5 Recommendations to Navigate this Moment

Particularly in my clinical practice, people have been coming in with heightened worries, fear, and dread related to the changes that we are learning about in our government.

I want to share with you my top recommendations for navigating our current reality.

To preface these recommendations, I first want to acknowledge that who we are, our identities, and our positions in society deeply impact our experience of what is happening right now. Namely, I want to acknowledge our Immigrant kin and Trans siblings who are being directly targeted at present. For many folks who are being directly impacted, access to crisis services (such as the Trans Lifeline), community supports, and willing allies and accomplices are essential.

For those of us who are witnessing what is happening and are feeling increased anxiety and fears about what is to come, here are my recommendations at present.

1.      Determine your personal boundaries related to consumption of social media and the news.

I highly recommend identifying one or two sources that you trust and relying on those sources rather than endless scrolling or being distracted by headlines. The nonstop stream of anxiety-producing content and headlines is taxing on our nervous systems and is exhausting. And while being informed is important, internalizing information that is still unfolding and regularly activating our anxiety is not helpful. It actually renders us less available when our energy is needed.

2.      Increase your self-awareness of your emotions throughout the day.

If you find yourself feeling worried, anxious, overwhelmed, or panicking, attend to that. If you find your thoughts consumed with ideas of what might happen or what you may need to plan, try to pause and engage a calming technique such as the Five Senses.

The Five Senses

With this technique we tune in to each sense one at a time and draw our attention to something we can see, something we can touch, something we can smell, something we can taste, and something we can hear. And we describe each of these to ourselves. We may accompany this with an affirmation such as: “in this moment I am safe.” “I trust myself to learn what is necessary and act accordingly.”

3. If you are feeling a sense of hopelessness or uncertainty and a simultaneous need to do something but are unsure of what to do, my recommendation is to do things that are at Arm’s Reach.

This may be by first acknowledging some of the things that you are already doing to care for yourself and others. Learning about mutual aid and simple strategies to connect with and build community are incredibly powerful tools. This can be as simple as introducing yourself to a neighbor. This could be sitting down and writing a list of your particular skills and talents and what you would like to offer in your family or community circles. All the while remembering that none of us have to do all of the work, we just need to do our part. And we need to validate our part as enough.

4.      Actively cultivate Joy, Fun, Creativity, and Imagination.

We must refuse to be consumed entirely by negative imagery and emotions. We must resist that with every cell of our bodies. We must look for the people who reflect our values and who are speaking out and fighting for the greater good. We must be energized ourselves by connecting with their energy. We must allow ourselves to continue to dream and make both small and large movements towards those dreams each and every day. For it is with that energy that we persist and that we build a world that is safe and healing for us all.

5. Allow yourself to rest.

Carving out time to allow our minds, hearts, and bodies to actually rest is vital to sustaining ourselves and our movements. There is a dire sense of urgency that is cultivated in times such as these. When possible, we must resist it by slowing down, trusting that while we rest others work, and knowing that in this space we are building our internal capacity to show up when needed.

Know that you are not alone.

Know that this is not the first time in history that such things have happened. Honor the wisdom and the legacies of the people who have traversed such landscapes before us by listening and learning, and by being changed and transformed to meet this moment.

We got this.

In solidarity,
Rebecca