I have learned to take off my Apple Watch: the news updates that I thought I constantly needed are making me jumpy. Some distance is needed. Perspective, even faith.

The times we live in are producing a test of our patience, our courage, and our ability to question the truth and authority. Some of us are coping day to day with everything we’ve got. And some of us are wondering what it all means.

With COVID-19, we’re in the throes of trauma – that which we cannot process, and that we have no power over which to enact control. For a time, it defines us, not the other way around.

Our need to be vigilant is stoked every day. We cannot be careful enough. But can we manage to be healthy if we are consumed with anxiety?

Rituals, bringing our bodies into activity and some semblance of wholeness, connecting with our nature are tools we need. In quiet moments, we can chalk the experience up to random order or we can ask ourselves what we need to learn. It’s a teaching moment. What will we learn from these tests?

Obsession, and how to put it down, is at the core of boundary making with the news. My late biological father offered this self-evident observation: It’s only an obsession if you can’t stop. I find it’s incremental. Just lop off the last one, be it a glass of wine or time on the web. The mastery goes a long way in building strength and choice-making. We’re not subject to it all.