The national news is rough right now. What\u2019s happening in Minnesota is illegal, unconstitutional, unethical\u2014and really scary. I do take some comfort in watching people stand up for what\u2019s right, but sometimes the healthiest thing I can do is step away from the constant stream of headlines for my own sanity.<\/p>\n
Enter: the NFL playoffs. Few things can hold my attention for hours the way a close, well-played football game can, and the last couple of weekends have delivered. Bonus points for the nonstop motion and bright colors on the screen, which have completely captivated my cats.<\/p>\n
For as long as professional sports have existed, people have used them as a mental break from whatever is weighing on the world\u2014war, economic stress, or just the general chaos of \u201ceverything.\u201d There\u2019s something about spending a few hours fully absorbed in rooting for your team (or passionately rooting against one) that is good for the soul<\/p>\n
Football season is winding down, but the Olympics are on the horizon. College and pro basketball and hockey are in full swing, and before long, baseball will be back too.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s okay\u2014necessary, even\u2014to find joy and distraction during dark times. So yes. Go sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The national news is rough right now. What\u2019s happening in Minnesota is illegal, unconstitutional, unethical\u2014and really scary. I do take some comfort in watching people stand up for what\u2019s right, but sometimes the healthiest thing I can do is step away from the constant stream of headlines for my own sanity. Enter: the NFL playoffs. Few things can hold my… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","category-bright-shiny-objects"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/FPMLZ0EJJ9.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beckypalmer.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}