Taking It In Without Taking It On Yourself

When we don’t manage our attention, we give it all away.

Social media and news cycles are designed to pull us in and keep us activated. Over time, that level of exposure drains empathy and energy. Managing attention isn’t selfish. It’s how we stay human.

I woke up this morning with a start, feeling chaotic and stressed.
Before I was fully awake, helicopters were already overhead. Living in a busy urban city, that happens sometimes. But this morning, the sound pulled me out of a dream that couldn’t have been more different.

In the dream, my family and I were in Hawaii. We were resting on a quiet beach. The ocean moved in slow, steady waves. Birds called overhead. There was laughter. Talk of just being and not doing.
Everything felt relaxed, beautiful, and easy. The kind of peace your body recognizes instantly.

But the helicopter broke that. My eyes flew open, and a familiar sense of doom crept in. Was there an accident on the freeway? Someone in trouble? Violence nearby? Something worse? My nervous system didn’t wait for answers. It was already bracing.

I wanted to go back to the beach. Instead, I reached for my phone and checked PulsePoint to see if there was a reason to be worried.

This is the life many of us are living right now. Alert systems. Breaking news. Social feeds filled with tragedy, outrage, and urgency. Even when nothing is happening to us personally, our bodies don’t know that. Nearly everyone I talk to says the same thing in different words. It’s hard not to get pulled under by all the noise.

Here’s a thought, something to try to manage the overload and impending chaos. Titration.

Titration is a practice of taking things in small, manageable doses. It’s not avoidance. It’s not pretending the hard stuff isn’t real. It’s about choosing how much we let in at once so we don’t overwhelm our system and shut down.

When everything comes at us all at once, our capacity for resilience shrinks. We burn out. We numb out. Or we quietly give up. Titrating our attention helps us stay engaged with life without drowning in it.

After the helicopter passed and there was no real threat, I noticed how unsettled I still felt. Instead of scrolling further, I paused and worked with my breath. Nothing fancy. Just steady inhales and longer exhales. I let my body feel the bed beneath me. I let myself pendulate.

Pendulation is about gently moving between different experiences. In this moment, it meant moving between the stress in my body and something that felt safe and steady. I remembered the sound of the ocean from the dream. I felt my feet under the covers. I stayed with my breath until my nervous system settled enough to find my grounded self again.

This is where titration becomes powerful.
We can gently touch the tough stuff in tiny doses without staying submerged in it. We can also touch the good without guilt. The good isn’t a distraction. It’s nourishment. It reminds us there is beauty, awe, and kindness in the world, even when things are hard.

There are really three elements we’re learning to hold at once.
The difficult.
The grounded present moment.
And the good.

We don’t have to choose just one. We can move between them. That active movement is what builds resilience. We recognize we still have agency in how we choose to care for ourselves.

When we don’t manage our attention, we end up absorbing more than we can hold. Social platforms and media cycles are designed to keep us activated, not regulated. Over time, that constant exposure drains empathy and energy. Managing attention isn’t about tuning out. It’s about staying in the conversation for the long haul.

Life is going to keep flowing, like it or not. We don’t get to control the river. But we do get to choose how we move within the river.

Titration helps us stay open without breaking. It allows us to care without collapsing. To stay awake without being overwhelmed.

We can take in what matters, without taking it all on ourselves. One moment. One choice. One steady breath at a time.