Navigating the Noise: Self and Community Care in 2026

kaela929
22 hours ago
6 min read

Navigating the current social and political climate in 2026 can often feel like trying to hold a tune while someone else is aggressively playing a different song in a different key.

At Music Therapy St. Louis, we recognize the "heaviness" many are carrying right now. To support our neighbors and ourselves, we’ve compiled a comprehensive guide to maintaining well-being while staying engaged with the world around us.

Community Care:

Supporting Our St. Louis Neighbors

Caring for ourselves often begins with caring for our community. There are numerous ways to offer support through volunteering or donations in the St. Louis region:

International Institute of St. Louis (IISTL): As the region's primary resettlement agency, they recently served over 435 individuals aged 15–21.
MICA Project: Offers low-cost legal services to help families overcome systemic barriers.
Monarch STL: Provides mental health, senior services, and legal aid specifically for immigrants and refugees.
Casa de Salud: Delivers high-quality healthcare to uninsured immigrants for a flat fee of $35.
Welcome Neighbor STL: Builds community connections through mentorship and refugee-led supper clubs.
Urban League of St. Louis: A cornerstone for economic empowerment with over 600 active volunteers.
ArchCity Defenders: A holistic legal advocacy organization combating the criminalization of poverty.
Action St. Louis: A grassroots organization focused on building political power for Black communities.

How to Choose Your Impact:

Don't know where to start? Below are some recommendations depending on your strengths!

Self Care: Supporting Ourselves

Whether you choose to do one, do them all, or just do something, here are three pillars of self-care to help you stay regulated and resilient.

The "Orienting" Minute: You've been scrolling on your phone for over an hour. You're already overstimulated from a long day at work. You start to feel a tightening in your chest, your breathing increases, and your thoughts turn negative. It can be hard to regulate yourself once you are in the thick of it. You can do hard things. Take a minute, take a breath, and slowly look around the room for 3 unassuming objects (ex: burnt incense sticks, a stack of books, an empty bowl of cereal). By pointing out the mundane items in the room you are telling your brain, "I am safe in this physical room right now. Nothing is directly harming me. I am safe."
Weighted Comfort: Imagine you are cooking spaghetti. The heat is on high, the water is at a rolling boil, and you just got all of your spaghetti submerged. You feel like you have it under control so you go to grab your jar of sauce from the pantry. When you turn back around the spaghetti is at the top of the pot and bubbles are about to breach the top. You have a couple of options. 1. You can immediately turn the heat down, but the water is already at peak boiling point and will take time to decrease in temperature - still risking a boil-over. 2. You could remove the pot from the heat, however, then it immediately interferes with the cooking process. 3. You grab a wooden spoon, because you remember your grandma telling you if you lay a wooden spoon over the top of the pot it keeps pasta water from boiling over, all the while continuing to cook the pasta at the right temperature.

Now, humans are not spaghetti, but we are sensitive beings. If we drastically change what we are doing it could still hurt us from the shock of a sudden shift. If we turn our backs on the news the atrocities will continue, we will just be ignorant to them. Which can be okay - and honestly helpful - for a short period of time, however, does not make for lasting peace. We can delete social media, ignore the news all together, and act like our world isn't becoming more violent but that just makes us complicit. Silence is not an option. If you want to do something, but have barriers in your way, start small. And when you feel your political anxiety beginning to bubble over, grab a weighted blanket or heavy pillow or even invite your animal to lay on your chest. By applying gentle, even pressure across the body, known as "deep pressure stimulation" it helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system and helps your heart rate decrease, reduces stress, and promotes a sense of calm. So, when your emotional pot feels like it's going to boil over, disrupt the pressure increase and grab a "wooden spoon."

