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In this world, there will be troubles, but developing certain habits can make your life better by bringing you peace within your days.

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This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you. *** Feeling anxious while being a parent is no joke. We have real stressors that affect us. But there are a variety of things that we put on our plates that don’t belong there. Your child’s report card is not your report card; their cleanliness is not a reflection of your cleanliness. Your children are humans that are totally separate from you. Parents have become so anxious about their children succeeding or not being lazy or clumsy or whatever other unfortunate adjective you can suggest. Some parents worry so much that they inadvertently make the thing they are concerned about happen because they don’t think with intention; they allow their emotions to dictate their decisions.  The Pew Research Center reported in 2023 that as many as 45% of parents described themselves as overprotective. For this, you can thank the limbic system, which oversees behavioral and emotional responses as well as memory formation. The system includes the amygdala, the part of your brain that’s responsible for emotional processing and is key in fear and survival instincts. A drastic number of parents, three out of four, are concerned that their children will develop anxiety or depression issues. Do you know what happens when we worry about that happening? Instead of looking at a situation where we notice our children show fear, anxiety, or sadness and allowing them to work through it, we may step in or try to distract them. We hop in to fix it. If we don’t want them to develop those mental health issues, that means keeping them away from those feelings, right? Wrong. As a clinical counselor, I will tell you right now that this is going to hurt them in the long run.  When a child doesn’t face the things that bother him and has someone else step in for him, what he learns is that he is not capable of doing things on his own and that those feelings should be avoided. He wonders if there is something wrong with him for feeling those emotions, and he doesn’t believe in his own abilities. Other parents worry about their children getting kidnapped, so they listen to their limbic systems and start tracking and monitoring where their children go all the time. They check in over and over. They don’t allow sleepovers. Would you like to know what kids learn from this? They assume that the whole world is totally dangerous and that they should fear it. They believe that they can’t trust their own abilities. They miss out on developing the skills of managing a healthy amount of risk. Then those kids may do one of two things: push back really hard on all the rules or internalize the belief that they are constantly in danger and are incapable of taking care of themselves. When your amygdala jumps to the worst-case scenario, remember this: Most kidnappings are done by a biological parent, and the type of kidnapping people are most worried about has almost a one in a million chance of happening. If you were a sociopath who wanted your child to be abducted, he would have to be left outside on his own for 750,000 years before it even became a statistical likelihood. You’re welcome. Here’s what parents can do instead. A lot of the work is going to be cognitive, meaning it will be based on what you tell yourself. This is a key component because when we have awareness of our thoughts, we can challenge them and not let the anxious thoughts dictate our choices. When you notice that initial uptick in anxiety (stomach hurting, heart rate increasing, something sitting on your chest feeling), acknowledge it. Don’t ignore it. Get curious. Use that glorious prefrontal cortex. If the anxiety is rooted in your child struggling with a task, take time to observe how she is navigating it and see what she comes up with; talk with her about how things can be hard sometimes and that we can try again or continue to work at something because it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time. Remember that kids doing things differently doesn’t mean they are doing them wrong. Your kid can ask you for help if she needs it. What your child will learn is that she can figure out things on her own. She will also learn that her parent believes in her abilities! This leads to confidence in oneself. If the anxiety is rooted in your child’s physical safety, take a beat to observe what is happening in front of you and determine if he is engaging in age-appropriate risky play or exploration. Let your prefrontal cortex know that the physical world is much safer than we think it is. (Violent crime has been decreasing since the ’90s, there is CCTV everywhere, and most of the predators are online now.) If he wants to go for a sleepover, get to know the parents and his friends. What your child will internalize is that he can conquer hard things, he can navigate social situations on his own, and the world is his oyster. He will be able to problem solve, use risk management skills, and know how to operate in the real world. If the anxiety is rooted in the pain of experiencing “bad” emotions, please let me assure you that our emotions are there for us to feel. All emotions are okay (but not all behaviors). In order to support your child in developing healthy emotional regulation skills, name the emotion you see her experiencing, let her tell you about it, give her empathy and validation (this doesn’t mean you accept a poor choice she made; it just means you understand how she feels), work together to problem solve (don’t just give her the answer), and let her try out what she comes up with. This can be a really hard balance. We hate to see our children struggle through emotions that feel heavy. But if we don’t let them navigate those emotions, they will have zero idea what to do when they are independent adults. By pushing through hard things, your child will realize that emotions are a normal part of life and that when there is a struggle, he can handle it. This will lead to increased frustration tolerance, emotional regulation skills, self-confidence, and competency. What I want parents to know is that you don’t have to let your anxiety or worry or fear control how you make decisions. Be intentional. Work on wrangling your limbic system so that it can balance emotion and reason. And believe in your child’s abilities. *** Gabrielle Frook is a licensed clinical professional counselor who has worked with children, adolescents, and adults, delivering evidence-based treatment for PTSD, depression, and anxiety. She writes her own Substack and has been published in Medium publications.

