How to Survive Existential Anxiety & Dread!

(align:"<==")[(align:"=><=")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXX===")[(text-style:"tall")[(align:"=><=")+(box:"===XXXXXXXXXXXXXX===")[(text-style:"smear")[''How to Survive Existential Anxiety & Dread!''] (b4r:"dotted","none")+(b4r-colour:#b396f8,white,#a5e222)+(text-colour:#E5E4E2) [[A Guide to Cultivating Somatic Resilience inspired by Audre Lorde]] ]]]] (align:"=><=")+(box:"X")[<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/ZaKcIYMjNYNf4lEuC7" width="480" height="273" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen>]

Born in 1934, Audre Lorde was a widely influential self-described (text-colour:orange)["black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet."] Among her many evocative literary works that added evocative texture to the civil rights movement and the women's liberation movement, she's famous for the following phrase: <img src = "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTb4KDJWUAI3Kmk?format=jpg&name=medium"> In Audre Lorde's celebrated essay, "(text-colour:orange)[''Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,"''] she ends with an illuminating antidote: But when we begin to live from within outward, in touch with the power of the erotic within ourselves, and allowing that power to inform and illuminate our actions upon the world around us, then we begin to be responsible to ourselves in the deepest sense. For as we begin to recognize our deepest feelings, we begin to give up, of necessity, being satisfied with suffering and self-negation, and with the numbness which so often seems like their only alternative in our society. Our acts against oppression become integral with self, motivated and empowered from within. In touch with the erotic, I become less willing to accept powerlessness, or those other supplied states of being which are not native to me, such as resignation, despair, self-effacement, depression, self-denial... ...Recognizing the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world... <a href="https://youtu.be/aWmq9gw4Rq0">Listen to Lorde read it in her own words</a> [[Ok, so how do I use "the erotic" in order to deal with the troubling feelings we were talking about before?]]

A little refresher probably couldn't hurt: 🤓 In Audre Lorde's celebrated 1978 essay, ''"Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power"'', she shares a handful of illuminating antidotes: But when we begin to live from within outward, in touch with the power of the erotic within ourselves, and allowing that power to inform and illuminate our actions upon the world around us, then we begin to be responsible to ourselves in the deepest sense. For as we begin to recognize our deepest feelings, we begin to give up, of necessity, being satisfied with suffering and self-negation, and with the numbness which so often seems like their only alternative in our society. Our acts against oppression become integral with self, motivated and empowered from within. In touch with the erotic, I become less willing to accept powerlessness, or those other supplied states of being which are not native to me, such as resignation, despair, self-effacement, depression, self-denial... ...Recognizing the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world... <a href="https://youtu.be/aWmq9gw4Rq0">Ok, now listen to Lorde read it in her own words</a> <img src = "https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/audre_lorde.jpg"> [[Ok, so how do I use "the erotic" in order to deal with the troubling feelings we were talking about before?]]

Have you heard of Audre Lorde? [[I've heard of her work. But how do I apply her poems and insights to a feeling of existential dread?]]🤔 [[I've never heard of Audre Lorde. Why is she important?]] 😕

<a href="https://emily-wright.medium.com/embodying-the-climate-crisis-part-1-bc2b1a61b7a">Emily Wright</a> eloquently explains the relationship that worsening social conditions have on our somatic systems: '' "The only way for us to withstand this inability to secure our own safety is to numb ourselves to the physical and emotional experiences of performing and witnessing this violence against our planet, ourselves, and each other. In trauma theory, this is (text-style:"buoy")[(text-colour:magenta)[dissociation]]. We dissociate to leave the discomfort of (text-style:"buoy")[(text-colour:magenta)[cognitive dissonance]]when we participate in extractive economies while we know it causes harm. We dissociate to relieve the pain we feel when we see wildfires burning summer after summer. There are other responses we might have in addition to dissociation — fighting through protests and grassroots organizing, (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:magenta)[fleeing]] from information by avoiding news, or(text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:magenta)[ freezing]] by not knowing what to do and living in uncertainty and anxiety. I refer to this collection of strategies that take us out of our present-tense body experience as the (text-style:"double-underline")[(text-colour:blue)[phenomenon of disembodiment].] <img src = "https://www.lawsonpsychology.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Lawson_Blog_073.png"> Ok, now [[I'm very familiar with this feeling]]

