In an episode of the American TV show, The Good Doctor, a first-year surgical resident has to treat a severely burned car-crash victim. He finds himself unable to look at her injuries or speak to her normally. Feeling overwhelmed by the situation, he steps out and laments to a colleague that he doesn’t know what to do. Her reply struck a chord with me. “Quit feeling sorry for yourself and get back there. You can at least come out to escape but she is stuck within those four walls with no way out.”

With the magnitude of some problems that plague the world today, we often have to deal with feelings of frustration and helplessness. But each moment we spend feeling powerless to effect change fast enough, is one more second we are spending not aiding the people who are actually in need.

This doesn’t mean that we should bottle up those negative feelings and just put on an optimistic facade. It is human to feel that way and we should acknowledge it. But once we have vented and ranted, we should dust ourselves, get back up and see what we can do to help.