Pace yourself

As previously mentioned, I have been thinking about action items.

These mostly relate to political pressure, economic pressure, and ways to be prepared. 

There was always the intent that there would be items for self-care too, but I am feeling like I need to start there.

The roller coaster of the past two weeks can grind you down. Just the stress of dealing with so much anger so quickly can make it harder to have energy left to do anything else. 

I would understand wanting to just hide.

It reminded me of Tina Fey's sheet-caking segment on Saturday Night Live, after the 2016 election.

There are many things that feel similar, but where it got to the point where I was writing about that specific issue last time, it was August. 

Anyone who was paying attention knew that there were tools in position to be much worse and much faster, but this is still worse than anticipated.

The one comfort is that some of the push back does seem to be effective. That's a good reason to keep pushing.

Nothing but pushing reactively will drive you to a breakdown. 

That means you need to choose wisely.

Thursday's post should have some ideas that can help with that choosing, in a more specific manner than Wednesday's post will. 

I have my post about sheet-caking down below.

You can probably find the sketch, but the issue was that with all of the stress and bad news, Fey was just going to shovel cake in her mouth, which she was considering a valid choice.

A big part of the problem was that as a white woman of some fame and wealth, her privilege enabled her to do that. There were many people being targeted who could not just ignore it.

It is wrong to ignore your privilege anyway, but the way things are going this time, it's affecting more people sooner, and it is going to include you.

Don't wait to be involved. Then don't run yourself down.

How helpful is that advice? Well, I hope that with other posts, it will take shape into something helpful. 

First of all, remember that you can't do it all. You are going to have to pick and choose your focus, probably using a combination of your strengths and where you feel more urgency. Other people will focus on other areas, and that is necessary, and we can still support each other in that.

Setting boundaries is important. That may mean that there are news sources that you avoid, or that you limit the times when you check, or that you leave social media (there will be more on that, but probably not until next week).

It also means that you don't only try and keep bad things out, but that you keep good things in. What are your sources of joy and satisfaction? Make sure to make time for those.

From the bottom of my heart, I know that this is frustrating. I share that frustration and feel for you. I want you to be safe and happy, and so I want you to take care of yourself.

Also from the bottom of my heart, that cannot be an excuse to isolate and shut out, especially if you have the privilege to make that possible.

Somehow we are going to have to balance all of that out. 

There is a potential action item today, and it sounds simple but that can be deceptively so:

Think about what you want.

That can be for the change you want to see in the world, the type of resources that will help you keep going, or what you want for dinner.

You will want some things that seem impossible, but that doesn't mean they are not valid. And if you want something that merely requires a reasonable change, or if you want something easy but you tend to ignore that, it's good to realize that.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-problem-with-sheet-caking.html