Overwhelmed by the News? Grounding Techniques for Depression and Emotional Burnout

If the world feels heavy right now — you're not imagining it.

In Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Rubin, we explore how to cope with depression and anxiety during overwhelming times. From constant news cycles to collective trauma, many of us are operating in survival mode.

Dr. Rubin offers practical strategies to protect your mental health without disengaging from reality:

• How to “titrate” your exposure to news
• Why empathy becomes overwhelming when we try to fix everything
• Somatic reset techniques to physically release tension
• How to stop fighting your own emotions
• Why building in self-care is more effective than “fitting it in”
• The difference between helping and fixing
• How to change channels when rumination becomes self-attack
• Why flourishing matters more than chasing happiness

Terry and Carly also share candid reflections about closing “sense doors,” taking breaks before burnout, and learning to honor early warning signs.

This episode is about staying informed, without losing yourself.
About compassion, without drowning in it.
About surviving hard seasons, and even flourishing through them.

Primary Topics Covered:

• Coping with depression during crisis
• Anxiety and media overwhelm
• Grounding exercises and breathwork
• Somatic resets (tighten and release technique)
• Emotional boundaries and self-protection
• Empathy vs. over-responsibility
• Rumination and how to “change channels”
• Grief processing and giving yourself permission to feel
• Flourishing vs. happiness
• Gratitude as emotional anchor
• Closing “sense doors” to prevent overload

Timestamps:

00:00 – The weight of living in a “polycrisis”
03:24 – Titrating your news exposure
04:47 – Guided breathing reset (nose breathing)
06:06 – Build it in vs. fit it in
07:25 – Why habits fail without structure
09:03 – Mini resets to prevent emotional overload
11:43 – Empathy without drowning
13:13 – Grief, boundaries, and “coming back to the land of the living”
14:29 – Stop fighting your own emotions
15:00 – Flourishing vs. chasing happiness
16:39 – How to stop rumination (“change channels”)
18:01 – Consuming news differently
19:35 – Gratitude instead of forced happiness
21:36 – Helping vs. fixing
22:01 – Honoring early warning signs
23:42 – Closing your “sense doors”

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