preoccupy

They could help or hinder: provide the moral force for urgent action or preoccupy us with crisis management.

Delays in U.S. assistance, particularly since Israel’s war with Hamas began to preoccupy top administration officials, triggered deep concerns in Kyiv and Europe.

Most of his Maynooth colleagues, he noted, focus on legal questions related to Ireland or the European Union, rather than on the American constitutional issues that preoccupy him.

“He meant that ’Don’t preoccupy yourself with worrying about whether you’re a good representative of your family or not,'” Patrick Kennedy, now a former congressman, said in a recent Zoom interview.

The best trick may be to simply preoccupy your mind until slumber comes naturally.