I've decided not to read the news today until 5:00 p.m.

Being locked into the 24/7 news cycle has been really bad for my peace of mind. I keep reading all of the stories and rereading them and reading the same story in a different version and trying to keep up with everything and I finally concluded it is not making me any smarter. The discourse about this virus is pretty much nonstop and unchanging. It poses a serious threat, won't kill everyone, will kill lots of people, and reading this material over and over has really been depressing.

I should add, I work as a mental health therapist, so I tend to track my own response to events and when I see it getting dark like this, I usually pull the plug.

However, I can't totally disconnect from the news. I think I'm going to start checking in on the news every evening, following a few major stories, then focusing on self-care, meditation, prayer, being with loved ones, feeding my beloved squirrels, exercising, and looking over my financial situation.

In the little valley I live in, one of the nursing homes with hundreds of elderly patients has just announced that one of their patients has tested positive for the virus. I will follow that story for sure. This whole situation is frightening.