Making Magic and Good Trouble: How to Stay Grounded in Chaotic Times

I’m Neurodivergent (ND) and I can’t pretend this list isn’t biased along ND lines. This is really for the people like me who are caught between obsessively going down the rabbit hole of news and anxiously spiraling.

We’re going to lose our minds if we tune into the madness of our government right now. And yet, we need to tune in to an extent in order to know if we still have a job, school, medication and more. So what are we to do?

RuPaul advises us to create magic:

RuPaul is a wise one, and it’s true that when our minds are engaged in creative expression – art making, music, dance, gardening, lego building, cooking – we can enter a meditative state, or simply become more aligned with our spirit. The connection is tethered. Our anxiety lessens. We ground into who we really are: specks of star dust held together by molecular attraction on a swiftly tilting ball of water in a limitless universe.

Nothing like some perspective.

Make Your Plan

Don’t get sucked into the rabbit hole, Alice.

I repeat: ALICE, DON’T GET SUCKED IN. Make that rabbit hole yours, my friend. Make a plan on how and when you are going to dive in to your favorite (and reliable, fact-checked) news source, and stick to the plan even if you need to eat twinkies to stay away.

Set a time or two during the day in which you will open and read the news or go on social media. Your checking times obviously cannot be first thing in the morning or last thing at night, because they will derail your entire day/night. Make it a sensible time – a couple of hours after waking and maybe a couple of hours before going to bed. Set a timer for yourself on how long you will be on. Get an app like Freedom to set limits on news/social media, for the sake of your mental health. If something huge is going on that will, in the words of John Lewis, require you to make some good trouble, then carve out and plan your good-trouble making time.

Your Good Trouble

I need to say this because one of the things that defines most of us neurodivergent folk is our strong sense of justice. Doing nothing when the world is burning will make us crazy with despair. We need to figure out a way to make our good trouble. We are not powerless, never powerless, even though it might feel like it sometimes.

Ways of making good trouble in this here and now doesn’t necessarily need to be loud and ‘out there.’ Good trouble right now might include:

Reaching out to our neighbors. Get to know the people around us. Form a neighborhood discord server or text/email group or another way to connect everyone.
Create a short list of our representatives, in congress and senate and wherever else it matters. Have their email addresses and phone numbers handy and ready for easy access.
Create scripts to use when calling representatives to make it easier.
Reach out to local representatives about creating community food gardens, or join one that exists, or start something in your backyard, balcony or bedroom. Food is power.

Good trouble can also start at home; knowing our neighbors and forming our neighborhood communities and growing our own food are radical acts of good trouble.

Regardless of what you choose to do, I think the most important thing is to lean into what comes easily for you. We all have our different strengths; using our different strengths and harnessing them for our collective good is transformative. Doing what comes easily for ourselves – using our particular strengths – will also help prevent burnout.

Tune Into Yourself

Allowing for peace and stillness within is a radical act of self care.

Upon rising, it’s going to benefit you most to do something that will help you align with your spirit. That means different things for everyone. For me personally, it’s cuddling with my cats, drinking coffee and writing, maybe yoga if I’m lucky. For you, it might be putting stickers in your planner, knitting, lighting a candle and staring at the flame. Or running. I don’t know. But the point is: figure out what makes you still and peaceful inside and DO THAT first thing in the morning for at least half an hour. Wake up earlier if you need to. But set the tone of your day in peace.

With a foundation of peace, sticking to your planned ventures into the rabbit hole are a lot easier. Making your good trouble will be possible.