The Plan for after You Get Punched in the Face (Part 1)
We knew this was going to happen but it still sucks
Earlier this week I wrote about Mike Tyson’s famous line that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
I suspect we can agree that the events unfolding this week have felt like one punch in the face after another. There we are, getting punched in the face, over and over again, every time we glance at the news on our phones or see a certain subject line come into our inboxes.
I remember this feeling from the first administration, but it’s much worse this time.
So I’m sitting here with the dissonance between the current news and the design of this stamp you can currently buy from the US Postal Service:
The stamp says, “12 Colonies Unite in Protest. ‘We ask but for Peace, Liberty, and Safety.’ First Continental Congress, 1774.”
The blurb on the US Postal Service website says, “Commemorate the 250th anniversary of a significant turning point in the lead-up to the American Revolution with this stamp from the U.S. Postal Service.”
So, in the immortal words of Kamala Harris, we’re not going back, and yet I find myself wanting the same thing from my government that the colonists wanted back in 1774.
In the immortal words of Lin-Manuel Miranda, that sh*t is f*cked-up. (Just kidding. But, like, the Continental Congress is actually mentioned in Hamilton. That musical is important and up-to-the-minute all over again. More on this in a future post.)
So I was describing this feeling of cognitive dissonance, the news versus the stamps, to a friend. I was worrying about how to stay strong throughout all these punches in my face, and the punches in the faces of my dearest loved ones and colleagues. I was worrying about how anyone is supposed to be able to find peace, liberty, and safety when those qualities are suddenly thrown into grave doubt.
My friend is smarter than me. She said immediately, “They feed on our despair. They recoil from our joy.”
So on this fine morning, California time, allow me to wipe the slugs off your face and start suggesting some strategies to help you avoid despair. I’ll throw in a bonus strategy for cultivating joy as well while you’re here.
Ways to Avoid Despair (1/10)
1. It’s time to activate that meditation practice you’ve been talking about for five years. It can take as little as one minute.
Everyone has their own delicious flavors of anxiety.
One of my most familiar flavors consists of thoughts and ideas running so fast through my head that I get sucked into a vortex and can’t take any action. I didn’t love Inside Out 2, but the depiction of Riley’s anxiety attack towards the end of the movie was disturbingly familiar.
Maybe this form of anxiety sounds like you, and it’s suddenly gotten worse as you’ve added thoughts like, “Trans passport ban,” “End to birthright citizenship,” “Freeze all foreign aid,” “ICE coming into schools,” “Justice Department freezes all civil rights cases,” and more into the mix during this wild week.
I am thrilled to tell you that there is one weird trick that helps me put the brakes on this escalation and pull out of the vortex. I can access peace, liberty, and safety for a moment, at least within the borders of my own head.
So what’s the magic pill, Auntie Genevieve?
Well, it’s not a new concept, but I gotta say - try meditation.
If I can drop into that deep stillness for even a few seconds sometimes, I can slow down the anxiety spiral before it has time to wreck my whole day.
Luckily for you, there are multitudinous resources out there to help you get started with meditation if you have never tried it before.
Friends in London, get thee to my friend Mira’s place as soon as possible:
Mira teaches Vedic meditation, one of the simplest and most beautiful forms of mediation. Mira says, “You simply start thinking a sound, and the rest happens spontaneously. If you can think, you can do this meditation.”
And get this - once you study with Mira, you become her student for life and she will help you with your meditation practice at any point in the future. Think about that! I feel less despair already.
Mira also recommended my favorite book on this topic:
Yes, you read that right - David Lynch, the one-of-a-kind film director whose passing we mourned just last week, was also a pioneer in explaining how meditation relates to the creative process. We’ll talk about creativity more in future posts, but for now, this is a must-read if you want to be convinced of both the tangible and ineffable benefits that meditation can have, including creating a zen space inside you where you can just go and rest at any time.
If you are not in London and/or you’re not a book person, let’s get you some internet goodness stat.
I very much love all the resources offered by UCLA, in particular their UCLA Mindful newsletter. These folks are working overtime right now offering resources for those impacted by the Southern California fires as well as all the other maelstroms we find ourselves in. They run free Zoom sessions every Monday and Wednesday - times are posted in their newsletter and I hope you’ll sign up.
For you cats who love acronyms, I’m gonna recommend you try this one - RAIN. It stands for Recognize, Accept, Investigate, and Non-Identify. This is particularly good if you are trying to understand the emotions being experienced by your body that your mind has not noticed or caught onto yet.
I could recommend a bunch of mobile apps, many of which I love, but to be honest, right now I’d rather see you get off your phone.
Brand-new to meditation? Can’t break out of the anxiety vortex? Need a helping hand as you jump into this skill? Send me a DM (I check LinkedIn Messaging most often) and we can talk it through together. If you are in distress and need emergency assistance, call the 988 Lifeline in the USA and check out international options if needed.
Bonus: Today’s Way to Cultivate Joy
Sometimes you just gotta go straight to the source:
I’m not even religious and this sh*t still works on me. Play it loud. It’s also on Spotify so you can add it to all your playlists.
If you are having no luck with meditation, try turning off all distractions and just watching this video full screen with headphones on. It can put me into a trance! The Lily of the Valley! That’s some peace and liberty and safety, at least for 7 minutes and 23 seconds.
I’ll see you tomorrow for Part 2 - more despair management and more growth in joy.
Don’t go it alone,
Genevieve
P.S. I’m buying the stamps and I am putting them on f*cking all of my mail this year.