My husband Greg and I bought a boat last year. What to many might seem like a frivolous purchase to us is part of a long-term plan. Since we met in 2012, sailing has been a big part of our relationship and oddly, our boat dreams were the reason we moved to the desert. We knew we couldn’t afford to live on the coast AND have a boat. We saved for two and a half years before taking the plunge and buying our 46-foot Jeanneau that came with the name, All The Way There. 
It's been a big expense, but we have not regretted it a single day.  When we’re on our boat, we both unwind. I sleep better onboard with the slight rocking motion. I make time to read. When we’ve left the harbor and the wind picks up enough that we can turn off the engine and let nature’s forces pull us along, we are in our happy place.

More information is not a cure for anxiety
After the market close on Liberation Day, I called to check in with one of my savvy clients. “This was a gray swan event,” she said. Unlike black swan events, which no one can predict, a gray swan event is one that everyone knows is possible but assumes will not occur. She referenced a graph that RBC’s Janet Engels showed in a client presentation on April 2nd, showing the number of market drops below 10%. 
“I forgot that we had a +10% drop in 2023,” she said. “So we all new a correction was possible, but we are all victims of recency bias – which is not surprising given that the pace of modern life does not allow for contemplation.” 
In fact, I would argue that we are discouraged from contemplation. You may have noticed that the Washington Post changed its mission from, “Democracy dies in darkness” to “Riveting Storytelling for All of America.” The point of the media today is not to educate us or give us the truth: it is designed to keep our eyes on the screen.
“The outrage machine is designed to generate more outrage,” a mentor of mine said recently. I’ve been thinking a lot about this, as each new headline feels designed to get under my skin. If you haven’t read the book Factfulness, I highly recommend it. In it, Hans Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund write that, “There’s no room for facts when our minds are occupied by fear.” 
They argue that the facts show that many things on this planet (with the exception of global warming) have been getting better rather than worse. This is the problem with getting all our information from the media, they write, because “the image of a dangerous world has never been broadcast more effectively than it is now, while the world has never been less violent and more safe.”

 
The national anxiety meter is flashing red
Did you know that there is something called “free-floating anxiety”? It’s on the rise. Several polls over the past year reveal that Americans are more anxious than they have been in a while. A 2024 poll by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) found that “43% of adults feel more anxious than they did the previous year, a steady increase from 2023 (37%) and 2022 (32%).” What’s more, “77% of adults say the future of the nation is a significant source of stress in their lives.” 
If you’ve started smoking this year, you’re not alone. More than half of voters in the “Unleash the Power of Crypto News” Telegram group say they’re now smoking to cope with the anxiety they feel over the new tariffs. You couldn’t pay me to smoke, but a few weeks ago, Greg noticed I was scratching my head. It’s a nervous habit I have that seems to spring up whenever I’m anxious. Once I start doing it, I have to consciously work at not doing it. I believe this is an important aspect of all anxiety treatments: you must stop yourself from spiraling.

We haven’t been able to get to the boat as often as we’d like because we are also in the middle of a massive home remodel. I tell ya, if you want more anxiety in your life, scrape up all the tile in your house and tear down most of the walls. But we need to get to the boat. We need a place to escape from the noise. One suggested treatment for free-floating anxiety is music. I’ve been finding solace in comedy. “Why do you think I watch animal videos on Reddit?” Greg asked.

How often are you contemplating these days? 
A few weeks ago I attended a panel on philanthropy hosted by Women Leaders Forum of the Coachella Valley. Panelist Jodi Delaney spoke about needing to give ourselves a break. “I’m trained in meditation, but whether you mediate or pray, take time to breathe. Relax your shoulders. Relax your neck.” As she said this, you could feel the room start to let out a collective sigh. I felt like dropping into a lotus position right then and there. 
When it comes to the market, a flight to safety generally follows a correction. If you listened to the Janet Engels' client call, you heard that bonds, dividend-paying stocks and international stocks and bonds can offer varying degrees of diversification and lower volatility. Ideally (but not always), they dampen the impact of the volatility.  
But here’s the thing. All corrections are gray swans. We know they are coming because economic growth and prosperity does not manifest itself in a consistently upward trending graph. In fact, I tell my clients that as much as they think that’s what they want to see, that’s exactly what Bernie Madoff’s clients DID see. 
We cannot do anything about these tariffs. No one, regardless of the superlative-filled promises, can turn back the clock and undo years of offshoring in a White House minute. We will have to live with this uncertainty  for a while. Probably much longer than 90 days. 
What we can do is make room for contemplation. We can clean house. Garden. Meditate, pray or do yoga. We can spend more time with friends, focus on improving ourselves, and on being better neighbors and citizens. To quote the Roslings again, “Things can be bad, and getting better" at the same time.

Here's RBC's report on tariff's from last week for your edification. After you read it, I suggest turning up the volume on this Corinne Bailey Rae song:

Three little birds sat on my window
And they told me I don't need to worry
Summer came like cinnamon, so sweet
Little girls double-dutch on the concrete

Maybe sometimes we got it wrong
But it's alright
The more things seem to change
The more they stay the same
Don't you hesitate

Girl, put your records on
Tell me your favorite song
You go ahead, let your hair down

REFERENCES

* An article on The Washington Post’s new mission and vision statement was written by Benjamin Mullin and published in the New York Times on Jan. 16, 2025 entitled: The Washington Post’s New Mission: Reach ‘All of America’.

* Jodi Delaney's website can be found via a google search. She has spent her whole career in philanthropy and consults with fundraising leadership to help with with their donors and projects worldwide. 

* Black Swan theory was put forth by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007 book, "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable." I'm not entirely sure who came up with the notion of "gray swan" events, but you can read about via the Investopedia link above, and in a recent Bloomberg article entitled, "US Recession Fear Raises 'Gray Swan' Risk for Bond Investors" by Abhinav Ramnarayan published on April 1, 2025.

* The book "Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World-and Why Things Are Better Than You Think" was written by Hans Rosling together with his daughter-in-law, Anna Rosling Rönnlund and son Ola. It was published in 2018.

* The Women Leaders Forum of the Coachella Valley is a non-profit that provides a network for women of all ages and mentors young women in the desert region of Southern California.