There has been no end of folks reeling since we’ve had crazy makers at the helm of our executive branch. The extra work some of us need to do to keep doing service work is increasing, with the stress-load growing too. This is a classic recipe for “freak out,” but we don’t have to bake their crazy cake. We can make it through this. Maybe even stronger than ever.
I know first-hand how emotional upheaval can strengthen a person. Humans are capable of martialing the most unpleasant emotions– everything from confusion to depression to fury– to aim them at a proper target. You may not feel ready yet, and that’s okay. You may feel emotionally laid out, also okay. You’ll be getting back up soon.
The game is not money, the game is energy. Growing energy. Good, strong, stand up energy.
What’s happening at the hands of the current Republican Administration is wrong: it’s purposeful destruction – laying to dust public institutions and diminishing the contributions of citizens who’ve worked carefully to weave the fabric of our society together for generations.
Our society has been so awesome, people from all over the world will put their lives on the line to be here. And it feels like now, some incoherent characters are laying mindful work to waste, while selling 5 million dollar golden tickets to enter an oligarchical playhouse. Trump and Musk say they are helping ‘us’ by cutting costs, but they are eliminating jobs and programs for public good, the jobs held by citizens, which removes money from us. Crazy right? Yes, crazy like gold plated toilets and fleet enema foxes. It makes so little sense that people are dumb struck trying to make sense of it all.
Yeah, it’s that bad, so time to step up. Sorry if you feel you are starting from the floor.
Holding the line and growing the good
It’s important now to engage with folks that help you be your strongest self. The victim-laced shock pool is awfully big right now, so don’t jump in if you can help it. Truth is, you’ve been targeted because of your goodness, your value, your service, and your strength. It’s these kinds of institutions that are taking the hit too. And we need to protect these qualities, for the sake of all of us.
Focusing on growth, strength, and truth is the energy of love.
So, I hope you do what you can to stand in your strength. Grow your relationships. Grow your community. Talk with everyone. Tell the truth. Help those who need it. And take care of you. First.
How to engage your strength right now
Get up right now. I mean stand up (go ahead and pretend you have to go to the bathroom if nothing else). Yes, that’s it. Feel four corners of your feet on the ground, through your shoes and socks, through the floor, touching the earth through the paths of whatever materials support you.
This connection is physical, and it goes deep into the Earth’s core. Your connection meets the energy of every other human at the center of the planet. This is your home.
This action, standing is an embodiment of natural strength and will. We do not fight from our seats, from the floor, nor from our computers, from our coffee talks, from our concepts. We fight by standing, by walking, and then we fight while marching.
For real. Get your body into this.
108 Bow Practice
When I studied Zen Buddhism, one of the practices was to bow 108 times each morning. The bows were full prostrations to the floor, then back up again to standing. Over and over.
From doing this, I came to experience bone deep that the standing up part was just as important as the supplication part. Even though kneeling is supposed to be holy, I kept finding the effort was really in the getting up. And I love to work. I think of standing as an exertion of our will. It’s also a fight against gravity other forces. It is not humble, but it is natural. It’s not one bow practice, after all.
The part of us that survives, the part that sees the sun another day, and hunts the wild beasts to feed our families, stands up. Standing up is the first movement of power for real. Lying down is for dying. And freaking out is neither living nor dying, more like a hot dry jellyfish, quivering in the sun. And that’s not you.
Embodiment right now can feel particularly challenging. This may because we’ve trained ourselves to keep our nervous systems calm at all costs. We’ve done this by adhering to gentle and appropriate behaviors, polite kindnesses, and calm behaviors and communication.
So I’d like to pose to you now, that when shock, fear and agitation arise, you can do something with it that enhances your calm while adding to your power. You can take that fog in your head, or that anxiety in your chest and belly, and with one deep kick-ass breath make yourself stand up.
Then do it again.
I’m with you.
