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Finding the Little Lights - Part 1
Jan. 26th, 2025 08:54 amWith everything going on in the world, I'm seeing more and more people feeling genuinely hopeless, and that leading to a grimy miasma of helplessness.
It's easy to say "You are an adult*, you have agency, you are not helpless, even when confronted by overwhelming odds" but those odds are specifically designed to counter that message. To make you feel helpless. So saying it isn't enough. We need doing.
But doing is hard. I know that just as well as anyone. So what I have compiled here is a list of small things I have done that have worked for me, personally, as agents to simply keep hope alive. To keep me going. Because I do believe in momentum.
If I can do a little thing, and it works, then maybe I can do a slightly bigger thing, and then bigger, and then bigger.
I also firmly believe it is hard to help others when you have lost your own reasons for keeping going. So a lot of this list is not directly about our current political/social/economic situation but instead about getting yourself into a better mental place.
And it's small things. None of this is going to "fix" you. I fully admit the two biggest things I've ever done for my mental health are a) find a new job that made me financially stable without taking gross advantage of me b) go to some pretty intense therapy.
But those are big tasks. Really fucking hard tasks. We all know the Big Things we need to work on in our lives, yet without little victories, those seem impossible.
As with all mental health stuff, your mileage may vary. To my * above, some of these suggestions are specifically for adults -- teenagers and kids have very different abilities to navigate the world, though there will be some crossover. And once again, these are things that have worked for me. My definition of "effort" and "cost" may be different from yours. That's okay! They're just suggestions; I will not be upset if you don't follow them. I am, however, uninterested in debating their utility.
Disclaimers out of the way, here's what I've come up with.
( Low Cost / Low Effort Hope Builders )
That's all my little suggestions. I have a whole list of medium suggestions too, but as this entry is already hella long, I'll wrap this up now and post that separately. I hope it helps somebody.
Remember: making you feel hopeless is part of the plan to keep you apathetic. Look for the lights in your life and hold onto them with both hands.
It's easy to say "You are an adult*, you have agency, you are not helpless, even when confronted by overwhelming odds" but those odds are specifically designed to counter that message. To make you feel helpless. So saying it isn't enough. We need doing.
But doing is hard. I know that just as well as anyone. So what I have compiled here is a list of small things I have done that have worked for me, personally, as agents to simply keep hope alive. To keep me going. Because I do believe in momentum.
If I can do a little thing, and it works, then maybe I can do a slightly bigger thing, and then bigger, and then bigger.
I also firmly believe it is hard to help others when you have lost your own reasons for keeping going. So a lot of this list is not directly about our current political/social/economic situation but instead about getting yourself into a better mental place.
And it's small things. None of this is going to "fix" you. I fully admit the two biggest things I've ever done for my mental health are a) find a new job that made me financially stable without taking gross advantage of me b) go to some pretty intense therapy.
But those are big tasks. Really fucking hard tasks. We all know the Big Things we need to work on in our lives, yet without little victories, those seem impossible.
As with all mental health stuff, your mileage may vary. To my * above, some of these suggestions are specifically for adults -- teenagers and kids have very different abilities to navigate the world, though there will be some crossover. And once again, these are things that have worked for me. My definition of "effort" and "cost" may be different from yours. That's okay! They're just suggestions; I will not be upset if you don't follow them. I am, however, uninterested in debating their utility.
Disclaimers out of the way, here's what I've come up with.
( Low Cost / Low Effort Hope Builders )
That's all my little suggestions. I have a whole list of medium suggestions too, but as this entry is already hella long, I'll wrap this up now and post that separately. I hope it helps somebody.
Remember: making you feel hopeless is part of the plan to keep you apathetic. Look for the lights in your life and hold onto them with both hands.
