“Support others. Stay connected. Little in life feels as good as giving. Go walk in the forest with a friend. Get down on the floor with your children if you have them. If you do not have kids, take a friend’s children to the park so you can play and the parent can have space to tend to their own feelings, self-care, and care for others. The world needs help in endless ways: if you feel powerless, take action: volunteer at a soup kitchen, your local elementary school, your local hospital. Mentor youth, rescue animals, plant trees. Maybe you need to start small and simple: make dinner for that friend who is having a healing crisis, ask if your elderly neighbor who recently started to use a cane would like you to pick something up at the grocery store. Give care, connect with others. If you feel powerful, give more, lift others up.
Take action. Vote. Register voters. Volunteer at the polls. Drive others to vote. Donate money: no gift is too small. Call and write to your political representatives. March: there are many planned marches coming up June 23 and June 30. If you have never demonstrated, you will probably be surprised to find that most demonstrations are filled with song, humor, and humans of every age; the news focuses on the scary parts, but those are rare, and many demonstrations are on the joyful side. My protest sign says I AM LOVE IN ACTION. Resist wrong. Resist tyranny. KEEP RESISTING. This is not normal. This is not okay. It is important to know that, and to support yourself so that you can both know that and carry on.
If you think you cannot keep resisting, then it is time to turn back to self-care. This has always been the heart of my teaching: we practice yoga, meditation, and healing in order to better ourselves, as this is the place in the world where we can do the most immediate good; doing good for ourselves strengthens and clarifies us to do good in the world for others. All of this is needed. Every bit helps. You do not have to do everything; perhaps in the face of despair about big national events, you can throw yourself into a local cause or the support of a family you know who are in a hard spot. Choose with care. Be gentle and ferocious, both.”
