Hard Times, Self Care, and Social Justice

How are you all doing these days? Are you doing okay?

There have been some hard times recently. A lot of unknowns, a lot of heartache worldwide, and a lot of injustice and anger.

Responding to Hard Times

It’s hard to know what to do with all the emotions. It’s hard to process the information and discern what is true and what is right. For many it is difficult to know what to do next.

I don’t have all the answers. But I’m here to tell you you’re not alone processing it all.

It’s important to educate ourselves. Instead of learning from biased facebook memes, let’s be informed and equipped to engage well with these complicated issues.

There are a lot of posts out there providing direction on how to take action regarding the systemic racism in our country. I encourage you to think about how you can get involved.

Don’t Forget Wellness

Among the education and the action, it’s also important to be caring for ourselves.

We need to be patient with ourselves during these hard days. It’s okay if everything doesn’t get done and it’s okay if we’re not at our best. Let’s be kind to ourselves.

Let’s set limits on the news and social media.

Let’s practice self care.

And it’s important to have grace for others as well.

Other people are struggling right now, too, and we should remember that.

We need humility in our interactions with others.

And I’m especially speaking to privileged, white people like myself here- we don’t understand all of this fully and we shouldn’t pretend to. We need to listen.

We are in the midst of hard times.

But in these days we can come together to work towards better times.

Whether our response is donating to a cause, educating ourselves, speaking up, asking questions and having uncomfortable conversations, attending a protest, writing to politicians, or working on programs or legislation to bring about change- I hope we’re all taking actions these days to further social justice and what is right.

We’re in this together. We can practice social distancing to care for our neighbors and we can engage in social justice to care for our nation and our world.

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I hope you’re all safe and finding supports and self care these days, whatever that looks like for you. Be well my friends!