Before we dive into protecting our own empathy reserves, I want to share something that gives me hope: Empathy Week 2026 is happening March 9-13.

Educators around the world are building empathy skills in the next generation. Empathy Week provides free, research-based tools to help teachers cultivate compassion, perspective-taking, and emotional literacy in their students. These are the same skills we're working to preserve in ourselves.

If you know of educators, parents, or PTA members, please forward this newsletter to them or the URL https://www.empathyweek.org/home. Teaching kids how to build and maintain empathy now means they'll be better equipped to navigate the world. 🙏🏽

And speaking of navigating the world...

Thanks for all the outreach after the last edition on how leaders can help their teams navigate the overlap of work and personal life. I’m glad so many found it helpful.

Recently, in conversations, what I’ve been hearing is a difficulty in processing current events and as a result, people are struggling to manage a feeling of being overwhelmed. It may come as no surprise that nearly all therapists (99.6%) said news consumption has some type of negative affect on their patients according to a 2023 study by GrowTherapy.  And that’s news consumption. When the news is happening in your town, it can be even more stress-inducing.

Finding the balance of staying informed without being overloaded is not dissimilar to what empaths and highly sensitive people (“HSP”) deal with every day in their lives. They’re constantly taking in information, processing it and feeling it deeply. It can weigh you down. (If you are wondering if you are an HSP, there’s a quiz on Elaine Aron’s site to help you out - I tested as a low tendency toward high sensitivity which I think means “sorta"? Let me know how you type.)

A healthy detachment may seem impossible in the midst of a deluge of information. And even if you could detach, perhaps you don’t want to look away because you feel connected to the severity (of the news) or the authenticity of another person’s feelings.  This keeps the flood barriers down, letting the information and emotion wash in. It can quickly lead to the overwhelm or short-circuiting of our nervous system.

I’ve been asked about this balancing act repeatedly over the years by people who identify as empaths and HSPs. Now, given current events, it seems like more of us are having our empathy receptors activated and are trying to figure out what to do about it.

How do you bear witness or build empathy with someone without letting it consume you?

Our brains light up in the same pain-processing regions when we experience emotional pain (as opposed to the physical sensations) and when we witness the pain of others (emotional empathy). This means our nervous systems can't distinguish between reading about a crisis and experiencing it ourselves.

Typically, when people encounter distressing news in the media, they might feel concerned or upset, then move on with their day. If you are an HSP or empath, and that's about 1 in 5 adults in the population, the sensory information is processed differently. It’s not that the person is being dramatic or over-reacting, it’s that they’re feeling it more deeply and carrying it.

When the news gets to be too much for us to process, it’s similar to what the HSP/empath experiences regularly. It’s a feeling of overwhelm and even helplessness.

One time I experienced this sensation as a result of the news was during the January 6 riots. Even though I was thousands of miles away from the riot, I felt like I was there and was helpless to do anything about it. After 20 minutes, I couldn’t watch any longer. It was that disturbing to me. The only thing I could do was turn off the TV. 

This was in reaction to my nervous system getting overwhelmed.  I had to protect myself so I could keep my wits about me. From that safer distance and reading updates online from traditional print media, I was better able to process what was happening.

For the empath/HSP the antennae are always on, picking up and feeling emotions from the people around them and the stories they encounter. While it isn’t always sensing the emotions of distress like I had during that January 6 experience, it is similar in the idea that it is always on, always coming in and it’s imperative to find ways to manage that in order not to be overwhelmed.

Whether we are HSP/empaths or another type of decent human being, the overwhelm we feel can sometimes be described as empathic distress and compassion fatigue which I wrote about here two years ago. We feel deeply and want to take action, but how to do that when we feel so burdened?

The analogy I use to explain why it’s important to establish boundaries to prevent the overwhelm is about making pasta.  When the pasta is ready, you dump the pot out into a colander so the water strains away while you hold onto the good stuff: the pasta.

Where we run into trouble, in either the news intake scenario or if you are an empath/HSP, is instead of pouring the water and pasta into a colander, we pour it into another pot. The result? The pot gets filled with the weight of the news and the emotions we are sensing. It can become so heavy we are unable to think clearly or make rational decisions. As the pot fills, our nervous-system gets overwhelmed.

My solution to this is to visualize the colander and all the hot water and steam passing through while the pasta, the information and emotions that are relevant and that I need, are retained.

Think colander: Keep what you need and let the rest drain away. 

The solution lies in the boundaries that we set and the self-care that we practice.  This is where a paradox exists. The more we structure (and perhaps limit) our news consumption, the more we are able to process our feelings, moving from empathy into compassion and allowing that to spark action.

It doesn’t mean we don’t care. It does mean we have to take care of ourselves first so we can care more for others.

What does this look like?  It’s different for everyone but here are some suggestions.

⏰ Give the News a Time Slot

The News Sprint – Set a timer for 15 minutes, consume news intentionally, then stop when it goes off. This prevents the endless scroll that leaves you depleted hours later wondering where the time went.  If you are a news junkie like me, maybe set a few sprints a day to keep up to date

Save for Later – Do you absolutely have to watch that video or read that article right now? How about saving it for later. Then when you come back, you have perspective on whether that topic was really worth your investment of time. I find this true with my non-work emails. All the news and industry digests that I get, the stories are highly relevant at publication but a day later the story has evolved or deflated completely.

