There Is No Safe Place on Earth

When I was a child studying history in school, I once had a strange thought.

Why do we not have a war right now?

Because judging by history textbooks, wars used to be almost normal. Stability looked more like a temporary pause than a natural state of life.

A few years later, 2014 came. And for Ukrainians, life split into before and after.

At the same time, when I was growing up, I constantly heard my mother complain about everything and everyone. About poverty, bad luck, money, exhaustion, problems. And as a child, I honestly could not understand it.

How can someone fail at their own life so badly?

I thought: when I grow up, I will control my own life. I will buy my own house. You will hear this from me more than once, because this is my obsession, my fixation, my unfinished inner story. I will make money, open my own restaurant, buy a car. It is not that hard. You just have to make money instead of complaining and doing nothing.

My stepfather used to say, when you grow up, you will understand.

I hated hearing that. It made me furious.

Because to me, the whole problem seemed very simple. There was no money, and people did not want to work hard enough. If there was money, there would be peace of mind. There would be safety.

I will turn 30 in March. I still have none of the things I promised my younger self. Right now, I am on antidepressants because my anxiety got so intense that it started showing up in my body.

Before Everything Changed

After the events of 2014, all I kept hearing from every direction was that we had to leave Ukraine because a major full scale war was coming.

I did not leave for many reasons.

First of all, I was only 17. Second, before 2014, I had never had the idea of living in another country. I loved Ukrainian culture, our mentality, our traditions. Ukraine is big and diverse. We have mountains, we have the sea, we have regions where you can spend the summer by the water without traveling across half the world and spending insane money. You can go to the Carpathians, in summer or in winter, to a ski resort.

We have beautiful nature reserves, like Askania Nova. And as I write this, tears are literally coming to my eyes.

I lived in a city that is considered the cultural capital of Ukraine. A city full of architectural monuments, including places listed by UNESCO. Since childhood, I loved singing Ukrainian songs. I remember being five years old, rocking my newborn sister in a stroller, and singing my favorite childhood song, "Somewhere a weeping guitar began to play."

A Reality That Never Stands Still

Still, there was always a background anxiety inside me. And in my head, I kept hearing the voices of people I respected, people whose opinions I trusted.

You have to run from here. Nothing good will ever happen here.

Ukraine already had political and economic problems. Corruption too, and I will say a little more about that later. And on top of that, there was the possibility of war.

You know, at the time, I did not fully understand what war was. I imagined that if Russia started a full scale war against Ukraine, there would be carpet bombing of every city, fighting across the entire country, total horror. And of course, almost nobody expected Ukraine to be able to resist the so called second strongest army in the world.

Despite all those fears and anxieties, the danger still felt unreal. Like something far away. Like something that might never actually happen.

And I did not want to leave. Yes, I wanted to travel, discover new places, see the world. But I did not want to emigrate.

Living on a Powder Keg

So in a way, I lived on a powder keg.

Then I got tired of the anxiety and decided to silence the phantom voices in my head. The voices of people who were supposedly smarter than me, warning that a full scale war might come.

And then 2022 came. Russia attacked all of Ukraine.

Many Ukrainians left the country. And do you know what strange thing many of us discovered?

We were all looking for a place where we could be safe. A place where we could keep living and plan at least a few years ahead. A place where we could start over without the fear that in five or ten years, we would have to pack our bags again and run.

But now, after the events in Iran, after realizing that the war in Ukraine has already lasted for years and will clearly not end in one or two, after regular outbreaks of military conflict in different corners of the planet, after constant talk about a potential war between China and Taiwan, it became clear: maybe that place simply does not exist.

There is no spot on Earth where you can move and be guaranteed a new life, knowing for sure that a few years later you will not have to flee again.

If you look at a map and at the course of history, almost everywhere carries some real, not tiny, possibility of armed conflict.

It feels like the moment when you finally take off your rose colored glasses and have to learn how to live in a new reality. Or more accurately, in a reality that has always existed. The world we were shown on TV turned out to be a massive illusion.

And the main question is this: how do you learn to live in a world where safety is only local and temporary, and tomorrow anything can happen?

And it does not even have to be a full scale war.

What the Numbers Say About Safety

If you try to look at safety through numbers, the picture becomes even more disturbing.

According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, in 2024 the world recorded 61 active armed conflicts involving at least one state. That was the highest number since tracking began in 1946. Eleven of those reached the level of war, meaning they passed the threshold of one thousand battle related deaths in a year.

And that is only the tip of the iceberg.

If you look more broadly, not only at classic wars between states, but also at civil conflicts, insurgencies, and political violence, the picture becomes even darker.

ACLED, which tracks political violence in more than 240 countries and territories, recorded more than 204,000 conflict related events in one year, from December 2024 to November 2025. Those events led to more than 240,000 deaths. In the previous 12 months, the number was even higher.

