If you’ve been feeling anxious lately, you’re not alone.
The news cycle is relentless. Headlines blur together. Everything feels urgent. And when everything feels urgent, it’s hard to know where to put your attention – or your energy.
Judaism does not promise a world without chaos. It does not deny that hard things are happening. What it offers instead are practices. Rhythms. Anchors.
Small, repeatable actions that remind you who you are and what still matters.
When anxiety pulls you into abstraction – statistics, arguments, outrage – Jewish life pulls you back into embodiment, dignity, and action. Into gratitude. Into boundaries. Into mitzvot.
Here are three simple Jewish practices that can help you stay grounded when the world feels overwhelming.
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Transcript below.
Transcript:
If the news is making you anxious, here are three Jewish practices you can use to stay grounded.
One: practice gratitude with Modeh Ani and Betzelem Elokim Start your day off with gratitude with the short prayer, Modeh Ani. Modah Ani if you’re a woman.
It’s a short Jewish prayer said upon waking. Just one line.
It thanks Hashem simply for another day of being alive.
It doesn’t say that everything is good.
It says “I’m here, I woke up and that matters.” Then throughout the day, return over and over again to a second layer of gratitude with Betzelem Elokim That’s a Hebrew phrase that means, “in the image of G-d.”
You are created in the image of G-d. And so is everyone else.
This matters because anxiety often turns people into abstractions: headlines, numbers, enemies, or threats.
But Betzelem Elokim re-humanizes the world.
It reminds you that your life has inherent dignity, and that the people that you’re worried about, angry at, or grieving for… do too.
Two: use Shabbat as a real boundary. Unplug on purpose.
Shabbat is Judaism’s built-in protection against overload.
It is a weekly practice of stepping away from news, notifications, and constant urgency.
Lighting candles, putting the phone down, and letting the world keep spinning without you for 25 hours.
It’s not escapism, it’s resistance to panic culture.
Shabbat reminds you that you don’t have to respond to everything immediately.
Three: turn fear into Mitzvot, good deeds.
Specifically Tzedakah, commonly translated as charity, and Chesed, which means loving kindness.
Judaism doesn’t ask you to hold the whole world, but it does ask you to act.
Give Tzedakah, whether that’s time or money.
Check on someone who might be forgotten.
Make a meal for someone who needs it. Offer babysitting for someone who needs it.
Finally sign up for that shift down at the food pantry.
Drop off food at the food pantry.
Whatever it is, do one concrete Mitzvah today.
Action grounds anxiety in the body and gives it an outlet.
Even the smallest acts are still holy.
Judaism doesn’t promise calm.
It gives you practices to stand on when things are not calm.
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