Andrea Blanc's Key Ideas from How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division
by Elif Shafak

But now a strong wind is blowing in, turning the pages too fast.

This barbarity can happen fast on a large scale not when more people turn immortal or evil, not necessarily, but when enough people become numb. When we are indifferent, disconnected, atomised. Too busy with our own lives to care about others. Interested in and unmoved by someone else's pain. That is the most dangerous emotion- the lack of emotion.

We live in an age in which there is too much information, less knowledge and even less wisdom. That ratio needs to be reversed. We definitely need less information, more knowledge, and much more wisdom.

It is a problem, the endless barrage of misinformation - let alone, misinformation. We cannot process this much, and the truth is, we don't. In reality, we only skim through the news, roll up-and-down our screens, without contemplating, and more importantly, without feeling. After a while, numbers don't mean much any more, whether it is 5000 refugees who have died or 10000, the difference doesn't and won't register unless we know the personal stories behind the statistics. Information flows amid our fingers like dry sand. It also gives us the illusion that we know the subject.

Nor should you be afraid of emotions. Whether it is angst or anger or hurt or sadness or loneliness...

As human beings - regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, geography - we are emotional creatures, even those of us who like to pretend not to be, especially them. Analyse, understand and reflect upon negative emotions come from, embrace them candidly, but also notice if and when they become repetitive, restrictive, ritualistic and destructive.