In a world [(text-style:"shudder")[oversaturated]] with information, we’re often asked and required to attend to several devastating and cataclysmic events simultaneously. The foundations of systems of oppression are interlocked and experienced differently based on an axis of intersections based on every part of who you are. As a result, the onslaught of their impact can seem similairly overwhelming. We sturdy ourselves against the unending work to dismantle systems of structural violence when we pay close attention to the specific locations that our bodies register trauma, empathy, despair, and resilience among many other feelings. [[I'm very familiar with this feeling]] 👍 [[I recognize this sensation, but didn't know that there was a name for it.]]✋

Why don't we start with a generative approach that invites us to take our feelings apart, and look at them with intimate detail. When you think of the following social conditions listed below, which one feels(text-style:"rumble")['' [(text-colour:orange)[particularly]]''] heavy for you right now? [[The uneven impacts of extreme weather events as a result of climate change caused by western Imperialism.]] <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/15/un-sea-levels-rising-climate-migration/">Read deeper</a> <a href="https://imgbox.com/iilzkSsI" target="_blank"><img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/f4/08/iilzkSsI_o.png" alt="image host"/></a> [[The foundations of white supremacy that uphold the unending cycle of in police brutality.]]<a href="https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetimes.co.uk%2Farticle%2Fpolice-hauled-black-teenager-off-bus-and-held-him-in-geroge-floyd-position-3hsdd5tcd">Read deeper</a> <a href="https://imgbox.com/jiZ96svT" target="_blank"><img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/08/43/jiZ96svT_o.png" alt="image host"/></a> [[An exponentially increasing prevalence of economic inequality resulting in extreme housing and food insecurity.]]<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/deaths-of-shelter-residents-2022-toronto-1.6721890">Read deeper</a> <a href="https://imgbox.com/F4u30yRy" target="_blank"><img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/2c/42/F4u30yRy_o.png" alt="image host"/></a> [[The global trend to elect the far-right candidates and the crumbling integrity of democratically-elected systems of governance.]] <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/vexing-rise-transnational-right">Read deeper</a> <a href="https://imgbox.com/0PFegayN" target="_blank"><img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/1d/14/0PFegayN_o.png" alt="image host"/></a>

Where (text-colour:magenta)[''//exactly//''] in your body are you feeling this sensation? [[Stomach]] [[Jaw]]

Where '(text-colour:magenta)['//exactly//''] in your body are you feeling this sensation? [[I'm feeling it in my stomach]] [[I'm feeling it in my jaw]]

Where (text-colour:magenta)[''//exactly//''] in your body are you feeling this sensation? [[The Stomach]] [[The Jaw]]

Where '(text-colour:magenta)['//exactly//''] in your body are you feeling this sensation? [[In my stomach]] [[In my jaw]]

You can try a butterfly hug which is a grounding technique to use when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Cross your arms over your chest with your fingers resting on your upper arms or shoulders. Breathe deeply through your nose, and then slowly tap your hands on your arms in an alternating fashion. <img src="https://sumedang.jabarekspres.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/4140d97455b50c51a8eec5673c02ae03.jpg"Butterfly Hug"> Then, put your body in some motion! Try going on a walk. The act of putting one foot in front of the other gives you a purpose, while stomping out your stresses can help you feel more grounded and connected with yourself. Listening to music would be a great accompaniment on your walk. We suggest(text-style:"smear")[ Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)], a bold and emphatic record that resonates the message of Black liberation loudly. [<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2cimRuhfNJk2k8dmnwnh2d?si=dwMrquNeSYqQ3phLPOn_WA">Listen here</a> ] <img src="https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-99klc1qm/images/stencil/532x532/products/79666/122575/c0029007__35044.1673144918.jpg?c=2" alt="Erykah Badu">

