Our nervous systems are regularly asked to metabolize global crises, geopolitical analysis, moral outrage, economic speculation, and the opinions of several thousand strangers before breakfast. The human nervous system, it turns out, was not originally designed to function as a breaking news ticker.
The Soft Art of Subtraction
There’s a funny thing that can happen when life finally offers us a rare bit of breathing room. Retirement, a quieter season, a shift in what tugs at our days. Suddenly there’s space. A clearing. And many of us, raised in the great tradition of noble overextension, react to that clearing with a kind of internal alarm: Quick! Fill it before someone notices!