Find the Right Time - Your brain is most vulnerable first thing in the morning and in the evening before you sleep. Why get thrown off kilter in these critical moments. Start your day with something that centers you. End your day with something that lets you actually sleep.

Day Planner the News – This one is personally hard for me but choose 2-3 times per week to check in on current events, rather than constant daily exposure. For HSPs, this intermittent engagement (10-15 minutes, 2-3 times weekly) can be more sustainable than daily 10-minute News Sprint sessions.

And for non-news situations, still think in terms of time limits and exposure that you have to people who you find drain your energy or have stories that are particularly weighing on you.

✋ Take Back Your Feed

While many social media platforms are designed to keep you scrolling and are engineered to trigger the same reward pathways as addictive behaviors, you might try to wrest back control where you can.

Go Text First - Choose articles and analysis over video clips. Video triggers a more visceral emotional response as your brain processes images of suffering differently than reading about it.

Turn Off Autoplay - This one's simple but crucial. Don't let the algorithm decide what trauma you consume next. This doesn’t work for every platform but it does for some. Here’s a handy guide from TechCrunch.

Seek Objective Sources - Find news outlets that present information without trying to provoke outrage. They exist, but you have to look for them. And if you don’t think your news source is biased, just spend an hour looking at one that’s aligned with a political affiliation that’s different from yours. The difference becomes clear quickly.

You may have noticed the ad for 1440 at the top of this newsletter. I’ve been subscribed to 1440 for about a year and find it refreshing to see news presented as information, absent of opinion. It’s kinda like “just the facts”.

And, in fact, as I was polishing this newsletter I got the offer to host an ad from 1440 through our shared use of Beehiiv. In full disclosure, this Seek Objective Sources tip was in this newsletter copy before I got the ad offer however I will get compensated a small amount from every click that the ad receives.  (This is my first foray into being ad-supported, so please click with no obligation to buy!)

🏃🏻 Turn Feelings Into Action

The "One-Action" Rule – This is my term for what to do when something in the news genuinely moves you to want to help. Do one concrete thing (donate, volunteer, contact a representative), then shift your attention to something else. Action without becoming absorbed. You may return to this topic repeatedly but take it one-action at a time.

White-Space Weekends - Take full weekends off from news consumption. Get outside of the usual four walls you reside in. “Touch grass” if its available (being outdoors helps generally). Notice how your body feels. Notice how your stress levels improve. Notice whether you're actually less informed on Monday (spoiler: you probably won't be).

Bring in the Joy – What recharges your batteries? For some it’s exercising. Yoga, staring at a candle, playing with your kids or your pets, cooking, baking, escaping into a good book, whatever does it for you, make time for it each day. Allow the space so you can come back together again.

🧘🏻 Check-In With Your Body

Body Check-ins - Before consuming news, ask yourself: How does my body feel right now? Am I already depleted? Then check again after 5-10 minutes. If you notice tension, shallow breathing, or that pit in your stomach, it's time to stop.

Scheduled "Worry Time" - This sounds counterintuitive, but it works. Set aside 15-20 minutes to fully engage with news and process your concerns. Post on social media, call a friend to vent, get it out. Outside that window, actively redirect your attention when news anxiety creeps in.

The Mini-Meditation – Not unlike the Body Check-Ins, quiet your mind through eyes-closed deep breathing using long inhales and exhales, lengthening the duration with each cycle. Examine what comes up. What are the things you might be carrying that isn’t serving you. Pour it into the colander to keep the good stuff and let the rest drain away.

There’s nothing wrong with what we are experiencing but the overstimulation can be uncomfortable and lead to mental health issues like burnout, depression and feelings of loneliness.

Something hopeful: research shows that compassion training significantly reduces burnout risks among medical professionals. The same is most likely true for the rest of us.  When we actively cultivate compassion practices, not just empathy building but intentional, structured compassion for ourselves and others, we build resilience.

For more on HSPs, check out Elaine Aron’s groundbreaking work.

I want to be clear about something: I'm not advocating for becoming uninformed or disengaged. The goal isn't to build walls so high that nothing gets through.

The goal is to be strategic about what you consume, when you consume it, and how you engage with it. To use that pasta colander effectively. Drain what overwhelms you while keeping what nourishes and informs you.

Because here's the truth: the world needs your empathy. Your workplace needs it. Your family needs it. Your community needs it.

But they need you present, not depleted. They need you engaged, not burned out. They need you able to show up when it actually matters.

That's what boundaries give you. Not detachment. Presence.

Your Turn

I'm curious: What's one boundary you're going to experiment with this week?

Reply to this email (or email [email protected]) and let me know. I read every response, and I'm genuinely interested in what resonates with you and what you're willing to try.

And if this edition helped you, please share it with someone who might need permission to protect their empathy reserves. You can share on the socials at the icons at the top or just forward the email.

Sometimes we all need a reminder that caring for ourselves isn't selfish, it's sustainable.

Until next time, 

Rob

 P.S. Remember to check out Empathy Week and share it with educators in your life. Let's build those empathy muscles in the next generation while we protect our own.