Hi, hello! It’s time for another check-in. The world has been getting to me over the past several months. It feels like whatever worst-case scenario could occur is happening and circulating online. The doom-scrolling and disassociating is getting too real and too prevalent.
Today, I wanted to share some tools from my toolbox—how I balance my creative dreams with my resistance. Some days, I’m not sure if there’s ever a solid answer because my dreams and my activism feel too big.
As always, these are all recommendations that you can consider and modify as necessary. These are all actions that help me and they are all things that I’m still working on.
I think it’s worth mentioning that this post is for anyone looking to balance their creative work and activism. If you’ve decided that you can only do one or the other, this post might not be as helpful. I don’t want to tell anyone what to do or how to react to the world we currently live in, so this isn’t a post meant to convince anyone on why they should balance these two things.
So without further ado, let’s sift through the toolbox and see what works.
1. Weekly Social Media Breaks
For several months now, I have taken weekly social media breaks. I do my absolute best to not post or scroll on Mondays. I noticed that a full break (for a week or month) helped at the time but not over time. So I tried taking Mondays off and it’s taken a huge weight off my shoulders. Whatever unfolded over the weekend. I can hear about it on Tuesdays.
Take a look at your schedule. Do you want to take weekends off of social media? Would you rather take off a weekday?
I recommend being wise with this one. I chose Mondays because it’s the beginning of the workweek and I already have a lot on my plate for my books and my jobs; I would rather focus on that than spending hours on social media. I’m self-aware enough to know that it’s best for me.
2. Find Safe Containers (Not Echo Chambers)
Over the years, I’ve seen this sentiment of “don’t speak into echo chambers”—we ought to be receptive to all kinds of perspectives and experiences. And some people should keep doing this. Many folks are discovering that school, work, and family have not revealed the full picture of what’s happening in their communities and countries.
However, a certain category of people could stand to limit the number of perspectives they see and hear. I’m talking about “perspectives” that aren’t based in reality. I personally don’t care to give the same weight to conspiracy theories and misinformation as I would to lived experience and evidence. I want to know what’s really happening to real people, nor do I want to make decisions based on “alternative facts.”
Safe containers are locations or communities where you can safely process emotions, information, current events, etc. This is a physical or emotional space where you can learn about yourself and others without worry of getting “cancelled” but rather “called in.” Talk therapy can be a safe container.
Travis and Midna are my safe container. I check in with my family and chosen family with questions like “Am I crazy?”, “Am I missing something?”, “Are we going to be okay?” And it’s usually “No, not yet,” “Maybe,” and “Yes” respectively. Well, Midna grounds me by recommending more sleep, treats, and sunshine time.
If you’re just now building a safe container, consider looking in person and online. For example, curate your feed with balanced and fair news reporting, rather than rage baiting, trolling, or logical fallacies. Trying to hold space for everyone—including those refusing to live in reality—will just break your brain instead of nourish it.
3. Prioritize Causes & Passions
As one person, I can only do so much. But what I do still matters to me and my community. So rather than be buried in overwhelm, I make my feasible contributions. For example, there’s not a whole lot I can do for the Gazans suffering from destruction, starvation, and other forms of depravity. But I can support one family (like Lana and her family).
While writing this post, I came across the perfect example from Reimagined. Each slide focuses on specific causes and lists impactful actions one could take. They’re addressing the overwhelm that can happen when so much is going wrong and the weight of it all feels too much.
It’s also important to respect others in how they uplift their communities—however public or private. It can be easy to think “Why don’t they care about this issue?” I have found that it’s easier for me to do my work when I trust that other people are responding to current events in their own ways. We could all use a little empathy, especially our overwhelmed empaths.
4. Write
Write. Whether it’s working on your craft, journaling, communicating online, or bugging your representatives—please write. It doesn’t have to be good; it just has to help. Often, negative and angry thoughts can get stuck in the brain. As you dump your thoughts on the page or keyboard, you’ll leave more room for constructive, productive thoughts.
And I’m not talking workplace/capitalistic productivity. I want to help my community process their thoughts and feelings and emotions so they can know what to do with all this anger and confusion and disappointment. All emotions are helpful because they can tell us how to move forward. It’s all useful data.
It’s like taking the fires of anger and using it to forge something else like passion, boldness, fearlessness, and action. If we’re depressed or anxious, the data can tell us it’s time to withdraw and seek help. Once we’re back on our feet, we can resume our work.
Writing is everything to me. Writing helps me say the things I’m too afraid to articulate. It’s how I’ve learned who I really am, and it’s helped me connect with my community. I also use caution when I choose to share vs. keep private. But I’ve at least said what needs to be said.