Another one of their reports shows that in most countries in the world, 167 out of more than 240, there is at least one episode of political violence in a year.

If you look at the trends of recent decades, researchers are talking about the return of major war. In 2023, there were nine wars. Most of them were in Africa, and the deadliest were Russia's war against Ukraine, the war in Sudan, and the war in Israel and Palestine.

The World Bank estimates that the number of conflicts in the world has tripled since the early 2000s, while the number of people killed each year by organized violence jumped from fewer than 42,000 to almost 194,000.

At the same time, another measure of danger is also rising: military spending. In 2024, global military budgets passed 2.7 trillion dollars for the first time. It was the largest annual increase since the Cold War.

In other words, humanity is investing more in the tools of war than ever before in modern history.

When you read numbers like that, the illusion of a stable peaceful world somewhere beyond the horizon, a place where you can escape and finally live calmly, starts falling apart very quickly.

Was There Ever a Peaceful World?

And now comes the painful question.

Has there ever been a moment in history when there was no war anywhere on the planet?

We do not have complete data for every region and every era. But most historians lean toward the idea that for many centuries, there has not been a single year without at least one armed conflict somewhere.

People often quote an estimate: in the last roughly 3,400 years of human history, only about 250 to 270 years were relatively peaceful. Meaning there were no major interstate wars that we know about from historical sources.

But even those peaceful years were probably not free from violence completely. Local conflicts may simply not have made it into the records, or they may not have been considered war in the way people understood the word at the time.

What Do You Do With This Realization?

After realizing all of this, many people fall into depression, apathy, or escape reality through addiction.

And honestly, I do not judge those people. I do not see them as weak. I understand them very deeply. I want to hug them, ease their pain, support them, take care of them.

To be honest, I have been living in a heavy psychological state myself for years. I keep trying to help myself, looking for different ways to pull myself out of it.

And I really want to share the methods I use to preserve my mental health. Maybe they will help someone.

Because still, how do you learn to live in a world where safety is only local and temporary, and tomorrow anything can happen? And it does not even have to be war. It can simply be a global economic crisis that knocks the ground out from under you.

Start With Your Mental Health

In my opinion, the first thing to work on is mental health.

Spiritual growth. Healing the wounds that bother you even when everything outside is relatively fine, let alone during war or crisis.

It is very common for people to sacrifice their mental health for financial safety. They work themselves to the bone, tolerate jobs they hate, live in constant stress, because they think the most important thing is to make money now and deal with everything else later.

But very often, this turns against them.

Even if a person manages to create some local financial safety, they can still be mentally exhausted. Burned out. Full of background anxiety that does not go away. Hopelessness, emptiness, disappointment, Sunday dread, all of it.

And at that point, it does not really matter how good your emergency fund is.

Because your savings may be enough for six months or even a year without work during a crisis. But if your lifestyle has been ruthless to your nervous system and you have developed depression, even a year may not be enough to recover. And when you truly need strength and endurance, you may simply not have them.

Of course, I want to be clear about something. A short term sacrifice within reasonable limits can make sense. For example, you can push harder for three or four months to build a bigger client base, improve a product, or learn a skill that helps you get a better position at work. That is okay.

I am talking about extremes. Constant sacrifice for money and work. That is not okay.

Yes, financial safety matters. But if possible, mental health should still be at the top of the list.

When your mind is calmer, you have at least the basic life energy needed to withstand the unpleasant surprises life throws at you.

Your Body Is Part of Safety Too

I was going to put physical health second. But physical and mental health are so deeply connected that I would actually place this on the same first level.

The formula is very simple.

Treat your health problems. Do the necessary preventive care if you have chronic conditions. Move your body regularly in any way you can. Sleep properly. Make sure your plate has fiber, greens, protein, fats, and carbs.

It sounds basic. But when the world around you is unstable, the body often becomes the first place where you can regain at least a little bit of control.

The People Around You Matter

The third level is your social environment.

And yes, the very thought of social interaction scares many people. I, for example, have been diagnosed with social anxiety. So I understand better than anyone how hard it can be to find your people.

Sometimes it feels like only artificial intelligence can understand you, while people drain so much energy out of you that it seems like energy vampires really do exist, and all of them somehow gathered around you personally.

But believe me, every person can create a circle where they feel comfortable, safe, and genuinely interested.

The point is that you do not have to spread yourself thin for everyone.

Study people. Observe them. You will notice that there are many empathetic, humane, loyal people who share your worldview, maybe have similar fears, maybe share your interests. From time to time, it is worth stepping out of your comfort zone toward people who do not leave you feeling like a squeezed lemon after talking to them.

Personally, when I once took computer graphics and design classes, I found such wonderful people there. After meeting them, I would come home incredibly inspired. And later, when I had to move abroad, I missed them very much.

Money, Work, and Skills

Now we can talk about the next important part: money.

That means work, your skills, an emergency fund, material stability.

