Today’s culture seems to be bouncing back and forth between panic and boredom. Everything seems out of control and scary and boring and dead—at the same time.

Does this give you the words for how you feel when engaging with the news? You are a mix of aghast fear and apathy at the same time.

No wonder it is so hard for our exhausted souls to find rest.

What is happening in the world is real. But what you see of it is filtered. Algorithms don’t show you information because it is the most important or most truthful—they show you what keeps your attention. They learn what triggers you and then give you more of it.

Whether it sparks fear, outrage, disgust, anger, arousal, or even mindless distraction, the system is designed to keep your brain constantly activated. Your nervous system stays “on,” as if something urgent is always happening.

Over time, that constant stimulation leads to emotional exhaustion. And exhaustion often feels like boredom—a kind of shutdown that follows prolonged stress. That boredom then pushes you to look for something stronger to feel, often intensifying your reactions or chasing the next emotional high. But heightened intensity only deepens the crash afterward.

So the cycle continues: stimulation, exhaustion, numbness, more stimulation. And your soul never quite gets to rest.

Physiologically we aren’t programmed to witness the suffering of everyone. Our bodies aren’t wired to carry the weight of it all. Humans are designed to care for and keep track of a relatively small circle of people—roughly the size of a village, around a hundred or so—not to emotionally carry the weight of tens of thousands of deaths at once. Constant exposure to global tragedies overwhelms us. This flood of suffering is both taxing and toxic. We cannot afford to burn out, yet we hold the privilege of living at a distance from much of it.

Permit yourself to step away for the well-being of you and whomever you are living with. Some helpful tips are listed below.

We now expect the world around us—including our own lives—to be predictable, directable, engineerable, and useful. Our smartphones reinforce this. The world is not this. Every day is news of something that is heartbreaking. Arriving by notifications to us throughout the day.

This weariness runs deeper than physical exhaustion. It is a soul-weariness that comes from caring too much, for too long, with too little rest and too little hope. Some call it compassion fatigue, but it feels more like an ache—a heartbreak that comes from longing to see suffering end, only to watch it persist and even grow worse. It is the constant desire to set things right colliding with the helplessness of seeing so much go wrong.

Compassion becomes pain and pain becomes boring and dead.

“Despair is a political strategy of our time. If we are overwhelmed, numb, or cynical. If we come to believe that nothing we do matters, then we stop showing up. We stop organizing. We stop resisting. And most dangerously, we stop hoping.” –Benjamin Cremer, https://benjamin-cremer.kit.com/posts/caring-without-crashing

Agree or disagree?

Then listen to your soul right now as you are agreeing or disagreeing. What are you feeling?

So here’s the real question: How do we continue to care without burning out? How do we stay tender toward the suffering in our world without being overwhelmed by it?

“The answer is not indifference and it is not denial. The answer lies in rootedness. In rhythms of renewal. In the practice of fierce, hopeful endurance.” –Benjamin R. Cremer

What is rootedness? Finding hope in who holds the larger story. Rooting into this Larger Story God.

This is not so easy. It looks beautiful when written and read, but it is not so easy to live out. Because the notifications continue to come in. Because stupid people in leadership continue to overwhelm us, numb us, and keep us cynical.

It does all feel hopeless. It is out of control and scary and boring and dead—at the same time. Our physiology is so messed up. Our souls are in dire need of rest.

I’m calling this out. I want you to notice what is happening in your soul. As a help here are some tips (not from me).

Tips from Benjamin R. Cremer:

1. Curate Your Inputs

• Limit doomscrolling. Follow accounts that share good news, resilience, and justice-in-action.
• Remember: what you see online is not everything that is happening. Hope rarely trends.

2. Maintain Rhythms of Rest

• Sabbath is resistance. Rest is rebellion. You are not a machine for justice, you are a beloved being.
• Take walks. Breathe deeply. Turn off the news. Turn off your phone. Make time to just be where your feet are.

3. Commit to a Specific Cause

• You don’t have to fight every battle. Pick one or two that you can root into deeply. Things like local and state voting rights, organizing, immigration support, community gardens, school boards are where change happens.
• Find others doing the work. Join them. Encouragement is found in shared action.

4. Look for and Share Good News

• Hope is not naive, it is a discipline. Search for signs of healing. Share them with others.
• Make it a daily or weekly practice: what is one good thing that is happening?

5. Care for the People in Front of You

• Show up for your kids. Your spouse. Your friends. Your community. Forging deep connections with those you love and who love you is so vital. And these consistent acts of love ripple far beyond what we can measure.

Your soul is in need of some dire rest. You have the privilege to rest your soul so you can give to the world the heartbreak you risk.