The political war over the American map reached a fever pitch this week as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis delivered a blistering takedown of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). After the New York Democrat attempted to use a narrow, legally shaky victory in Virginia to threaten the Sunshine State’s redistricting plans, DeSantis didn’t just push back—he dismantled Jeffries’ entire political persona. The spark for the confrontation was Tuesday’s referendum in Virginia. In a move that critics have slammed as a naked partisan power grab, Virginia voters narrowly approved—51.5% to 48.5%—a constitutional amendment allowing the Democratic-led General Assembly to bypass a bipartisan commission. The goal? Redrawing maps to transform a 6–5 Democratic edge into a crushing 10–1 advantage. While Democrats celebrated the move as “defeating gerrymandering,” the victory was short-lived. A Virginia judge immediately threw a wrench in the works, ruling the referendum unconstitutional and blocking certification due to procedural failures. That didn’t stop Hakeem Jeffries from “popping off,” as DeSantis put it. Flush with the Virginia news, Jeffries took to the microphones and social media to issue a warning to Florida Republicans. “Our message to Florida Republicans is F around and find out,” Jeffries barked, claiming Republicans are “dummymandering” their way into the minority and vowing to “crush” what he called the “DeSantis Dummymander.” Rep. Jeffries "Our message to Florida Republicans is F around and find out. If they go down the road of a DeSantis 'dummymander', the Florida Republicans are going to find themselves in the same situation as Texas Republicans." pic.twitter.com/RlNH0OH4Kp — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 22, 2026 Democrats defeated Donald Trump’s gerrymandering scheme in Virginia tonight. We will crush the DeSantis Dummymander in Florida next. Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time. pic.twitter.com/zM1oXhZT8K — Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeemjeffries) April 22, 2026 DeSantis, who has called a special session for late April to address Florida’s massive population-driven malapportionment, was more than happy to accept the challenge. “This guy, Jeffries, popping off in Washington about Florida,” DeSantis told reporters with a grin. “He wants to be Speaker of the House, and he’s kind of like—more liberal than Pelosi and all this other stuff from New York City. I just want to know: ‘Ooh, Florida. We’re going to go after Florida.’ Please: be my guest.” DeSantis then leaned into a devastatingly polite mockery, offering to pay for Jeffries’ travel and put him up in the Governor’s Mansion. “We’ll take you fishing,” DeSantis quipped. “We’ll do all this stuff. There’s nothing that could be better for Republicans in Florida than to see Hakeem Jeffries everywhere around this state. Voters will not like what they see.” The governor then twisted the knife, pointing out that despite Jeffries’ attempts to move further left to appease his base, the radical wing of his own party remains unimpressed. “I kind of feel bad for the guy because he’s as Left as they come. He’s always going Left. And yet the far-Left hates him. You know, they call him a ‘dollar-store Obama.’ They call him ‘AIPAC Shakur,’ all these different derogatory names that they do. And so he’s tried to ingratiate himself with [them], but they’re just not drinking the Kool-Aid.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center stands accused of secretly funneling $270,000 to a white supremacist who planned the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally, betraying donors who trusted them to fight hate. DOJ Indictment Details The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center on April 21, 2026. Prosecutors charge the organization with fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. From 2014 to 2023, SPLC allegedly transferred millions to individuals in extremist groups including the Ku Klux Klan, National Alliance, Aryan Nations, and National Socialist Movement. Funds moved through fictitious entities such as “Center Investigative Agency,” “Fox Photography,” and “Rare Books Warehouse” via prepaid cards and vague wire transfers. This scheme concealed activities from donors and banks while SPLC solicited contributions by claiming to combat these very groups. Link to Charlottesville Tragedy One recipient received approximately $270,000 and actively helped plan the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The rally, held August 11-12, opposed removal of a Robert E. Lee statue and united alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis, white nationalists, Klansmen, and militias. Violence erupted with over 30 injuries from clashes. James Alex Fields Jr. rammed counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 35. Fields faced murder conviction in 2018 and federal hate crimes in 2019. SPLC’s alleged payments overlapped this deadly event, raising questions about their true role. SPLC’s Hypocritical Operations Founded in 1971, the SPLC monitors hate groups and amassed a $700 million endowment from donors supporting civil rights and anti-extremism. Publicly, it warned of events like Charlottesville amid debates over Confederate symbols. Privately, the indictment portrays SPLC as funding active participants, not mere informants. This duality deceived contributors who believed their money fought extremism. Conservative critics long argued SPLC smeared patriots and traditional values as “hate,” now federal charges expose financial manipulation that erodes trust in such organizations. Power dynamics reveal SPLC’s financial dominance over recipients. Leadership, unnamed in details, orchestrated the scheme. The DOJ now holds them accountable, aligning with President Trump’s commitment to transparent governance and rooting out leftist overreach that harms American families and values. Impacts and Broader Repercussions Short-term effects include potential arrests of SPLC leadership, donor withdrawals, and operational halts under $700 million scrutiny. Long-term, credibility as a hate-watchdog crumbles, inviting donor lawsuits and distrust in NGOs. Civil rights groups suffer guilt by association. Extremist networks may destabilize without covert funds, while