Alberta man redirecting worry over Russian invasion of Ukraine into something helpful

There have been a lot of sleepless nights for people around the globe struggling to detach from the horrific military bombardment in Ukraine and the deluge of information and images generated from it.

“It’s unbelievable, yet it’s real,” said Jon Ball, who lives in Banff, Alta. “I found myself lying in bed earlier this week, just sleepless and looking at the images — scrolling on the news piece.

“I wanted to be able to do something.”

READ MORE: ‘Putin is coming’: A family’s escape from Ukraine

During the pandemic, Ball found comfort in the ancient Ukrainian artform of pysanky, writing on eggs with beeswax. It was a new skill he learned just before the first wave of COVID-19.

“I was looking at a book about Ukrainian eggs and it had a map of Ukraine in it,” he said. “It was such a contrast to be looking at that cultural map to the military maps that are now circulating on TV.

“It got me thinking maybe there was something I could do with my eggs.”

Ball decided to offer an egg to anyone who made a donation to the humanitarian effort in Ukraine.

READ MORE: How Albertans can help support Ukraine

“I wanted people to make donations and receive one of my practice eggs in return,” he said. “A lot of people are making the donation and saying you can give the eggs to someone else.

“I am being warmed by the response from the community.”

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Ball also said the initiative is helping him redirect some of that helpless energy that’s been keeping him up at night.

“I found a stimulus to do something as a way to come to grips with some of that anxiety and concern,” he said. “Switching to just watch this unfold to, well, there is things we can do to try to help.”

The constant stream of war images can be more detrimental to your health than some my realize, according to a psychologist.

“This is riding on the back of the pandemic,” said Dr. Dan Devoe, a professor of psychology at Mount Royal University. “I think it’s going to have a coupling affect and where people are going to be experiencing more mental health and more mental distress than we’d normally see from war images.

“People are going to experience mental distress from that bombardment of war images, and also the talk of nuclear holocaust.”

There’s even more concern for children consuming content on social media. Paul Davis is a social media safety educator in Toronto. He recently wrote a post to parents after analyzing the comments made by children watching war content on online platforms. He is urging parents to get their young kids off of the apps.

“Unfortunately, a lot kids way under the age of 13 are on these platforms, and now they are the ones thus far being impacted,” he said. “Do they understand the severity of this? Absolutely not. Why? Well  it looks like a video game.

“A lot of them are oblivious and desensitized to what is happening. The mocking, the joking tells me parents haven’t sat down and had this conversation with their kids.

“Not only are they desensitized, but for the ones who are taking it seriously, it’s causing anxiety like we haven’t seen since the beginning of COVID.”

Davis is concerned that children not only may not always understand what they are watching, but the information they are getting may not be accurate. He said comments and images can be extremely triggering — especially for children who have survived war — so it’s important all children are taught empathy.

Davis and Devoe encourage parents to talk to their children and limit screen time for everyone in the home.

They agreed engaging in proactive activities like writing on eggs to help the humanitarian effort can ease anxiety and the heaviness of feeling helpless.

It’s helping Ball keep his perspective optimistic.

“The egg shells are maybe fragile objects, but the culture will not be trampled on.”