Somewhere along the way, we were taught that being a good, responsible, aware human means staying informed. We check the news first thing in the morning. We keep notifications on throughout the day. We scroll headlines while waiting in line, before bed, and even in the middle of the night. We tell ourselves that we have a duty to know what’s happening in the world — that being informed makes us compassionate, intelligent, engaged. But what most people don’t realize is that this constant stream of information is quietly eroding our health. Not because caring is wrong, but because the human nervous system was never designed to absorb the suffering of the entire world in real time, every single day.
For most of human history, our nervous system only needed to process what was happening in our immediate environment. If there was danger nearby, the body responded. If the danger passed, the body returned to safety. There was a natural rhythm between stress and rest. Today, that rhythm is gone. Before we even get out of bed, we’re notified of shootings, disasters, wars, political chaos, tragedies, scandals, and crises happening all over the globe. Our body receives these messages as threat after threat after threat, with no resolution, no closure, and no way to complete the stress response. The result is a nervous system that is constantly bracing for the next blow, living in a low-grade state of fear that most people have come to think of as normal.
Here’s what few understand: your nervous system does not distinguish between a threat that is happening directly to you and a threat you read about on your phone. It responds the same way. Stress hormones rise. Muscles tense. Breathing becomes shallow. The heart shifts rhythm. And because the news never stops, the body never fully returns to safety. This is why so many people feel anxious, exhausted, wired but tired, emotionally reactive, unable to sleep deeply, unable to feel peace even when their personal life is relatively stable. Their nervous system is living inside the news cycle.
I’ve noticed something striking over the years. The people who are the most “informed” — the ones who know every headline, every crisis, every controversy — are often the most dysregulated. They are chronically anxious, quick to anger, pessimistic about the future, and often dealing with mysterious physical symptoms that medicine struggles to explain. This isn’t because they’re weak or fragile. It’s because no human body can carry the weight of the world’s suffering all day long and remain well. We simply were not built for this level of constant exposure.
There is also another piece that keeps the nervous system stuck: awareness without agency. When you receive information about danger but have no ability to act, no way to help, no path to resolution, the stress response remains incomplete. The body stays in a loop of unresolved threat. Over time, this becomes stored tension, stored fear, stored trauma. Eventually, the nervous system begins to believe the world is fundamentally unsafe — and it organizes every system in the body around that belief.
Many people stay trapped because they believe stepping away from the news is irresponsible. But consuming tragedy is not the same as contributing to change. You are not more compassionate because you expose yourself to more suffering. In fact, the more regulated, grounded, and healthy you are, the more capacity you have to show up meaningfully when something truly requires your action. A regulated nervous system creates safety in the world. A dysregulated nervous system spreads fear, even with good intentions.
So, here is a radical invitation: turn off notifications. Stop checking headlines compulsively. Create distance between your body and the constant incoming stream of crisis. Not because you don’t care about the world, but because your health matters too. Your peace matters. Your presence with your family matters. You do not need to hold the entire world’s pain in your nervous system to be a good human being.
Sometimes, in a world that is louder, faster, and more overwhelming than ever before, the most powerful act of healing is simply putting your phone down and coming back home to your own life and body. Because if you truly want to have a positive impact in the world — to be a loving partner, a patient parent, a kind friend, a grounded leader, a conscious citizen — the best place to start is with a healthy nervous system.
When you are regulated, you create safety around you. Your relationships soften. Your reactions calm. Your presence becomes steady. And that ripple effect — one regulated nervous system at a time — is how real change spreads.
