31 days of horror movies: a mindfulness exercise (pt 2)

days 4 - 11: watching horror movies within a horror movie

Given the atrocities and violence happening at the moment in Israel and along the border of Gaza, sending a newsletter about anything else feels…well, stupid. And tone deaf. And make no mistake: I know full and well that this is an extremely silly (and arguably quite pointless) 31 day horror movie challenge.

So: if you could use a break from the news, I hope you’ll read on. But if this is too much for your this week—-trust me, I get it.

If you missed my post last week: I’m doing a 31 Days of Horror Movies challenge and using it as a mindfulness exercise. What happens to my anxiety when I watch horror everyday?

And, well. I definitely didn’t expect my anxiety to be compounded by the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people half a world away. I didn’t expect, in other words, to also be watching a real-life horror movie playing out on the news simultaneously.

I’m continuing the experiment with the hopes I can glean something about myself from the experience of watching these movies. But just know: I don’t send this newsletter to trivialize what’s going on, or to make light of true terror—both the terror Israelis are facing from Hamas AND the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli government. THAT is very real, and tragic.

With that being said: here we go.