It’s been a long busy week so I took a little time this afternoon to junk journal and write a few sustainable affirmations to ground myself. I hadn’t had a chance to yet this week due to.. ya know…the nonprofit doom situation of badness…
It felt SO GOOD to do something crafty with my hands, if only for a few minutes. It helped me take back my attention and set my intentions on what to do next. That’s powerful!
And now I’m going to write about it a little – again, for just a few minutes. No goal in mind, no thesis, no major research outline. Nothing. Just write what I’m thinkin’
My Sustainable Affirmations for today:
–My world is not binaric, algorithmic, or strictly disciplinary.
— I can find power in the in betweens.
— I can use the power and systems I live within to dismantle them.
— I am in control of me.
Why These Affirmations Resonate with Me Today
Our world is increasingly online, and although that can be really awesome in some ways it can also be really damaging to our mental health. The parts of the internet that are truly addictive and unhealthy are designed to suck our attention into them are the ones owned and operated primarily by The Bad People™️ who are ruining everything, and they are doing their very bestest to capitalize on how this chronically online attention era works.
I hate that.
The good news is, lots of folks are re-evaluating their social media usage, their consumption habits, and honestly their participation in these overarching life habits that fuel power to these corporate overload whackadoos. Which is great! I genuinely believe this can a positive turning point in our culture and it’s been weirdly validating to have my work be so useful in this moment.
But admittedly, the people who are still really committed to putting their time and effort into the outrage-industrial complex are annoying to me. And I was just feeling doomy about that today.
Instead of focusing on that and falling down the rabbit-hole, I wrote these affirmations to remind myself what my purpose is in all this mess. I have the privilege to have access to lots of people and places that are shifting their model, and my job for now is to continue taking action in those embodied spaces – not participate in overly simplistic online outrage.
I can only control me. My role is different that many others’, and jumping in on the outrage to be outraged at the outrage does….nothing. I can use the systems I do have access to (and cannot escape from) to modify those systems – because I am part of them.
I can find power in allllll the weirdness of that reality and I can share my thoughts and stories. Because stories are power. And rest, art, and resilience ARE resistance.
For today, that is enough for me. 💚
Further Reflection
- Which of the above affirmations resonate with you? Any? None? Why or why not.
- How would you describe your relationship to social media or the news cycle right now?
- Does your time online empowering or disempowering you to take action in the embodied world?
- People are literally designed to **do stuff** with our hands, you know! Do a quick google search and you’ll find all kinds of interesting research from neuroscientists and therapists about how making and crafting and repetitive motion with our hands is a necessary and grounding part of the human experience
- Are you currently blocking out time to do hands on activities? (scrolling doesn’t count that’s a brain activity not a hand activity!)
- How often do you physically write stuff down? What do you do with the little pieces of stuff you do write down? Have you ever considered compiling written materials / other papers into a junk journal of sorts?
- If that’s not your style, what other ways could you implement a new (or old) hands-on activity?