You can relax your muscles by doing a body scan. Lie down and mentally scan for tension or anxiety in your body, one part at a time. Practice releasing the tension and then relaxing that body part. While you're doing this, focus on this 2003 painting titled "Faux Real" by Kehinde Wiley. Dietch Projects <a href="https://www.deitch.com/archive/deitch-projects/exhibitions/faux-real">describes the work</a> in the following way: "Wiley described his approach as “interrogating the notion of the master painter, at once critical and complicit.” He made figurative paintings that “quote historical sources and position young black men within that field of ‘power.’” His “slightly heroic” figures, slightly larger than life size, were depicted in poses of power and spiritual awakening. He deliberately mixed images of power and spirituality, using them as a filter in the portrayal of masculinity. In an insightful essay for the brochure that accompanied Ironic Iconic, the exhibition of the 2001-2002 Artists-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Malik Gaines described how “Wiley sifts through the remnants of his culture and is able to build a whole from these many cluttering parts…With the stroke of his brush, Wiley brings his black boys to life, giving them just enough strength to contend with the terrible and beautiful pasts that continuously encroach upon all of us.” <img src="https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2014/10/kehinde-wiley-brooklyn-museum-1.jpg"Erykah Badu"> <img src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ef/ec/a8/efeca8dde801c0ee65e09beb9cbd9f6c.jpg">

You can try a butterfly hug which is a grounding technique to use when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Cross your arms over your chest with your fingers resting on your upper arms or shoulders. Breathe deeply through your nose, and then slowly tap your hands on your arms in an alternating fashion. <img src="https://sumedang.jabarekspres.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/4140d97455b50c51a8eec5673c02ae03.jpg"Butterfly Hug"> Then, put your body in some motion! Try going on a walk. The act of putting one foot in front of the other gives you a purpose, while stomping out your stresses can help you feel more grounded and connected with yourself. Listening to music would be a great accompaniment on your walk. We suggest(text-style:"smear")[ Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!], a sweeping and cinematic instrumental post rock album that grapples with both the reality of socio-political destruction, and the imagination of something new. [<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1OhcoQdeYqt68I22NWEdF0?si=HluXrC3GSEaF9PsLR-Yzdg">Listen here</a> ] <img src="https://cdn.cultura.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=768/media/pim/TITELIVE/48_0666561008123.jpg" alt="Erykah Badu">

You can relax your muscles by doing a body scan. Lie down and mentally scan for tension or anxiety in your body, one part at a time. Practice releasing the tension and then relaxing that body part. While you're doing this, focus on this image created by Banksy in 2018 that does not sky away from the issue, but faces it head on. Located near the Porte de la Chapelle metro station, where Paris’ refugee centre “La Bulle,” was located until August 2017. At the time, called "a city within a city, it was home to a makeshift camp of some 2,700 refugees and was dismantled an estimated 35 times before 2,000 migrants were bussed to temporary shelters. This was done as part of Emmanuel Macron’s wish to remove the refugees “off the streets, out of the woods,” as stated during his campaign. In response, Banksy created an image of a young black girl painting a Victorian wallpaper pattern over a swastika, the artist is commenting on the way politicians are concealing wrongdoing and potentially fascist policies. <img src="https://africa.cgtn.com/wp-content/photo-gallery/2018/06/GettyImages-982866236-1024x684.jpg" alt="Erykah Badu">

You can try a butterfly hug which is a grounding technique to use when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Cross your arms over your chest with your fingers resting on your upper arms or shoulders. Breathe deeply through your nose, and then slowly tap your hands on your arms in an alternating fashion. <img src="https://sumedang.jabarekspres.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/4140d97455b50c51a8eec5673c02ae03.jpg"Butterfly Hug"> Then, put your body in some motion! Try going on a walk. The act of putting one foot in front of the other gives you a purpose, while stomping out your stresses can help you feel more grounded and connected with yourself. Listeningto music would be a great accompaniment on your walk. We suggest(text-style:"smear")[ The Weather Station's// Ignorance// ], dynamic and gripping alternative rock record that is lovingly attentive to the human cost of environmental collapse. [<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1OhcoQdeYqt68I22NWEdF0?si=HluXrC3GSEaF9PsLR-Yzdg">Listen here</a> ] <img src="https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5ff3766029b220be7123eb0e/1:1/w_600/Weather-Station.jpg" alt="Erykah Badu">

