(Advice that I will endeavor to follow…)

  1. Stay aware of Washington DC political news in a general way, but don’t spend much time on it. Consider setting time limits for your news reading (or watching). An hour a day? Half an hour? A quarter hour most days, and more only once in a while?

  2. Read widely enough (in history, literature, ideas, etc.) so as to keep in mind the longer-term and bigger-picture context of the day’s news. The political troubles we face right now have many sources and were brewing for a long time, so moving toward something better will also take a long time. That is, odd as it may sound, a word of hope, in two senses. First, remembering that the crisis of the moment isn’t all there is can help you resist panic by cultivating patience. Second, knowing that many factors contributed to our present troubles means recognizing that if you want to act, or to live, in a way that points in a better direction, there are many places from which to begin.

  3. Find some practical things to do, whether things that obviously count as “politics” in the usual sense or community-building activities that aren’t so obviously political. Focus on doing those things well, even if they are modest. For example, find a political organization to belong to and support, or a group of friends whose concerns are similar to yours and who might want to do something together.

  4. Don’t underestimate the moral and emotional resources you already have. Try to trace the sources, the roots, of whatever outrage you feel at current events, and figure out how to water those roots. Let yourself be renewed or refreshed by the perceptions or commitments, whatever they may be, that lie behind your outrage. They are more important than the outrage itself.