Charlottesville victims’ families confront reopened wounds. Economically, asset freezes and legal battles loom; socially, debates intensify over nonprofit transparency. Politically, SPLC’s influence in places like Mississippi faces challenge. This fuels narratives of left-wing hypocrisy, where groups preaching tolerance fund division. Nonprofits now brace for stricter IRS and DOJ oversight on funding practices. Anti-extremism efforts warrant skepticism when tied to such scandals, protecting conservative principles of limited government and honest stewardship. Sources: Federal Indictment Against the Southern Poverty Law Center Hits Close to Home Unite the Right rally – Wikipedia Southern Poverty Law Center Allegedly Paid Informant Involved in Planning Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM After two years of conversations with founders, executives, and leaders across industries, Liz Tran kept noticing the same thing: the most successful and fulfilled among them were not the ones who knew the most. They were the ones who had made peace with not knowing. Tran, a leadership coach and the author of AQ: A New Kind of Intelligence for a World That’s Always Changing, calls this the Agility Quotient. In a job market reshaped by artificial intelligence, IQ, the capacity to absorb and process information, is becoming less differentiating. What matters now, she argues, is the ability to adapt when circumstances change, fail without shutting down, and keep moving. Building AQ starts with a willingness to get better at something most people would rather avoid: risk and failure. Where you actually are with risk right now Before building anything, Tran suggests starting with an honest assessment. She offers a three-level framework in her book. Think of a stressful situation you have faced recently and consider how you handled it. At the lowest level, you find yourself avoiding the problem or minimizing it without actually addressing it. At the middle level, you acknowledge the difficulty and try to improve your situation, but you are still fighting it. “There’s a sense that you’re feeling like, ‘why is this happening to me?’… There’s a resentment and maybe even an anger about what your situation is,” Tran says. The highest level is choosing to meet whatever comes, failure included. It does not mean you like the circumstances, but it does mean “you’re seeing it as something to move through,” Tran says, “rather than just something you resent.” That shift also, she adds, helps protect against burnout. Trade “know-it-all” for “learn-it-all” One of the most actionable shifts Tran recommends is reorienting from expertise to learning. She draws on the transformation Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella led, changing the company’s culture from one that prized being “know-it-alls” to one that rewarded “learn-it-alls.” In an environment where AI can absorb information faster than any person, the edge no longer lives in what you already know. It lives in how quickly you are willing to experiment, pivot, and reinvent yourself. The new work environment, Tran says, “rewards people who move fast.” That requires letting go of the ego investment in always having the answer. Build an anchor before you take risks Here is where Tran’s approach surprises most people. “Agility requires stability,” she says. The freedom to take risks requires a foundation of security elsewhere. That might be a close relationship, a consistent exercise routine, or a physical place that feels like home, anything that creates reliable groundedness in areas of life you can control. “In order to feel psychologically grounded and stable enough to go out there and take risks, you actually need a cushion of comfort and security,” Tran says. Without it, pushing too far into uncertainty can tip the nervous system into fight-or-flight, which impairs the cognitive functioning you need to navigate that uncertainty well. The goal, she says, is a sweet spot: stretched, but not overwhelmed. Practice discomfort in low-stakes situations Tran recommends building a habit of regular small discomforts to condition yourself for larger ones. She reframes “risk” as “bet.” A risk implies a downside. A bet implies an unknown outcome with a real chance of winning. The psychological difference matters. “You start with risks that are tolerable,” she says. Reaching out to someone outside your existing network. Trying a new setting for a meeting. Setting a goal you are not sure you can achieve. Over time, the threshold for what feels tolerable shifts, and things that once felt anxiety-inducing start to feel manageable. Track recovery rate, not outcomes When Tran began taking more risks herself, she stopped measuring success by results and started measuring it by recovery speed. If you make seven attempts in a week and none of them succeed, “even though that’s to be expected when you’re putting yourself out there for risk-taking and failure all the time,” and you evaluate only the outcomes, you will feel like you have failed. But if you track how quickly you got back up, you begin to see real progress. “What you actually want to do is to track your recovery rate,” she says. The goal is a shortening gap between setback and forward motion. That narrowing gap, over time, is evidence that the tolerance is genuine. See setbacks as doors that didn’t exist before If you optimize for outcomes all the time, Tran argues, “we’re actually missing the broader target, which is to learn and become agile enough to succeed.” Failure, reframed, is how you end up somewhere you couldn’t have planned. She speaks from personal experience. “In my career, I have failed so spectacularly,” she says. But those failures made her current work possible. “What I had planned didn’t work out, but actually, it helped open my eyes to a different path that I never would have mapped out for myself.” The point of building AQ is not that you start to enjoy failure. It is that you start to trust what tends to follow it, and that trust, built through small daily bets over time, is what makes the next risk feel worth taking.     Did this solution stand out? Share it with a friend or support our mission by becoming an Emissary.The post 6 ways to get more comfortable with risk and reinvention first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.