Europeans are apprehensive and experience heightened emotions. Cuddle your cat.

Google offers the world Google Trends. It's a useful service to see what people are thinking what they are doing in real time. It provides background information as to what is bubbling under the surface of the news and what we see happening around us. And today, Google search trends 2022 indicates that the searches are driven by heightened emotions. This applies to people across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This implies that people in America are not suffering from heightened emotions. 

This is probably because the major source of heightened emotions is the Ukraine war which is a long way away from America and I sense that Americans feel distanced from the Ukraine war whereas it is on the doorstep of Europe.

And I say "suffering" because it seems that these emotions are anxiety or apprehension.

Peoples of Europe are apprehensive. Cuddle your cat. Image: Image by Prettysleepy Art from Pixabay.

And a reason why this exists is because of issues with personal finances due to high inflation which is destabilising the economic systems. With high inflation you have higher interest rates in order to suppress inflation and with higher interest rates you going to have far more costly mortgages when they are on variable accounts. This puts in jeopardy keeping one's house because some people can't afford to pay their mortgages anymore.

This leads to anxiety. There is just one example. And of course, you have the Ukrainian war which is costing the world about US$2.3 trillion in terms of trade and loss of revenue. The Ukraine war is seriously damaging economic growth and prosperity which has a knock-on effect in the way people feel and of course it fuels inflation because Putin has stopped the supply of gas and oil to Europe which has forced up energy prices dramatically. This has fuelled inflation and the consequential high number of problems that emanate from that.

And on a very basic and raw level, the Ukraine war threatens the lives of Europeans and arguably people across the world. It may expand to a world war and that would affect everybody including America. This possibility generates anxiety.

But after Covid people want to socialise, they want to get out and do things. The end of Covid brought an optimism but this has been counteracted by apprehension. Google trends say that there are two moods in place: optimism and uncertainty. They say, "We are curious but cautious and were turning to search for answers".

Health is a bigger issue with people because of Covid. Long Covid is a major issue. It is believed that it affects the heart, and a substantial number of people suffer from it. And in the UK the NHS is broken causing long waiting lists which affects health treatment which of course affects the health of the citizens of the UK.

So, two fundamental problems exist which cause apprehension: health and wealth! In the background is the Ukrainian war which is like a disease that affects everything insidiously. It undermines society.

I would suggest that apprehension is outstripping optimism. I am not optimistic but I'm naturally pessimistic, I guess. I can see things getting worse not better all because of Putin and his mad escapades. He is digging himself into a massive hole.

Just recently the Nord Stream Gas supply pipes were blown up. There's a big question mark as to who did it. I think it is somebody in Europe we did it in order to ensure that Europe never goes back to Russian gas. It's a method of preventing Europe having two minds about going back to buying Russian gas because of the difficulties of doing without it. So, I think it's people who want to hurt Russia and to strengthen Europe's independence of Russia's energy supplies.

But it all adds up to more apprehension in European citizens. Which brings me to my last point: cuddle your cat! I had to get domestic cats into this discussion somehow, but we know for a fact that if your cat is sitting on your lap as mine is at the moment, keeping you warm and keeping you company, you feel better. You feel reassured and your cat feels reassured. You have a companion; you have a friend.

And cat companions are far more reliable than human companions. They will always be there for you. Good human caregivers reciprocate. For 15 or more years you have a relationship which improves your life and which chips away at that apprehension which world events, out of our control, generate.