How to Handle the World Right Now: A Brief Energetic Toolkit
Me, out on a trail at Umstead State Forest, in a turquoise tank top with my hair in a bun, smiling. The grass is dry and brown on the path beneath me and behind me down the hill are a shining gray lake, dark evergreen and deciduous trees, and a gray-clouded sky.
We all know things are fucked right now, so I’m not going to spend time listing how. If you want some alternative news outlets besides the ones that make money from giving certain messages, here are my current favorites:
Media Against Apartheid (Gaza-specific)
I’m not on social media, so my other favorite is asking my friends who are on Instagram and especially TikTok what they are seeing in the world. I used to put a lot of pressure on myself to keep up on all the platforms, but, respectfully, fuck that. That’s an unrealistic and capitalism-mindset-driven approach to following the world, and most importantly, it’s not how I have have the most impact or be the healthiest.
Let me say that again: keeping up with the news on all platforms may not be how you can have the most impact or be the healthiest.
This isn’t Trump 1.0, it’s Trump 2.0, and it’s time to move through paralyzing shock and panic and find what’s on the other side. Yes, such authoritarianism feels shocking, but if you’re trapped in the very human reaction of “I can’t believe this would happen here”, I gently invite you to think about the context of our national history: it started with genocide and relocation of Native peoples, and quickly spiraled into slave patrols (a significant piece of the origin of our current police system) and a “democracy” based on the limitation of rights to those with race and sex privilege. These are our roots.
Marginalized communities have been fighting for our rights for centuries, and those who have been involved for a long time, particularly Indigenous and Black organizers, teach us the necessity of perspective on how we got here and how long this will take, and of releasing the status quo in favor of nonnegotiable healing transformations.
Repression, control, and punishment has always existed for queer communities and people of color. Trump turning the volume to 11 on realities that have always existed for these communities. (Spinal Tap joke = decent coping mechanism.) We need a different future from any of the pasts we’ve yet seen, inspired by past and existing culture, community, and resilience.
LET US FIRST ADDRESS THE PANIC IN YOUR BODY
The first thing to do is reconnect with your body. When we try to orient our brains around the realities of what’s happening, it’s perfectly understandable that the first thing to happen is that our bodies panic: shortened breath, tension, lightheadedness, disconnect between brain, spirit, and body. This is all happening to me in this moment, having just read a few articles to prepare for writing this.
The first and most important thing is addressing this disconnect, as all other impact, connection, and love will come from a grounded mind-body connection.
Useful Tools:
Somatic processing to music
One of my go-to tools for moving energy through my body and energetic field so I can reach equilibrium. I make a playlist of songs that make me feel angry, sad, joyful, energized, rageful, and/or alive. I play them in a secluded space where I’m safe to let loose, and I let my body move and my voice make sounds exactly as they want to. Start with a rhythmic rocking back and forth, and let your body take it from there - it knows what to do.
Deep breathing
Our breath becomes shallow, chest- or neck-up, when we are scared or tense. Pause, and see if the muscles and organs in your torso want to relax. Allow them to do so, reassuring your body or doing a physiologic sigh to show your bod that you’re safe.
NEXT LET’S USE CRITICAL THINKING (AND PLAYFULNESS?!) TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO
Both short and long term, having a plan is soothing and allows us to actually make and experience change in our micro and macrocosms. It’s good to remember that often the best plan is, “Let this be messy and start by talking with loved ones,” rather than a list of tasks right off the bat.
I’ve loved this “choose your own adventure” about different ways to connect and organize our power in the wake of a Trump inauguration, and highly recommend doing it - it’s weirdly fun and super clarifying.
The accuracy of the predictions this piece makes about Trump’s moves shows us just how predictable and logical his actions are given the systems, politics, and history of our country. Those who have been tracking them and making such predictions were able to see it all coming. (Transparency: this is not me! I do not do this work, and rely with gratitude on the labor of those who do. My role is different, see below, and yours might be too. The choose your own adventure is a great way to find out what roles feel intuitively good to you.)
I’ll give you a buoying spoiler about this article, if you want it. There’s an ending that reads, “You managed to push out the autocrat! You did not do it alone. Like in real life, many approaches had to work together to get to this point: defending democratic institutions, supporting a vibrant disobedience wing, protecting individuals being targeted, and building alternative visions beyond just “a return to normal.”
While this is an imagination game, it’s a well-researched and planned one, and a great sketch of how shit could go down. Having this mapped out for me made me feel more grounded and hopeful. Deep thanks to author Daniel Hunter for this creation.
WHAT I SEE AND FEEL
Here’s where my choose-your-own led me:
“You decide to work on envisioning what happens after Trump leaves. You get ideas from a friend who is a cultural worker. You know she has written songs for movement organizations. But she explains that inside the resistance movement, many people are hurt and frayed. They need healing. And she thinks you could help bring some healing modalities and grounded spirituality to these spaces. You’re not sure where that would take you, but you’re curious.”
No exaggeration I tell you I cried when I read this. It was an immense relief to be reminded my skills and strengths are needed right now, and that I don’t have to force myself into a kind of activism that isn’t right for me.
Here’s a weird thing I’m uncomfortable sharing: alongside the fear and panic in my body is a sort of righteous giddiness. I think this is the first stirrings of rage-led power. I want to push past my nihilism (“hahaha well the world is just burning might as well dance in the flames!”), spend some time in righteous “fuck you” territory, and arrive at “performing rage rituals with my loved ones to invoke change” (each of those links is a song).
As this authoritarian government rises I can feel the power of other entities rising with it: coalition, cooperation, human goodness and care, sacred rage and organizing. We have to move forward, and the fires in my soul are all alight. I plan to tend those fires.
What are your helpful passions, the fires you want to tend?
Village Witch’s Corner
My intention this week :
Find balance between reading the news and staying connected to the world, and reading the earth and staying connected to my own energy, so that I may do the best I can at both loving and invoking a different vision for our world.
Question I'm asking this week:
What narratives of activism and organizing that live in my mind came from capitalism?
How can I weed them from my garden?
What seeds will I plant there instead? (Happy Imbolc!)
Playlist of the week:
Explicitly Gay Country Songs by Spotify user Skipsidaisical. Not as explicit as I’d like overall, but a great playlist with some joyfully explicit songs and some less-explicit bangers.
What I’m Reading:
A Court of Mist and Fury, book 2 in the ACOTAR series. This series is wild: the grammar is terrible, the descriptions of scenery are stunning, the self importance is off the charts, the exploration of complex interpersonal control and care through the main character’s relationships with two hot fairy lords is surprising.
Tiny Spell of the Week:
I’m gonna take it easy here after all the intensity above. Can you take a nap? Do you like napping? Maybe just sit quietly at the window for a couple minutes. Breathe until you’re calm.