The 30-Second "Shake Out": You get home after a long day of work and the first thing your spouse tells you when you walk in the door is that another person they know got taken by ICE. Your body tenses up and you start to feel the numbness spread in your body. Calmly put all of your things down, make sure you are in an open space, and tell your spouse it's time to shake. Start at the top of your body by shaking your head back and forth, then begin wiggling your shoulders, add in your arms, wrists, fingers, shake your hips back and forth, and then finally jiggle your legs and feet. By starting at the top you are literally shaking out your "freeze" response from head to toe. Let the fear response melt down your body. Shaking mimics the natural animal response of shaking off a predator and helps released stored tension. Who cares if you look silly? Shake it off! Shake it off!

Iso-Principle Playlists: The iso-principle is a common technique by which music is matched with the mood of a client, then gradually altered to affect the desired mood state. This technique can also be used to affect physiological responses such as heart rate and blood pressure” (Davis, Gfeller, & Thaut, 2008). To make an iso-principle playlist start with a song that matches your high-stress mood (possibly something loud, chaotic, brash). Then follow it with a slightly calmer song, and continue until the final song represents represents what you want to feel (peace, contentment, happiness). Let the music help sooth your mood.
Lyric Analysis as Venting: Find a song that captures your current frustration with the social climate. Write out or following along with the lyrics and highlight the parts that feel most personal to you. Sometimes seeing your feelings reflected in art makes them feel more manageable. It is comforting to know that if there is a song about it then you're definitely not alone. Below is a list of songs we have found helpful:
1. "Heavy Foot" by Mon Rovia
2. "HEY-OH WE WON'T BE SILENT" by LoFi Plum
3. "Labour" by Paris Paloma
4. "Stand Up" (from Harriet)" by Cynthia Erivo
5. "Rise Up" by Andra Day
6. "History Has Its Eyes On You" from Hamilton
7. "Earth Song" by Michael Jackson
8. "Streets of Minneapolis" by Bruce Springsteen
9. "Imagine" by John Lennon
10. "American Idiot" by Green Day
11. "Not Ready to Make Nice" by The Chicks
12. "A Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke
13. "Have You Heard the News Today" by Earth to Eve
14. "The Hanging Tree (from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay)" by James Newton Howard and Jennifer Lawrence
15. "Rich, White, Straight Men" by Kesha
16. "THREAT LEVEL ORANGE" by Earth to Eve
17. "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel
18. "Everybody Scream" by Florence + The Machine
19. "Not All Men" by Morgan St. Jean
20. "This Land Is Your Land" by Woodie Guthrie
21. "Songs About Rainbows" by Dyl Lynn
22. "True Believer" by Hayley Williams
23. "What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes
24. "Church and State" by Brandi Carlile
25. "Feed Us Your Girls" by Lydia the Bard
26. "Believe" by Mumford and Sons
Humming/Chanting: The simple act of humming creates a vibration that stimulates the vagus nerve, which is the "reset button" for your parasympathetic nervous system. Try a low "Om" or just a simple hum when you feel stress and anxiety creeping in. When you activate the vagus nerve the body shifts into rest-and-digest mode, in turn, decreasing stress and promoting relaxation.

"Joy-Scrolling" Ratio: It's easy to get sucked into doom-scrolling the current horrific events. For every 5 minutes you spend on "hard" news, commit to 5 minutes of something entirely unrelated to politics. What brings you joy? Is it nature documentaries, cake decorating videos, silly animals, or ASMR? When you find yourself overloaded with "hard" news, make sure you prioritize "soft" news as well. Check in with those little farm animals to see how they've grown or go get your hair brushed from your parasocial bestie.
The 8 PM Phone Bedtime: Give your brain a chance to produce melatonin without the interference of cortisol-inducing notifications. The blue light from your phone is programmed to mimic daylight, which when it is time for bed is counter-productive for a good nights sleep. The blue light can throw off your internal body clock, confusing your body of what time of day it is. Doctors recommend putting your phone "to bed" an hour or two before you plan to wind down for the night. That way your mind and body has enough time to ready itself for a restful night.
"Soft" News Days: Pick one day a week where you do not check the news at all. The world will still be there on Monday, and you will be better equipped to handle it.