When the World Hurts, I Feel It Too

Lately, I feel helpless in the state of our world.

As an empath, I cannot separate myself from what is happening around me. When the world is in pain, I feel it, and that pain does not stay abstract or distant. It seeps into my own life. The chaos and heaviness of the outer world begin to mirror themselves internally, showing up in my personal experiences, my relationships, my sense of stability. I ache in a way that feels constant. Some days my own life starts to feel too big, too heavy, and too unmanageable, and I want nothing more than to hide under the covers and disappear from it all.

There is so much corruption and hate surfacing. I have witnessed forms of cruelty and evil that I did not know existed, nor could I have ever comprehended before. I have watched the division in our country move from left and right and then fracture further and further within those sides. Fear and hatred are spilling out of people I know to be kind and loving at their core.

What unsettles me most is that it feels like something larger is at play. Something beyond political sides. Almost as if there is a force that benefits from keeping everyone divided, confused, and afraid. It plays endlessly on our screens, on television, on social media, repeating the same messages over and over. Look how horrible the world is. Look how evil people are. Choose a side. Take a stand. Hate the other side or you are the problem.

The momentum of this division feels so powerful that it seems inevitable we will stop trusting one another altogether. That we will become so overwhelmed and disoriented that fear becomes our default state.

Something has to change.

And yet, so often, I feel like I am being taken down with it. Like I have no will left. No power. Nothing more to give. I feel afraid because I do not have influence on a global scale. I cannot single handedly bring people back together. I am completely surrounded by a world that feels like it is unraveling.

But here is the thing.

There has been a voice.

At first it was a quiet whisper. Now it is getting louder by the day. It appears in my dreams. It meets me in meditation. It keeps urging me to turn inward instead of trying to fix everything outside of me.

It reminds me that the place where I have the most power is within. That healing what is broken internally creates the greatest ripple outward.

That same voice keeps calling me back to my immediate world. My family. My friends. My neighbors. The people I can look in the eye and sit beside. It urges me to seek connection and love rather than absorbing the constant stream of separation and division coming from every direction.

It keeps telling me to share this.

To remember that my direct influence with the people I engage with personally is far more powerful than any voice on a screen. It reminds me to put my phone down. Turn off the television. Go outside. Feel the sun on my skin. Plant my feet in the earth. Smell flowers. Touch trees. Breathe fresh air. Engage with the world that exists right in front of me.

Less time absorbing narratives that leave me feeling helpless, angry, scared, and disconnected.

More time immersed in conversations about what is good. What is beautiful. The people and stories that inspire hope.

I used to believe I needed to know everything that was happening in the world. I do not believe that anymore. I do not think it serves me, and I do not think it serves anyone else. What I am being fed is a narrow perspective that keeps me afraid and stuck, convinced that the world is far worse than it truly is.

I believe, with all my heart, that people are better than what we are shown. That the world is in a better place than the media would have us believe. We have far more in common than we are told.

Spend five minutes talking to your neighbors and you will feel it. And not just talking at them or past them, but actually engaging in conversation, even when your views are different. Sitting in curiosity instead of defensiveness. Asking questions instead of assuming motives.

So often we dismiss perspectives that do not match our own and shut down the conversation altogether. We decide someone is wrong before we ever ask why they believe what they do. But the truth is, when we slow down and really listen, we often discover that many people do not fully understand the issues they feel so strongly about. Their opinions are shaped by headlines, sound bites, and broad narratives that told them how they should feel, without ever explaining the nuance or the deeper implications.

When we talk about the why, when we allow space for questions and context, something shifts. Beneath the opposing views, most people are driven by the same core desires. Safety. Fairness. Dignity. A better future for their families and their communities. Real conversation has the power to soften fear, dissolve assumptions, and remind us of our shared humanity.

Disconnection grows when we stop talking to one another. When we reduce people to headlines and opinions. When it becomes easier to hate than to listen.

I do not have the power to change the world overnight.

But I do have the power to show up with presence. To choose compassion. To create moments of connection. To tend to my own nervous system. To live in a way that reflects the world I want to see.

And maybe that is how change actually begins.