Just a standard market cycle going on, booms and bust. If you don't have the stomach for it, just put a small monthly commitment (invest what you can afford to lose) every week, stop looking at the prices and before you know it, we're back in a bull run. Don't attempt shorting unless you know what you are doing. Shorting can lead to huge losses.
Shorting is not meant for rookies. You need to understand the charts, market and need to keep a watch on market manipulators move who usually trade through bots. You definitely can't out run bots in tick trades which changes the whole trade in a second. So, it is indeed better to just HODL at the moment. Bears are strong enough right now but they are not going to destroy the market also. Bitcoin price has least chance of going below $6k and the whole market revolves around Bitcoin. Thus, market isn't in a really bad situation right now but it lacks bull which as stated in quoted text is a normal market cycle. Market will definitely recover in coming quarters.