Here is the only thing I would really advise: find your niche. If possible, work at your own rhythm. Do not constantly measure yourself against friends or relatives. Avoid hidden competition like who has the cooler car, who travels more often, who went where, who makes more money.

This approach of competing with others in order to progress, basically creating external control for yourself, does not bring anything good into relationships.

First of all, you destroy yourself with it. Then you damage the people around you too.

In short, it is a very bad thing.

Stability Is Probably a Utopia

So here is my summary.

On a global level, stability is probably a utopia. Safety is possible only locally. Sometimes that local level shrinks all the way down to the borders of your own body.

That means we have to learn how to organize safety for ourselves as much as possible on our own local level. And we need to begin with the body, then slowly expand those borders as much as our circumstances allow.

I do not know whether there will be a third world war. I do not know whether it is already partially happening. But I know one thing for sure: whatever happens, I cannot afford to stay in a victim state for a long period of time.

Grieve for a while, yes. Feel sorry for yourself, yes. But you cannot lose touch with reality and run away from responsibility for your local safety and your own life.

We cannot directly influence global events. But we absolutely can influence what is on our plate today and what is happening in our head today.

We also have a lot of influence on the people around us. It is worth treating both ourselves and our loved ones with an understanding of our weaknesses. It is worth forgiving one another and staying close, especially during crises, wars, and global negative events.

As for toxic, unstable people, people who do all kinds of horrible crap and do not change, stay away from them. Go around them.

It is important to understand that life really is difficult. That is why the main principle is: do not inflate problems. Believe me, there will always be people who will inflate them without your help, so much that you may lose sight of where the problem began and where it ends. Hello to the media and the professional panic spreaders.

Do not wind yourself up. Do not make life even harder when you are already running low.

On the contrary, make it lighter when you feel that you are starting to struggle.

Choose work that you can do without constantly violating yourself. Choose a partner who makes life feel easier, not heavier. Wake up in the morning with a lighter step. Do not read the opinions of couch experts who love predicting nuclear war, apocalypse, and the end of everything.

Collect Good Moments

There is one more important thing.

Collect and value the good moments in life. Try to enjoy life in all kinds of circumstances.

The sun in a train window. Rain on the porch. Bees pollinating flowers. Children's voices in the yard.

It helps a lot to photograph these things and post them on social media. It builds the habit of noticing good things in life.

Because let us be honest, despite all the chaos happening around us, we are evolutionarily wired to notice danger first. That makes life feel even harder than it actually is.

Build Your Own Local Safe Space

Organize your own local safe space, starting with the simplest things.

Surround yourself with people who feel safe physically and psychologically. You cannot even imagine how strongly the psychological states of the people around us affect us.

Do not blame yourself if life does not go according to plan.

And even if global statistics do not promise a calm and measured life at all, that does not mean you cannot create some version of it on your own level.

Use critical thinking. Fact check. It protects you from being deceived by propaganda.

Live in the present. Value every moment of your life. Try to spend the day in a way that feels, in your imagination, like a good day.

Take care of your body. People often underestimate their physical needs. Cook good food. Drink enough water. Move regularly.

And remember: yes, you cannot control outside events. But you can choose how you respond to them.

That is the point. The steering wheel is in your hands.

Maybe you will not be able to switch your mind the way I described right away. But this is not a one time action. You cannot change your thinking and your approach to life in one moment.

You just have to practice a new way of seeing the world, and your place in it, every day.

Take care of yourself and the people you love.

Love you, bye.

P.S.

You have read this article, and maybe something in it stayed with you. But one article does not change the way we think or live overnight. The very next day, we can quietly slip back into old thoughts, fears, and reactions without even noticing it.

That is why it matters to regularly remind yourself of the new inner rules you want to slowly bring into your everyday life.

At the end of each of my articles, I will leave a short list of thoughts you can come back to. You can copy them into your journal or save them in the notes app on your phone, so they are always close. And every time anxiety rises again, or it starts to feel like something is wrong inside, you can return to these lines and read them over.

Reminders for Creating Local Safety

I cannot guarantee myself absolute safety.

But I can create local safety for myself as much as possible within the part of reality that directly belongs to my own life.

I promise myself not to stay stuck in a victim state for too long, and to take responsibility for my local safety.

But I also promise myself time for compassion and time to grieve. Not so I can collapse into helplessness, but so I do not become cruel to myself and turn resilience into self punishment.

I promise myself not to make difficulties even bigger than they already are.

I promise myself to deal with problems when they actually arrive.

I promise myself to let go of destructive thoughts about threats I cannot prevent right now anyway.

I promise myself to put my mental and physical health first every single day, especially in difficult times.

I promise myself to surround myself with people who make me feel safe and genuinely interested in life.

I promise myself to notice the pleasant moments and the good things every day in the part of reality that belongs to my own life, and to keep them in my memory.