3 Little Reminders for 2025 💙

This post first appeared in our weekly Make Waves Mondays email series on January 13, 2025.

So I went to the gym this morning.

It was the second time I’d been to the gym in 5 months, and it was one-mile benchmark day.

I reeeeeally considered skipping it, because I knew there was no way in hell I’d be even close to matching my last one-mile benchmark time, let alone PRing.

But 20 minutes before class started, something in my body told me I had to go. Whether I wanted to or not.

The first 15 minutes were just warm-up - getting my feet and legs under me, testing what they could do today, and getting my head right for the impending benchmark.

I was feeling good. Feeling proud of myself for showing up.

And then the coach called out, “We’re taking it up in 3…2…1…the mile benchmark starts now!”

I reset my tracker, bumped up my speed, and…nearly started crying.

Not because of pain or exhaustion, but because my body was clearly holding onto something. 

Or, more likely, somethings.

• Los Angeles is burning.
• Our incoming administration believes climate change is a hoax.
• Elon Musk’s net worth has grown by nearly four times the amount experts believe it would cost to eliminate homelessness in the United States…in just the last 3 months.
• Meta is removing fact checking from its platforms.
• AI is creating art and writing novels, sold to us as an innovative way to “free up our time” so we can keep being a cog in the capitalist machine. 

It’s fkn hard to exist right now.

I’m tired of unprecedented times. Just give me one precedented time, please.

But here’s what I learned on that treadmill today:

Give yourself space to feel your feelings, and name them if you can.

When I started tearing up on that tread, at first I was confused. But then I remembered this Instagram reel that I shared on my stories yesterday.

It’s grief. 

For the world, for humanity, for everything that could be and everything that isn’t.

And ignoring those emotions isn’t doing any good for any one.

Let yourself feel the feelings. Let them exist. Let them flow. Don’t judge them. You feel them for a reason 💙

Doing something is one of the best things we can do.

I learned this the week following the 2024 election, and I was reminded of it again today.

When we feel hopeless, it’s so easy to just disassociate on the couch with trash TV and mindless, endless scrolling.

But holy moly, friend...doing ~something~ completely changes the game.

After the election, I spent several days doing mostly nothing but baking, cooking, and coloring. Doing something with my hands and my brain that resulted in an accomplishment kept me sane. (Or at least, as sane as I could be.) 

It helped me remember that actions matter - no matter how small.

Whether it’s going to the gym, dancing in your living room, creating art, baking, finding a new hobby (or leaning into an old one) - do something.

It’s okay to start again.

Just like I took a 5 month hiatus from the gym, it’s okay to take a pause, take a breather, from active activism. Compassion fatigue is real, and if we’re being honest, things are going to get worse in our society before they get better. 

But the important part is that you come back.

They want us worn down.
They want us tired.
They want us feeling hopeless and like our actions don’t matter.

Because when we’re in that space, we’re quiet. We’re not fighting back. We’re not putting up roadblocks for them.

So take your rest. Whatever that may look like for you.

But don’t let it take you out.

—

It’s a new year. 

And as much as it may have felt like a fresh start for a few days, I know that it might not feel that way any more.

But remember - if you’re safe, we need you. In whatever capacity you have available on any given day.

You are enough.

Sending you all my love 💙