Hi there
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Over the past few weeks, I’ve been writing about wintering and Plan-ifestation and the importance of nourishing our friendships across generations; all important, for sure. But I feel I have been avoiding talking about the elephant in the room – the cataclysmic thundering of world catastrophe that is echoing around us all. (Yeah, that.)
I have been a journalist all my adult life. My job has been to devour news sources, to wonder where it is all going and what is means. For nearly 2 decades I edited the News Review section of our biggest national broadsheet: My brief was to look at the news and say, ‘This is important because…’ and get great commentators to write about it.
After 9/11 I commissioned Andrew Sullivan to write a review front page story entitled ‘Why do they hate America?’ My role was to have a finger on the pulse, to help everyone have a context to understand what was unfolding.
Sharing lessons from my newspaper days
It’s not good news
This week marks a year of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House. This month it is 6 years since his supporters marched on the citadel of American democracy, the Capitol building…a true first in all of our lifetimes.
Since the beginning of 2026, we’ve seen the shooting of 2 innocent bystanders in Minneapolis by Trump’s ICE teams, Iran on the brink of another revolution, the kidnapping of a president in Venezuela and then, surreally, Trump deciding he wants to buy or invade Greenland –– a move that threatens the underpinnings of the post-Second World War deal which has underpinned European security via NATO. At Davos last week, numerous European leaders – including Emmanuel Macron in his natty blue shades – were talking about whether they could trust America to be there for them anymore, and that they were considering firing their big economic bazooka (which could also unleash financial Armageddon).
Any one of those events would have been unthinkable in the era when I was editing: To have a series of weeks, often only days, when all of it cascades into our news feeds and nervous systems is truly unprecedented. In my journalist bones I feel a sense of a tectonic shift.
The world is changing
It makes me feel not exactly old, but as if the world that we all grew up in is vanishing in front of our eyes. That our certainties will not be there for our children. I had this exact conversation with my 20-year-old daughter this past week. Her response was that the combination of world instability plus climate change, plus internet extremism with the algorithm eroding the centre ground constantly, was indeed scary. Her generation, she explained, tend to be in one of two camps: either “oblivious and in denial” or “damn worried and committed to doing something about it”. I see that in the Gen Zs who throng through my house.
A significant number of my friends’ offspring are going to live off grid, taking sustainability courses in Wales, joining XR and generally preparing for a very different future. Many of them say they don’t want to bring children into the world as it is: They have lost faith in the current system and don’t see how – even if they work hard – they will end up with the kinds of lives, jobs and houses our generation has sustained.
There is an increasing sense of polarisation between those who can be helped on their way (with parents who can provide a house deposit or contacts to get them into careers) and those who are applying for thousands of jobs post-university, even with good degrees, and getting nowhere. One of my pals the other day was thrilled that her 23-year-old son, who is a graduate, had got a job as an Ocado delivery driver. It’s tough out there for the Gen Zs.
Tough for Gen Q too
It’s also tough for many Queenagers. We see in our community many women who are feeling they will never be able to retire, that for a myriad of reasons they will be working till they drop to pay the bills.
When we women do retire, it’s on average with a gender pension deficit of 35%, often because of caring responsibilities. And though some of us have decent pensions from years of working for corporates, the majority do not – and that particularly affects women.
(If you’re looking to upskill, don’t miss this social media crash course that covers AI-based social media tools too – by our learning partner TechPixies)
Where does the anxiety lead?
Added to that financial anxiety is the bigger worry that the world we know is ceasing to function, right in front of our eyes. Last week at the Circle one of you told me you’d just bought a book called How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It – a handbook described by Reuters as “the preppers’ Bible”, written by a former US Army Intelligence Officer about topics including food storage, communications and gardening for self-sufficiency. He’s advised Fortune 500 executives, entrepreneurs and clergy.
The Queenager who bought it told me, “I saw how quickly the shops ran out of stuff during Covid and how fragile supply chains are. My reaction to the scary state of the world is to work out what I can do personally to prepare myself in case of the worse. Yes, that sound a bit ‘prepper’ but it’s made me feel a bit better.”
Personally I’m not stocking up on wind-up radios and dried food rations (DYK the prepper industry is forecasted to hit $2.46 BILLION by 2030, by the US magazine Newsweek). But I get the motivation behind that impulse.
