accounts, 2024-04-01, 2024-05-01, 2024-06-01 Rows: Current account, Saving Account1, Saving Account2, Investments1, Investments2, 401k, etc. In the bottom do a summary, and also add a graph so you can see a line.

I am a Christian. I'm not just a cultural, go-to-church-on-Sunday-because-that's-my-social-club kind of Christian - I genuinely believe it. I believe in a God who cares, who cares for me personally. And I believe in an eternity that is to come. I'm living for that, not for here.

So my health, my career, my economic prosperity, and the political sanity of my country are... nice. I value having them. But if I lose one or all of them, I don't lose my hope, because my hope isn't in any of those things.

I keep having to fight to remember that, as one or more of those things gets repeatedly threatened by events. My natural reaction is fear - I could lose a lot! Oh no! I have to remind myself that what I can lose is not where my joy is, not where my hope is, not where my future is.

Yeah, I still try to protect my health, my career, and my finances. But I don't (usually) do so from a position of panic, desperately trying to keep problems from destroying my life.

Politics... I can't do much to stop that train; it's going to hit us (one way or the other) and I can't dodge. But Jesus isn't running for president (no matter how much people want to put Trump in that neighborhood). The none of the previous elections brought the kingdom of heaven; this one won't either. If the side I want loses (or the side I dislike most wins), I'll be disappointed, but not in despair.

The big thing is to live your own life. Don't worry about what the Joneses are doing and don't worry about what they think of you. Don't ask why people have things you don't. Recognize the things you have that they don't.

At the end of your life on your proverbial deathbed, you want to be able to look back and say you lived the life you chose to live, not the life others chose for you. The scary thing is you have to own up to it, you can't blame others for the life you live.

If you live your life like that then you'll have tuned out most people - which goes a long way to preserving your sanity!

Here's the great secret: do not try to stay 'sane.' No one here gets out alive, so embrace the suck. Make it your own.