Self-Care In A Dystopian World

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Sam In a time of relentless pressure from 24.7news and social media, how do you maintain your sanity, avoid burnout and remain an effective fighter for democracy? Today we'll dive into the connection between mental well being and political engagement and we'll discuss stress management and setting boundaries. Join us as we step away from the constant stream of news and social media, take a breather and explore how self care can boost our ability to make a positive difference in the world. Remember, taking care of ourselves isn't a luxury. It's a crucial step towards becoming more effective and sustainable champions of democracy. Hi there and welcome to Critical defiance. It's Monday, March 10th, 2025. I'm Bobby Socks. Joining me today in the secret underground bunker is my co host Niels. It's my turn to do the intro this week while he works all the knobs and dials. As for me, my friends describe me as a feral goblin child and that's completely on brand. My interests include cavorting with gremlins, learning technology from trolls, activism with troglodytes, and keeping my co host mostly in line in the booth. Today we've also got Jack and Tyler, our two minions. As always, you can follow us, sign up for our newsletter and find out more about the show over@critical defiance.com don't forget to subscribe to us in your favorite podcast app as well. Hit the like button wherever possible and so on. If you'd like to donate and help kickstart our efforts, you can head over to buymeacoffee.com critical defiance now let's take a look at last week's news and see what horrors await us. [00:02:16] Speaker B: I guess the first thing in the news that I really wanted to dive into was the joint speech to Congress. Wow. There are things that come to mind, most of them are in German that I can compare to this. But yeah, there were some things that went on during the speech. It was covered in falsehoods, it was covered in lies. It was covered in just straight falsehoods. They claimed that Doge found hundreds of billions in fraud, but Doge's numbers don't actually add up. Trump even overstated the amount of money that Doge itself said it saved. So he was just swinging for the fences. [00:02:55] Speaker A: What else? Exaggerating, embellishing? [00:02:58] Speaker B: Yeah, there was some crazy stuff. What else did we hear, Bobby? We'll say the dead people. [00:03:02] Speaker A: I. I did hear about that before, that it reminds me of things in German. And I will say I have seen historians here and there making those comparisons who almost Direct quotes. But, yeah, there are a lot of dead people taking our Social Security money over 120 years or older. That was said. [00:03:24] Speaker B: Even the head of the SSA said that wasn't true. We found out that in most cases, it's actually a programming tactic they use. If you're in the system, but you're not getting checks anymore, they make you over a certain age so that it just doesn't work. I think Trump and Elon are seeing dead people. We were talking about tariffs. He made some interesting statements about tariffs, too. He said that we brought in trillions of dollars tariffs on China. That's not how tariffs work. First off, if we brought in trillions from tariffs on China during his first term, that means the American people were ripped off for trillions of dollars because it's not China paying them. And Bobby's going to go into that later, but I think that's important to understand. Yeah, Big numbers, too. He said the country spent $350 billion on the war in Ukraine. The actual number is like 115 billion over three years, while for Europe, it's been between 130, 140 million. So we're not even the majority player. And he's just pumping the numbers. [00:04:22] Speaker A: Some of that number that we actually spent was on weapons that we made here. [00:04:29] Speaker B: You know why that happens? We send them our old weapons that are aging out and are been sitting on the shelf for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. They get them and use them, and we replace them with new ones here so we have better stockpiles. It benefits us, too. Just. [00:04:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:49] Speaker B: He called Elon the leader of Doge again and talked about how great Doge was under his leadership. Is he the leader of Doge or is he not? You tell the courts he's not. You say he is in speech. He isn't. He isn't. Oh, there's somebody that we've appointed as the head of Doge. Nobody's heard from her. What is going on? It seems like an unelected billionaire is mostly running this country. [00:05:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it very much does look like that. Again, what else? What else did we have? Representative AL Green. [00:05:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:05:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:24] Speaker B: On the one hand, I honor and applaud what he did, because he did stand up and speak truth to power, regardless of the consequences. [00:05:32] Speaker A: Yes. [00:05:32] Speaker B: Which is, on the other hand, I think the Democrats need to understand that we need to do a lot more than shake our cane at these people. [00:05:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:40] Speaker B: So I don't want to knock what he did. I want to say that he needs to Be the beginning, not the end. [00:05:45] Speaker A: Yeah, he needs to be the foot in the door, so to speak. We need to get louder from here on out. [00:05:52] Speaker B: Yes. Let that man's cane hold the door open while the rest of us sneak in. But, yeah, you get the idea. [00:05:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:59] Speaker B: And 10 