How Are You Holding Up?

Is it just me or do you feel like the very worst of all of your most stupid corporate bosses has been put in charge of the US? And his management style is “punch three different people in the face every day.”

Oh, is that a program that’s meant to help poor, disadvantaged, starving, diseased and disabled people? Slash that! How can we undermine BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and/or women’s rights? Fire them all! And on the way, how about we take a moment and put the arts through the shredder?

Fun times.

How are you holding up? Obviously, my initial grief and shock is sliding into anger, though I try to be soft with that anger, to remember that supple resilience conquers while hard lines turn brittle and snap over time. As Lao-tzu wrote in the Tao te Ching:

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible

Is a disciple of death.

Whoever is soft and yielding

Is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken.

The soft and supple will prevail.

Creating Connections

My first step in building this resilience began with a prompt from my client,

Annette Naber

, to gather a group called “The Resilience: Politically Activated Creativity.” Within this group, we offer empathy, share glimmers of joy, and support each other in our creative resistance practices by showing up once a week and holding space for each other to do the work we deem necessary to battle what we see as evil. At the end, I do a guided relaxation where we each receive a message from our Muse of Creative Resistance.

By engaging with this group, I’ve found the strength and creativity to create Operation Tiny Notes, my attempt to get people to stand up and take action with small doable steps. Read all about it by clicking below!

Operation Tiny Notes

Creating Something Beautiful

And I’ve discovered a spark of hope underneath the anger. A beam of light with the message that nothing is going to be the same. Even if the whole lot of them disappeared today, they’ve still broken some things beyond repair.

Could this scratched and ripped and buzz-sawed and bloodied shell be replaced by something new? Could this destruction create a necessary transformation, a space to create the world we aspire to rather than falling back into our old ways of being?

My second practice to build resilience is to take a minute each day-ish and imagine the world that I would like to see constructed from the rubble. To build that picture in my mind. Universal healthcare. Universal basic income. Support for women to be mothers and have careers. A world where we get curious about differences, where queerness has become normal, where we’ve overcome the toxicities of colonialism and racism and sexism. A world that makes room for everyone, that dedicates itself to real justice, and celebrates the beauty of diversity. A world where we value nature and husband our resources so all living beings have enough. And that these things represent the currency that we base our pride upon.

Who knows if this is possible, but it gives me a goal.

And sometimes, that’s all you can ask for before the boss comes along to punch you in the face.

What glimmers of joy are you finding? Any hope under the anger? And what techniques do you use to survive those random punches? Please share in the comments!

P.S. If you would like to join The Resilience, email me at la@labourgeois.biz

P.P.S. The 5 Calls App gives you the phone numbers and scripts to call your congresspeople and let them know what you’re thinking. Download it and take a small action today.

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I’m LA (as in tra-la-la) Bourgeois, a writer and KMCC-certified creativity coach dedicated to walking with you through any transition! Whether you’re looking to deepen your relationship with your art or patrons, explore a new possibility, or ignite the passion for creativity again, I’ve got your back. Click here to explore becoming a member of the Coaching Cohort or contact me at la@labourgeois.biz to ask questions and schedule an exploratory call.