In the fall of 2001, I told my meditation teacher about my stress over a future event I was dreading—I can’t remember what. He told me about another student, a mother of two who had just lost her husband in the 911 attacks.

“She said she couldn’t stop thinking about how awful the holidays would be,” he said. “I told her, ‘So let them be awful. You don’t have to rehearse for that now.’”

His words were clarifying and oddly liberating. Bad times are unavoidable, but you don’t need to extend the misery by pre-gaming them.

I’ve been trying to hold onto that lesson this month.

Misery doesn’t ask permission; it just shows up, unwelcome and unannounced and parks itself in your psyche. But, so far at least, I’ve found a few ways to keep it under wraps, so I thought I’d share them.

Earlier this year, my husband and I ditched our cable plan and started getting our live news from a free app called Scripps News, rather than CNN or MSNBC. We ended up saving more than money. Now, instead of watching political hacks bloviate about their predictions and parsing poll numbers, we watch … the news. The Scripps News reporters beam in from all over the country—Montana, Texas, Illinois—giving recaps of the day’s events, providing background and context to the laws passed, court cases heard, union battles waged, etc. They tell you what happened rather than broadcast endless speculation about what some former congressman or........

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