Election care
“Our freedom and liberation are not contingent on the outcome of this election. I invite you to say it out loud. What comes up for you? What’s resistant? What’s open?
The truth of the prayer above has been emerging and rooting within me in the quiet, still, slow space of a single unwavering commitment I made to myself after the presidential debate: to walk, outside, every day, to not miss a moment of Autumn's precious exquisite unraveling, so I can have the courage to acknowledge the innate unraveling that occurs within my body at this time of year, to have the courage to witness it, let it be, with the same beautiful eyes I lay upon Autumn days and nights.
In my last letter to you, I shared a crisis care note to support those affected by the fires. We asked:
“How do we create a container of support around us during times of crisis?”
This question (and the guidance in the crisis care note) continues to remain critical and relevant, as we are still living and acting from a state of crisis, especially with the election looming, especially those of us who are capable leaders charging ahead to ensure Trump doesn’t get re-elected, among other things.
Take a pause here, is this you? It’s OK if it is, it’s expected given all we have been through this year. And yet, can you also feel that we are being asked to create a new norm?
We can take pause, remember who we are, feed ourselves and our spirits while doing the work we are called to do. In fact, as leaders, as models, it’s an integral part of our work, our responsibility, to make room for an essential regenerative pause so we can lead while rooted in our essence. An invitation to begin this process NOW – not after the election. This song from the beloved Seasoned Leader Rebekka Goldsmith always brings me back to the feeling, and song of my spirit.
Slowing down now isn't just about self-care, it's strategic. The medicine of slow keeps trauma responses, that are inevitably forming and re-emerging in response to this triggering year, from penetrating into our body and psyches. Pause is a foundational tool that allows us to digest waves of urgency, numbness, or despair that come in times of crisis and elections. The space offered from pausing allows us to discern what actually needs to be done, how to do our tasks potently, and what is unnecessary weight from the unchecked colonial impulse to fix and save. More importantly, it's in the quiet, still, slow spaces with myself, the leaders, and organizations I serve, where we feel a new version of justice, a deep-felt sense of indelible power and liberation emerging. Visions that cannot rise in our attachment to doing as the key to salvation.
It may be election season, but this election thankfully sits inside of Fall – the season that supports us in slowing down. A time when we turn our external fire inward to return home to the medicine of ourselves, of balance, of un-doing, in return, justice roots within us and then without in due course. What do you need to trust this cycle?
Autumn, my ancestors, and I will continue to reach our hands out to you, asking you to join us in pausing because we CANNOT do this alone, we need you. May we have the courage and support to welcome spaciousness in our body, homes, and work every day so our spirits can have a place to be, rest, and remind us:
Our freedom and liberation are not contingent on the outcome of this election.
May this prayer root inside of us and stay close to our hearts.
THE SEASONED LEADER MEETS RECHARGE TV:
I had an absolute HOOT chatting and modeling the “how” of self-care in urgent times with the beloved Adrianna Locke. Check it out, follow along with the exercises, and be inspired to find new ways to be in conversation around the complexity of our world with yourself and others. There's a great section on the “privilege” of self-care, a topic that often generates a lot of confusion and frustration with ourselves when we consider taking care of ourselves as leaders.
COMMUNITY SUPPORTED HEALING:
I have an ask. I’ve spent the last many weeks doing an honest assessment of the real cost of being a community-based healer. It’s led me to create space for community-supported healing at Brownswell.
The truth is I’m not a small business owner. I’m a community healer housing my sacred work in the container of a business, not to be limited by the red-tape of the non-profit industrial complex.
The truth is, I don't share about most of my work, which is largely pro-bono or low-cost. I guide multiple projects with non-profits, institutions, other healers, and individuals to invest in training and infrastructure that will embed healing into our world on a systemic level.
Projects that are de-mystifying how to transform toxic masculinity, addressing the largely unacknowledged ancestral trauma in my South Asian community, expanding resources for BIPOC folks to access land and nature, training institutions on how to create space for our spiritual and emotional selves in the workplace, in our change-making strategies, and more.
I love doing this work, and to keep the quality of this sawa (service) resilient, and flowing we need to find creative ways to receive for what we give to our world.
If you feel the impact of the work at Brownswell, if you want to support efforts of sending healing ripples out to permeate into our lives and institutions, if you want to uplift a community supported model of healing, or if you benefit from my writing, please consider offering a one-time donation or sign-up for a subscription on my new donation page.
Let’s exercise the principle of reciprocity and build an abundant pool of resources so that the work can continue and spread out to other community-based healers.
Healers of all kinds are needed now more than ever to usher in and guide a larger collective pause so we can regenerate from centuries of crises that have gone untended. I deeply appreciate your support in creating a platform for us to pause while we rise and share our medicine with ease from a resourced place. Thank you for your contribution to transformative healing justice.
Finally, a meditation for when it's feeling hard to pause, when you are feeling tender, or like you are going to crumble under the weight of it all. I know it's not easy to undo our urgent patterns. I'm here with you as we find a new way.