As someone who has been a news junkie for 3 decades, I see that the UK press has never been so politically polarised. It is also increasingly sensationalist – just a time when the rapid mayhem and news cycle means we need calm measured factual reporting more than ever.
Here’s what the media is telling us
A Telegraph headline this week: “Trump’s imperial delirium could trigger a catastrophic chain reaction”. On the other side of the political spectrum, Carole Cadwalladr’s new publication The Nerve announced “Trump’s dictatorship is almost complete” with an accompanying article about how European governments need to wake up, and how Trump is increasingly using “Nazi references and far right memes”.
The Economist says, “Trump’s expansionist itch has undermined global security”.
Wherever you look, the drumbeat of anxiety is the same. But what should we do about it?
So…what can we do?
One way I am dealing with the chaos in the world by severely limiting my current affairs intake. A bit like during Covid, listening to too much of it makes me physically anxious so it’s better to limit my exposure so as to limit the free-floating anxiety that too much news can provoke.
That is not to say that I don’t want to know what is going on. I have subscriptions to the New York Times and The Telegraph and The Guardian and The Nerve, so I get a broad view of what is happening. I also try to listen to programmes like The World Tonight, which allows its guests 10 minutes or so to really dig into an issue, rather than delivering terrifying soundbites.
But I also think there is something both bigger – and smaller – that we can all do.
What I’m holding onto now
Yes, the fear matrix and the chaos is all too real. But there is also another gentler, kinder more peaceful reality we can all access, too. The one that we drop into when we are intentionally calm. The place we enter when we sit quietly and read a real book. Or go for a quiet walk with a friend. Or stare at a candle. Or walk, or swim, or spend time in nature.
(I find the solidity of trees that have stood for centuries particularly calming; I think about how long they have stood there and all that they have seen and I know there is a different paced reality to the one that bleeps at me through my phone.)
I know it sounds a bit fanciful, but I believe that as the world gets more hectic and scary, we can hold onto the higher states available to humans by consciously trying to access them in ourselves.
To try and spend more time in that calm place, I start everyday by meditating quietly for 30 minutes and dropping into peace with slow deep breaths. If you breathe out for longer than you breathe in it stimulates the para-sympathetic nervous system and physically calms us down.
Being on edge is bad for us…and the world
If we are frightened and anxious and confused and constantly on edge, it’s not good for us, and it’s also not good for how we make a difference in the world, whether that’s with activism or in the political world or within our individual lives.
Currently, it feels like there are two parallel systems operating: one based in fear, one based in love.
And we can influence that. How? Well, each of us can try and put out into the world as much love as possible – perhaps by practicing random acts of kindness; try smiling at people in the street, or helping someone. Or actively shift your own behaviour by showing up in a loving, open-hearted way with someone who has been triggering you. I tried this over Christmas to great effect. Or perhaps do some volunteering, or in your own behaviour try and consistently show up as the best of humankind rather than the worst.
In our small way, that is what we are trying to do at NOON. Our intention is to create through our Circles and community, spaces where we can support and be supported. Places where we can hold each other in this crazy world with love and care and optimism.
Find the calm
My meditation teacher says that when we meditate or show up with love, we raise the energetic vibration for everyone. I’d like to believe that is true. But what I do know is that intentionally finding some calm and leaning into love rather than fear makes it easier to stay steady and show up with kindness in an increasingly scary world.
If you’d like to sample a bit of NOON serenity (and joy!), then I am going to be in Dedham Essex to kick off our new Essex Circle in Colchester on February 9th(click the image above or book here).
We are also launching a Cheshire Circle at Inglewood Manor outside Chester on February 4th (book that here).
On top of that, there is an Online Circle at 6.30pm on February 4th open to all paid members wherever you are! (Book the Online Circle.)
For NOON Trips, we have one extra spot on the Camino de Santiago trip (it’s marked as SOLD OUT on the site but you can nab the last spot). Find out more here.
For our fabulous one-day Wasing retreats, choose Aprilor September.
Whether you think all the news lately is hyperbolic or that it needs responding to by learning to grow your own food, I believe that finding inside us the calmness, humanity and love for others is always a good first step.
Much love to you all in these bracing times.
Xx
Eleanor
