February Check-In
Less Than Two Months In
In my first post of 2025, I discussed my word for the year: CARING. As a big fan of the analogies, I have been thinking about the instructions we get when we get on a plane and are told to put on the oxygen masks first before trying to help others who might need help getting theirs on. If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed or anxious with the current news cycle, it is equally important to ensure you are getting your oxygen (self-care) first. So, for each of us, that means finding the daily habits that allow you to stay mentally and physically strong.
For me, that has meant following through on my vow to get at least 20 minutes of exercise each day and finding a passage or quote connected to my word of the year, CARING, to reflect on each day. I have fallen short of posting my passage or quote each day, but I made that decision consciously and will continue to post them once or twice a week. Instead of posting these quotes and getting drawn into too much social media daily, I have opted to read a bit more from sources that make me think and energize me.
Here are some sources that fill my bucket rather than drain it:
Resmaa Menakem’s My Grandmother’s Hands and The Quaking of America - Both books are full of body practices to help individuals deal with stress and anxiety. As Menakem describes them, they are “(books) of practical embodied psychology that will help you for what is to come.” Drilling down a bit more explicitly into why this work is so important, Menakem says the following:
“Whatever strategies, alliances, or activities you become involved with, they will require the same things from you: presence discernment, and a settled, well-resourced body…Few skills are more essential than the ability to settle your body. If you can settle your body, you are more likely to be calm, alert and fully present, no matter what is going on around you, while encouraging other bodies to settle as well…bring a large group of settled bodies together and you have a potential movement - and a potential force for tremendous good in the world.”
Stacy Abram’s Assembly Required Podcast - The two most recent episodes focused on Trump’s Anti-American Agenda on Immigration and Refugees and How Trump Is Selling Out America to Elon Musk. Aside from the updates on some of the biggest stories out of Washington D.C., Abrams ends each segment with practical information about how listeners can “Learn and Do More.” You can find these recommendations in the show notes for each episode linked above. A couple of news outlets highlighted in the most recent episode are Wired, 404 Media, Teen Vogue, and Rolling Stone Magazine.
Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American continues to be one of my most enjoyable reads, with its connections between current happenings and our past. I learn things about American History daily here.
Will Richardson’s Future Serious Resources - Richardson describes these weekly resources as follows: “The focus will remain primarily on “confronting education” and on how we much rethink the schooling experience for our children. But all of us need to get more future serious, whether we are inside of schools or out.”
Anyway, that’s it for now. I would love to hear what you are doing to stay balanced in a time when things are far from normal. I remind myself of this daily so as not to fall into normalcy bias - “a cognitive bias that leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings (definition via Wikipedia).”