when the world feels “too much”: staying human in an age of emotional overload

Have you ever felt like the weight of the whole world was resting on your shoulders?

I have.

Full transparency here, this post is something I would’ve needed a couple weeks ago. Keeping up with the news, scrolling through social media, watching everything that’s going wrong — it just became too much. It felt like my empathy was suffocating me. And somewhere in all that overwhelm and heartbreak, I started losing faith in humanity.

If you can relate and you’ve been feeling heavy, helpless, or just plain overwhelmed by it all, this post is for you. You’re not alone in trying to figure out how to stay empathetic, informed, and hopeful — without losing yourself in the process.

Some days, the world feels unbearably heavy. The news scrolls by — war, injustice, disaster, crisis — and even as you sip your morning coffee, your chest tightens. It’s not that you don’t care. It’s that you care so much — and caring, lately, feels like carrying a mountain.

We live in a time where our awareness stretches further than our capacity to act. With a few swipes, we witness suffering across continents, political turmoil, climate catastrophes, and human cruelty in real time. Our brains, evolved for close-knit communities and local dangers, were never built to process the world’s pain all at once. Yet here we are, expected to stay informed, stay engaged, stay compassionate — without losing our minds.

So I’ve asked myself, what can you do when it all feels like too much?

Acknowledge that you’re not built for constant exposure

It’s not weakness to feel overwhelmed — it’s biology. Human empathy evolved for face-to-face connection, not endless digital empathy loops. Our nervous systems can’t distinguish between witnessing trauma online and experiencing it firsthand.

That’s why your heart races when you scroll, or why you feel inexplicably exhausted after “catching up” on the news. Allow yourself to step back. Taking breaks from information isn’t ignorance — it’s maintenance. You are not meant to know everything, all the time. The world keeps spinning even when you put your phone down.

Practice conscious media consumption

Curate your inputs the way you might your diet. Ask yourself:

• Is this source helping me understand, or just keeping me anxious?

• Am I reading to be informed, or to confirm my fears?

• How often am I doomscrolling out of habit?

Try setting boundaries — maybe one trusted news digest per day, or reading long-form journalism on weekends instead of live updates. Follow creators who balance awareness with solutions or hope. Remember: being informed doesn’t mean being inundated.

Stay aware — without being consumed

Yes, you have privilege if you can choose to “tune out”. Acknowledging that is important. But the opposite extreme — staying constantly immersed in pain — helps no one.

There’s a middle ground: engage consciously. Choose depth over breadth. Focus on a few causes where you can contribute meaningfully — time, money, skills, advocacy — rather than trying to hold the entire world’s suffering at once.

You’re allowed to rest. You’re allowed to not post about every tragedy. And you’re allowed to protect your mental health while still caring deeply.

Use your voice — sustainably

Activism doesn’t have to mean constant shouting into the void. It can mean quiet, consistent effort: learning, donating, volunteering, voting, having hard conversations. Real change often happens in community — not in isolation or outrage.

If your empathy is your superpower, learn to wield it, not bleed from it. The world needs sustained, grounded compassion — not burnt-out hearts.

Honour the cost of empathy

Empathy is beautiful — it connects us. But it also costs energy. There’s a name for that exhaustion: empathy fatigue. If you’ve ever felt numb or guilty for not feeling enough, you’ve probably hit it.

To replenish:

• Do something sensory and grounding: go outside, get creative, move your body.

• Connect with people in real life — it reminds your brain that not all of humanity is suffering.

• Celebrate small acts of kindness and beauty — they are just as real as the darkness.

Empathy doesn’t mean carrying every burden. Sometimes it means feeling enough to act, but not so much that you collapse.

Return to the present moment

When everything feels like too much, come back to what’s here and now: your breath, your body, your surroundings.

Ask yourself: What can I influence in the next hour? The next day? The next conversation?

You can’t heal the world alone, but you can bring gentleness into one small corner of it — and that matters.

In the end

The world is heavy. But you don’t have to hold it all by yourself.

Stay informed, but stay human. Stay compassionate, but stay grounded.

And when it all feels too much — let that be a sign not of failure, but of your capacity to feel deeply in an age that often asks us to feel nothing at all.

side quest of the week: “Grounded empathy”

Pick one cause you care about — just one — and do something tiny but concrete:

• Donate a few euros.

• Sign a petition.

• Learn about one organisation doing good work.

Then, do one thing that brings you joy right after. Balancing empathy with joy is not apathy — it’s how you stay human.

With love,

Agascha