You can relax your muscles by doing a body scan. Lie down and mentally scan for tension or anxiety in your body, one part at a time. Practice releasing the tension and then relaxing that body part. While you're doing this, focus on this image of an art installation created by the artist James Turrel as part of his "Skyscape series." The famed American artist creates autonomous light chambers that are immersive art experiences, revealing new — more harmonious — relationships people can have with the natural environment. <a href="https://imgbox.com/212SxADY" target="_blank"><img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/7b/15/212SxADY_o.jpg" alt="image host"/></a>

You can try a butterfly hug which is a grounding technique to use when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Cross your arms over your chest with your fingers resting on your upper arms or shoulders. Breathe deeply through your nose, and then slowly tap your hands on your arms in an alternating fashion. <img src="https://sumedang.jabarekspres.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/4140d97455b50c51a8eec5673c02ae03.jpg"Butterfly Hug"> Then, put your body in some motion! Try going on a walk. The act of putting one foot in front of the other gives you a purpose, while stomping out your stresses can help you feel more grounded and connected with yourself. Listening to music would be a great accompaniment on your walk. We suggest(text-style:"smear")[ Antony and the Johnson's// Cut the World// or Ashenspire's //Hostile Architecture//], a stunning, orchestral album that bellows and humanizes the experience of multiple marginalized communities without varnish or placation. [<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4LTHV4pqZuWEX4iEL1ZXvh?si=Pru_0WMJTQqQzVdLi_tA2Q">Listen to //Cut the World// here</a> ] [<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2yFxLI1tMhzY04Oz67WoPr?si=w0ywPghBRnuJNLMK3n7fkA">Listen to //Hostile Architecture// here</a> ] <img src="https://assets.boomkat.com/spree/products/685991/large/883870066365_T13_Image.jpg" alt="Erykah Badu"> <img src="https://e.snmc.io/i/600/s/41f390c6c4a5ffd110e30b0d6d1ba244/10104436/ashenspire-hostile-architecture-Cover-Art.jpg" alt="Erykah Badu">

You can relax your muscles by doing a body scan. Lie down and mentally scan for tension or anxiety in your body, one part at a time. Practice releasing the tension and then relaxing that body part. While you're doing this, focus on this image of the German-made windproof and waterproof Ulmer Nest which can serve as an emergency shelter to protect unhoused people from harsh winter conditions. <img src="https://static.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/ulmer-nest-solar-powered-shelter-protect-homeless-people-in-winter-designboom-9.jpg" alt="Erykah Badu">

We've got you covered 🤓 In Audre Lorde's celebrated 1978 essay, (text-colour:orange)[''"Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power"''], she shares a handful of illuminating antidotes: But when we begin to live from within outward, in touch with the power of the erotic within ourselves, and allowing that power to inform and illuminate our actions upon the world around us, then we begin to be responsible to ourselves in the deepest sense. For as we begin to recognize our deepest feelings, we begin to give up, of necessity, being satisfied with suffering and self-negation, and with the numbness which so often seems like their only alternative in our society. Our acts against oppression become integral with self, motivated and empowered from within. In touch with the erotic, I become less willing to accept powerlessness, or those other supplied states of being which are not native to me, such as resignation, despair, self-effacement, depression, self-denial... ...Recognizing the power of the erotic within our lives can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world... <a href="https://youtu.be/aWmq9gw4Rq0">Ok, now listen to Lorde read it in her own words</a> <img src = "https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/audre_lorde.jpg"> [[Ok, so how do I use "the erotic" in order to deal with the troubling feelings we were talking about before?]]

[[Let's get started 🏁]]