I’ve been playing around with Claude (don’t tell Chat), and I asked it for an image of a bunch of today’s headlines with a person sitting meditating in the midst of it. Not bad, Claude.
This month, we’re talking about stress.
And to start, we’re going to look at what I call stress in macro—
The kind of stress that comes from what’s happening in the world around you.
The big-picture stuff.
The headlines.
The uncertainty.
The things you see… but can’t directly control.
One thing’s for sure – there’s a lot happening in the world right now.
Turn on the news for five minutes…
Scroll social media for ten…
And it doesn’t take long before something in you starts to tighten.
War.
Economy.
Inflation.
Politics.
Uncertainty about the future.
And for most people, the experience is the same:
Stress.
Not subtle.
Not occasional.
Constant.
But here’s what most people don’t realize:
The stress you’re feeling is not coming from the world.
It’s coming from how you’re relating to it.
One of the biggest challenges with stress is that most people don’t actually understand what it is.
They just know they feel it.
You go to a doctor, and they’ll tell you:
“You need to reduce stress.”
But rarely does anyone explain how.
Because to do that, you have to understand the source.
And for most people…
Stress is self-induced.
Not intentionally.
Not consciously.
But internally.
What creates stress is not the event itself—it’s the way we engage with it.
Let’s look at what actually happens.
Something occurs in the world.
You see it.
You read it.
You hear about it.
And then internally…
Something gets activated.
Fear.
Anxiety.
Anger.
Helplessness.
Resentment.
From there, the mind takes over.
And here’s the key:
Emotion directs and drives the mind…
and the mind fuels and reinforces that same emotion.
Now you’re in a loop.
You feel fear → your mind looks for more reasons to be afraid
You feel anger → your mind builds a case for why things are wrong
You feel helpless → your mind tells you nothing will work out
And the more you stay in that loop…
The more stress builds.
Not because of the event.
But because of the internal cycle you’re running.
Now layer in one more piece.
Repetition.
Most people don’t just check the news once.
They check it all day.
Social media.
Notifications.
Headlines.
Conversations.
Over and over again.
And every time you re-engage…
You re-activate the emotional loop.
You reinforce the same state.
You deepen the same pattern.
At that point, it’s no longer about being informed.
It’s about being immersed.
And immersion is what amplifies stress.
From there, the mind does what it always does.
It projects forward.
“What does this mean for my future?”
“What’s going to happen next?”
“How bad could this get?”
But here’s the reality:
You don’t actually know.
None of us do.
And yet…
When the mind is fueled by fear, anxiety, or anger…
It doesn’t imagine neutral outcomes.
It imagines catastrophic ones.
So now you’re not just reacting to the present—
You’re stressing about a future that hasn’t happened.
This doesn’t mean you ignore what’s happening in the world.
It doesn’t mean you become uninformed.
But it does mean you choose how you relate to it.
Instead of allowing external events to dictate your internal state…
You decide:
Who am I going to be in relation to this?
Am I going to meet it with:
Fear?
Or faith?
Anxiety?
Or trust?
Because the state you bring to the moment…
determines how you experience it.
And what you’re able to see inside of it.
There’s another simple shift that changes the game.
Instead of living in imagined futures…
Come back to your actual reality.
Look at your day.
Your home.
Your family.
Your work.
Your environment.
For most people…
Despite everything happening in the world…
Your immediate reality is stable.
You’re safe.
You have opportunities.
You have options in front of you.
And when you anchor into that—
Something shifts.
You move out of overwhelm…
And into clarity.
From that place, a better question emerges:
“What can I actually influence?”
Because when your attention is on things you cannot control…
You feel powerless.
But when your attention returns to your life…
Your actions…
Your choices…
Your growth…
You regain agency.
And from there, two things happen:
You start improving your own life. And you create more capacity to contribute beyond yourself.
Not from fear, but from a place of strength.
At its core…
Stress is not an external problem.
It’s an internal skill problem.
Which is good news.
Because skills can be trained.
There are three levels to working with stress emotionally:
First, awareness.
Recognizing the emotions that are driving stress.
Second, centering.
Learning how to stop the train—that emotion loop you’re stuck in— and regulate your nervous system.
Third, activation.
Training yourself to generate states like peace, trust, and clarity on demand
And the same applies to the mind:
Awareness of the thoughts fueling stress
Stillness—learning to quiet the mind
Directing the mind to think constructively and strategically, in a way that aligns with your vision
This is what actually changes your experience.
Not avoiding stress.
Learning how to work with it.
This is why we’re focusing on stress this month.
We just spent the last several weeks talking about intuition—what it is, how it works, how to access it, how to let it guide your life.
But none of that matters if you’re living in a constant stress response.
Because stress shuts down the very systems that give you:
Clarity
Aligned decision-making
And access to intuition
So this month is about removing that interference.
And it’s also why so much of the work we do—especially inside the Power Series—focuses on training your emotions and mind…
Because without that training, stress runs the show.
But when you learn how to manage your internal state…
You don’t have to force better outcomes.
You start to see them.
And you start to step into them.
If you prefer to learn in a different format, you can also find these teachings on YouTube or on The Connection Fix Podcast.
However you train best—use that.
Before I wrap, just notice this:
What macro stressor have you been giving your attention to lately?
And more importantly—
What state have you been in while doing it?
Because the combination of those two things…
is what’s been creating your stress.
If you’re willing, send me an email and share:
What’s one external situation you’ve been reacting to…
and what state it’s been pulling you into?
Just seeing that clearly is the first step to changing it.
More soon.
Have a great rest of your day, and I’ll look forward to connecting again next week.
Joey