5. Protect Your Joy
Joy may be the last thing on your mind right now. How can we have joy in these times? It can feel like a betrayal to the cause. Protecting your joy is like reaffirming your “why.” We fight for our communities because the majority of us are chasing after “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” At our core, we all deserve safety and peace just by existing. The opposition would have us believe they can give and take joy as long as we do what they demand.
Your joy is yours and no one else can manipulate or destroy it.
Travis has been a great example of still doing what he wants to do—even when people try to make it difficult. He knows when to tussle with the haters and when to ignore them. But during these hard times, he still makes time for the media and activities he loves. He chooses to be himself when it might be “safer” to conform. After all, we’re fighting for everyone to have the opportunity to choose themselves, right?
We all deserve to have joy and peace, and sometimes that’s the best form of resistance. In a world trying to “own the Libs,” find ways to enjoy things purely for the sake of it’s fun, it’s a breath of fresh air, and because you can. Work hard; play harder.
6. Use Screentime for Good
I don’t know if we can live in a phone-free world. I actually didn’t have a working phone last November; I learned about how much the world expects and assumes we have access to smartphones. And as authors, I don’t know if we can truly live without the internet to sell books.
If you’re free from social media, I commend you, especially if you stay up-to-date on issues that matter to you without the doomscrolling. For those trying to find a middle ground, I recommend we use our screentime for good. For example, we could prioritize platforms and accounts that add to our safe containers. For me, that looks like podcasts, a curated feed, and fun apps to give my brain a break. Here are some examples:
- Finch app — You take care of a finch by completing mental health tasks. It’s done wonders for my inner child. Many other apps can be a supplement for talk therapy.
- Duolingo and Lingvano — Any language learning app can help you feel smarter while connecting with your heritage and community. Lingvano is an app that teaches ASL.
- The Read, Keep It, Two Idiot Girls, The Comments Section, and Yo, Is This Racist? podcasts — These podcasts balance fun/pop culture conversation with “real” conversation. They keep it light and give me a break from the news.
- Balanced, accurate news sources — I have tons of recommendations over in this blog post. My top recommendation is to prioritize sources that deliver the news with a little emotional bias as possible. We just need to know what’s going on and move on.
- The GoodNewsletter — This newsletter is full of actual good news (not scraping at the bottom of the barrel) and action items for anyone looking for some realistic optimism.
- Worlds Beyond Number, Critical Role, Transplanar RPG, Three Black Halflings, and Rotating Heroes — I love RPGs and watching/listening to people play these games. These particular platforms are such a creative boost and a nice rest stop after doomscrolling. They also provide effortless diversity, equity, and inclusion that I strive to emulate in my own work.
- Playlists with mood-boosting tunes — Whether you collect CDs or vinyls or currate music with music streaming platforms, music itself can help you improve your mood, get out some rage, or feel heard.
I’d personally love to hear in the comments if you’re familiar with these apps/podcasts or if there are more to add.
7. Take Your Time and Hold the Shame
I’ve slowed down a lot since 2020; I just can’t go back to my pre-pandemic productivity expectations. And I’m still upset that it takes me longer to email people, work on my book, get out of a depressive mood, etc. I’m working on setting kinder expectations so I’m more focused on “quality” over “quantity.”
Many authors, especially indie authors, can afford to give themselves the needed space and time to address what’s going on in their lives so there’s space to actually work on the books. I’m willing to bet that whatever writer’s block you have can be traced to stress caused by chronic pain/illness, finances, relationships, current events, etc. It must take so much effort to take care of your family, your community, work hours, AND your word count. You’re not a failure because the words aren’t coming. It totally makes sense that the creative juices aren’t flowing because there’s a real, infuriating debate online about whether Elon did that salute. (He did.)
Things will get done—eventually. I will understand more about history and current issues—eventually. And with that mentality, you and I can hopefully address our anxiety over the bombardment of information, current events, and problems our communities face.
Our communities face a lot of problems and challenges that have festered over several decades (hello, generational trauma). So it’s safe to say things won’t change overnight even if we all agree to change. I’m just grateful for the people who have stayed for the long haul to make change and growth possible. I strive to increase my endurance so I can stick with my passions for a long time.
And maybe this can help those of us who are frustrated with someone else who just doesn’t get it. Deconstruction and reconstruction take time. However, I might not consider someone part of my safe container if I’ve repeatedly talked to them and they still disrespect or purposefully misunderstand me. But for others who need time and patience, I can give that.
Thank you for being here with me today, and I hope I’ve shared something helpful. If you have more thoughts or tools to share, you can leave a comment or reach out on social media. Let us resist and create well!
