How do you recognize and respond to being TIRED?
Welcome to the month of May, a notoriously earthy and sort of feminine month—a concept I am still (and maybe forever) untangling. How do the concepts of femininity and masculinity land for you? I’ve understood them to be alienating and divisive in some situations. I suppose all binaries can be, and yet, even as I’m hopeful we can move towards a post-gender world, discussing femininity and the deep loss of the feminine in patriarchal society is necessary to discussing how the earth has been—or is being—trashed. So, it’s May… an earthy and feminine month.
The month of May is also Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and I’ve been reflecting on all the intersections between this and the aforementioned patriarchal effect on femininity. As an Asian woman of color, I’ve been conditioned in both subtle and explicit ways to believe that my very being is simultaneously not enough, too much, and meant to please others. Part of honoring my lineage and granting my ancestors rest is to reprogram that belief as an act of gratitude for their fights and the opportunities they afforded me.
Speaking of rest (predictable, I know), I’m coming off some big teaching weeks, and for several days I’ve felt incapable of much beyond opening and closing tabs and emails and debating whether I’m experiencing burnout or depression. There is one thing I know for sure right now, though: I am due for some recharging with silence and stillness, and so I am off for a short solo retreat to the woods this week.
I’m curious: How do you experience fatigue? What behaviours or shifts make you aware that you need care or rest? What do you turn to in those moments?
Below, you’ll find some of the ways you can engage with me and my work, as well as some resources collected around the themes mentioned above (“as above, so below” or whatever).
May your month of May be warm and earthy and wonderful. May you find rest and renewal amongst the blossoms and budding leaves.
Resources
Enjoy.
No Worries If Not by Natalya Lobanova
In the spirit of R E S T I’m launching this month’s resources list with a comic strip that made me and a friend smile. Who can relate? LOL (Thanks for sharing this, Pam!)
Read.
A Two-Minute Burnout Checkup by Chris Bailey
From the piece: “When taken regularly, this short assessment can help you gauge whether you’re on the path to burnout, and where you should focus your attention to make beneficial changes.”
Listen.
Exploring the Intersections of Environmentalism: The Well and Good Podcast
A conversation with environmental justice advocates and educators Leah Thomas and Whitney McGuire about why the future of climate action needs to be more inclusive. Hint: Representation matters.
Take in.
“The ‘dream’ of the dominant culture since the days of European colonization of North America has been an aspiration or ‘right’ to own a piece of the land around us. As we are thrust into the environmental complexities of climate change, our deepening collective practice in community can support a realignment of priorities and a recollection—itself a quality of mindfulness—of not only what our true nature is but what our true relationship with the earth really is.”
- Larry Yang, Awakening Together: The Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community
N.B.: If you find the idea of land ownership challenging, you might be interested in this free workshop I’m signed up for called “Building Wealth via Property When You Hate Capitalism” by queer, anti-capitalist financial planner River Nice.
Reflect.
Take a walk or have a seat outside. Listen, touch, breathe, and sense all of the elements of nature around you. Take some time to reflect on, or journal about, all the ways you (and society) have justified or explained your separateness from “nature.”
Now, reflect on our journal about all the ways you very much *are* nature.
Try to integrate this information in an embodied way and see if it affects the way you move through your day and the world.
Meditate.
Tuning into the embodied experience of a phenomena—a sound, a thought, a sensation—can give us important insight into how we are feeling at any given moment. This 10 minute meditation called Tuning Into the Body’s Wisdom will invite kindness in as we practice returning over and over again to the most present sensations in our bodies.
Link appreciation: Recomendo, Well and Good, and Rooted Global Village.
