Give Yourself Permission to Step Back

Last night, I heard them again—cars and motorcycles racing down the road at the bottom of my hill. Engines revving, tires screeching, someone doing wheelies. I heard it a few nights ago too. My family has lived in the same house for seventy years, and I’ve maybe heard that happen once or twice before. But now, it’s happening more often.

It feels like a shift. Like something’s coming.

When I was younger, I watched Mad Max and thought, This could be us. If something goes awry, if things unravel, we could fall into lawlessness—burning houses, chaos in the streets, gangs taking over. Some people already live that way, but in places like Los Angeles, we would like to tell ourselves we don’t. We hope we won’t.

And so I worry. I spiral.

I read too much news. I scroll too long on Instagram and Facebook. I subscribe to news sites, so I can consume as much as possible, any time I want. But instead of reading things that calm my mind, I read things that make it messy. Politics, world order, gossip and fear.

And while I refuse to look away—because history has shown us the dangers of ignoring what’s happening—I also know that constant vigilance comes at a price.

When I look, I feel. And when I feel, I am sometimes paralyzed. I get stuck. I fixate on the state of the world instead of taking action in my own life.

So what am I here to say? I’m here to say: Give Yourself Permission to Step Back.

Last night, after five hours of consuming everything, I stopped. I deleted Instagram. I deleted Facebook from my phone too. Thankfully, I don’t do TikTok anymore, and I’ve stayed away from X. But then there’s the news. Apple News +, which gives me access to so many many outlets. I went in to unsubscribe, and I saw that I had a subscription for nearly a month . . . I would swear I had only signed up three days ago. Where had my time gone?

So I canceled it. And the weight of the world slipped off my shoulders.

I could breathe again.

Because there is an onslaught, and there’s going to be more. But we get to decide what we listen to, what we engage with, and what we don’t have to engage with. We get to Give Ourselves Permission to Take Care of Ourselves.

That does not mean I’ll never read the news again. I will. It doesn’t mean I’ll never open an article or get caught up in some of the mess—because sometimes, it’s just too enticing to watch the train wreck. The doom scroll is real. But today, I’m Giving Myself Permission to Step Back.

Not to be naive. Not to ignore the world. But to choose what I let in. To fly a little higher above the noise and decide what’s worth my attention, and where I can be most helpful.

The world isn’t going to slow down, and the noise isn’t going to stop—but we get to decide how much of it we let in. Stepping back doesn’t mean turning away; it means choosing where to place our energy so we can actually do something with it. And sometimes, the most powerful thing we can do is Give Ourselves Permission to Breathe.

*Priya Kapoor is a life coach, author and speaker with over 20 years experience in the helping industry. She has a masters in Marriage and Family Therapy and works as a coach and consultant with clients ease all over the world. In 2014, she created the coaching brand ‘Give Yourself Permission’ and, in the same year, published her first book ‘Give Yourself Permission to Live Your Life’ (Balboa Press). Please visit www.prkcoaching.com for more information on how to work with her. *