Democrats, when they censured him, 10 Democrats joined in censuring him, which blew my mind. It completely blew my mind. Like, that's total talk about lack of solidarity in the party. Right. Because Marjorie Taylor Greene, and I'm sure you've seen pictures of her from the floor in whatever she was wearing. Small mammal is just freaking out. I think it's fucked up. [00:06:24] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:06:24] Speaker B: We had this out for loss of decorum. What about. [00:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that speech was a circus. Trump talking about the money we made from tariffs on China during his first run. Tariffs. I feel like a lot of us hear this word and know it has something to do with money somewhere, but aren't really sure. So tariff is a tax on goods coming from another country. And the people paying that tax in this instance is the US Consumer. Is you. Is me. Consumers, you and me. Trump is saying that we are going to be putting tariffs on products coming into this country from Canada and Mexico. These tariffs are, are not going to make it so that Canada and Mexico have to spend more money to send US products. What it is going to do is make the American consumer have to spend more money on things coming from Canada and Mexico. [00:07:39] Speaker B: I think a good way to put it to point out where the tariff comes into play because that helps people understand it. Let's say we make a set of tires in Mexico and they cost a hundred dollars to make. Then we send them to America to sell them and it costs us another $5 to export them to America. Right. They go on the shelves of a store and those tires now cost 105 bucks. Now, the store is going to mark that up a little bit. They're going to mark it up another five bucks, sell the tires for 110 and make a little bit of money. Now, what happens if you put a tariff on those tires? You have the same hundred dollar tires. They spend $5 to send them here. The government charges 25 bucks for letting them come here. And then they send them to the store. The store now pays $130 for the tires. You see the problem. [00:08:31] Speaker A: And then the tires go, where does it end for 150? [00:08:35] Speaker B: Yep. It ends in the price tag. It does not end in Mexico. It does not end in China. It does not end in Canada, it ends in your wallet. And these guys don't seem to want you to understand that, right, abhi. [00:08:48] Speaker A: Yeah, they really don't. And speaking of another thing they don't want you to understand, one of the largest products that this country consumes is oil. The two countries that give America the most oil are Canada and Mexico. [00:09:10] Speaker B: And we're messing with them. [00:09:12] Speaker A: Trump is saying that there are going to be tariffs on things coming into the country from Canada and Mexico. And now this man who likes to boast how he'll take gas prices, make them lower. [00:09:28] Speaker B: So he does have this habit of on the back end exempting things, right? He announces a tariff on Monday and it's going to be a 20% tariff on Canada and Mexico and China. And then there's pushback and the markets get a little shaky. So Monday night, Tuesday morning, he goes in and on the back end says, okay, except for certain things, we won't put a tariff on this. Now this is the way it's traditionally done. Traditionally, when we levy a tariff, we put a tariff on one thing, say Japanese cars. In the 80s, we tried this to make American cars more attractive. It didn't work. People just kept buying Japanese cars and paying more for them and that's it. It just hurt the end consumer. So what are you doing? Really? [00:10:19] Speaker A: It doesn't make any sense. [00:10:22] Speaker B: So I've been looking a lot at what's going on with the Ukraine situation since we had the breakdown in communications in the White House when the bully in chief and his weird little six time renamed Vice, something went off on President Zelensky of the Ukraine. It was utterly embarrassing. [00:10:42] Speaker A: Disgusting, honestly. Un American in my opinion. [00:10:46] Speaker B: You talk about decorum. The President has none. So now Trump has ordered a pause on shipments of military aid to Ukraine after that argument. And that was as of last Monday. So that happened. Then he held a series of meetings with the national security officials of the White House. It looks like this pause is going to remain in place until Trump determines that Zelensky has made a commitment to seeking peace talks and is serious about the peace process. Give me a fucking break. Seriously. Seriously? After what they did to him, they want him to prove he's serious? It's insane to me. And then on top of it, like to add insult to injury, it looks like they ordered at least a partial halt to intelligence sharing with Ukraine. It looks like we're no longer giving them satellite imaging and some other intelligence data based on sources in the US Military and remarks that he made. So now we've got that Going which has triggered our own allies to reconsider whether they should be sharing intel with us. It's the all Ukraine shit show that we created. It's insane. And our solution to this is we drafted an agreement that basically says we'll create a reconstruction investment fund in Ukraine that will be jointly managed by US and the Ukrainian government. 