I’m done for the day now

Watching some football

About to take my daughter driving for more practice for her.

Reading news might be less stressful! lol

I kid. She’s doing well so far

For several months, I was in a state of near-panic when I thought about what had just happened to us. I couldn't even watch Rachel, & she's usually the one person who can make politics palatable for me.

This is good advice & I hope people take it to heart. We have to stay aware of what's going on, but there's a point where it becomes unhealthy.

and more sparing of my time in front of the TV machine.

Life's too short. I know who I'm voting for come November, and who I'm voting against.

and why let others - no matter how vile, disgusting, or evil - steal your joy and ruin your health?

Stay informed and involved, but don’t obsess over things you can’t change. There’s still a lot of good in the world. Seek it out and celebrate it.

I don't watch tv news. I have to have a break from the voices, especially IQ45's.

I try to take breaks every now and then to watch movies that have nothing to do with politics (although I did watch "Active Measures" recently and it was very good) .

It's really good to un-plug and just ignore the madness, even if it just for a few hours. Rest assured, it will still be there when you come back.

Starting tomorrow, I'm taking an "unplugged" vacation. While I'll still have access to all the on-line and mass-media distractions and annoyances, I plan to eschew them.

To re-charge my batteries.

To regain a healthy perspective.

To (borrowing a phrase from my SCUBA training) decompress. Fellow divers would acknowledge that proper and healthy decompression requires several stages over a period of time, and that's exactly what I'm planning to do.

I'll be back in seven days.

Hope the rest of y'all don't get the bends in the meantime!

enjoy the season, count your blessings and, something new I've found, put on a good pair of headphones and relax with some ASMR streams on youtube.

No news, no commercials.

Back in the twentieth century, I decided television news was bad for my mental health.

Being semi-retired, it would be easy to fall into a news-watching rut, but I do my best to limit it. Rachel Maddow is a daily must-see for me, and sometimes Lawrence O'Donnell after or Chris Hayes before. I check in at DU and Twitter several times throughout the day just to make sure I haven't missed something important. That's pretty much it. I refuse, of course, to have FOX News sliming my TV, and I rarely look at CNN, either. I don't read any sites online where right-wingers post, don't read comments on news articles, and rarely read them on Twitter. I have a list of trusted sources that I follow there, but I don't say a word on there, and reject any follower requests (because WHY when I never say anything?). This keeps me informed, but relatively sane (I think? I hope).

My husband and I have a nightly "date" to watch something entertaining on TV for at least an hour. Other than this, I garden when I can, fix stuff, or try to write. I do have a problem with reading fiction that I wish I could get past. I used to love reading before bed every night, but so far, have been unable to do so since election night 2016. My mind just will not focus on a fictional world now. I read a few paragraphs, then the *real* world (which feels so totally UNreal to me) creeps back in. I have at least a dozen books waiting for me to read them. I keep buying them anyway, hoping that I will feel relaxed enough to read them sometime soon.

I think this, being unable to lose myself in a fictional world, is what hurts the most. Despite all my efforts to limit my exposure to the stress of the constant bombardment of the news, and to engage in pleasant pastimes, this persists. I haven't yet found the key to overcoming this one thing that I have used all my life to relax and escape for a while. It does hurt. *sigh*

You’ll feel calmer and clearer afterwards.

allowed me to get out my frustrations with this nutty country.