50 50. And the short version is we want half of their natural resources. [00:12:16] Speaker A: The US said they were going to go in 5050 with another country on something. It didn' know that well. [00:12:22] Speaker B: Middle east much. [00:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:24] Speaker B: This is not good. So we've got that going on overseas. We've got all the. The churn with the Ukraine story and we're still waiting to see how it shakes out this coming week. And then at home, talk about we're sitting here trying to understand things and now they're trying to take away people's understanding of things. Yeah. Bobby, what's going on with that stuff that the Department of Ed stuff? [00:12:47] Speaker A: So as we sit here and try to educate ourselves and educate each other and educate all of you, the President, current government are trying to dismantle the Department of Education. This is something I'd known he's had in his head. It has been something that people are generally aware of talking about it for. [00:13:09] Speaker B: A while, but nobody took it seriously because it just sounds insane. [00:13:13] Speaker A: It looks like we are the process of dismantling the Department of Education. The Secretary, Linda McMahon has spoken about this and said they would require Congress to act on this as well. And with what's been going on in Congress. Yeah. The fact that this decision is going to be brought to them because it's. [00:13:38] Speaker B: Become rubber stamp land. That's where we really have the problem is these. [00:13:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:42] Speaker B: People have caved into fear and the love of power on one side and the other depending on which is motivating them. [00:13:51] Speaker A: Yes. And just in general, when talking about dismantling the Department of Education, what we're looking at here is pulling funding from public schooling throughout the country. And if any of you are still working on your student loans, good luck. [00:14:07] Speaker B: Forget about forgiveness. Speaking of student loans, funding for student loans would start to dry up. So that's going to get interesting. There's all sorts of educational programs that are geared toward low income students and disabled students that would be cut. It's a complex scenario to try and get that through Congress. But again, they've been rubber stamping everything. [00:14:27] Speaker A: We'll see how that unfolds. [00:14:32] Speaker B: And then speaking of rubber stamping things, Amy Coney Barrett is not having a Good time lately. Mag is actually going after one of their own now for not rubber stamping everything that Trump wants. Have you heard about this? [00:14:44] Speaker A: I heard she didn't approve something so. [00:14:48] Speaker B: She hasn't complied with him in her Supreme Court decisions to date. And social media has been going nuts. They've been calling her a DEI hire. They've called her outright evil. It's interesting to see what happens when one of their own doesn't do as they're told. So I'm just going to come out and say it. That's cult like behavior. It's cult like behavior and it is like control behavior being executed on a Supreme Court justice. It's insane. [00:15:18] Speaker A: And on a global level because with the way social media is now, when you have that type of cult behavior, the pressure is even worse on that defecting person. [00:15:29] Speaker B: As long as we're talking about cults, I know you had something you wanted to say about the anti vax cultists. [00:15:35] Speaker A: Oh yeah. So the measles. Thought we were over that. Absolutely not. I believe spoke about last week there was the death of a child in Texas who got the measles. And now we have our second death of an adult who was unvaccinated in New Mexico. [00:15:53] Speaker B: Still anti vaxx people who are looking in RFK and believing when he says that it's about supplements and nutrition. Come on, there's a solution, people. It saves lives. Save your children's lives. Where's the problem? Yeah, I know some people who did their homework on Google are telling you that this is bad, but talk to the medical community, talk to real scientists. Why are we letting people die? Why? [00:16:18] Speaker A: Yeah, true. Where we are with modern science, people do not need to be dying of measles. [00:16:24] Speaker B: That's crazy. You've got rfk. First he says outbreaks are normal, now he says vaccinations can help. And now he's hiking. Instead of managing the crisis, he's been posting pictures in his social media of his hikes. He's definitely not in D.C. and he's definitely not managing the situation. So I don't know. Oh yeah, I know who hired him. So speaking of things that don't make sense, death and things that don't make sense. We're going to go from stupidity to barbarism. We've been talking for a couple weeks now about the story of Sam Nordquist. Sam was a 24 year old trans man who unfortunately died in probably the worst possible way. And the media keeps trying to cover the fact that this person was trans washing it out of the headlines and moving it to the bottom of articles and making it an afterthought when it was critical to the motivation for these horrendous and barbaric crimes. [00:17:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm gonna use the term CIS washing because it's what it is. We know the term whitewashing, which is taking people of color out of history. CIS watching is basically taking the transness away from people out of history, or in this case, taking the transness away from Sam Nordquist, who, in my opinion, his completely unneeded, unfounded death was 100% a hate crime and had to do with the fact that he was a transgender man. Take to push that down in the stories, in the media takes away the importance of this heinous crime to sound like law and order. This was horrible. This was torture for a month of a human being who was transgender and gets me very emotional. [00:18:27] Speaker B: So to put it in context, he give you why this one hits home. This man was abused and murdered over the course of a month by seven people, ranging from, if you count the kids, nine people, though, ranging from seven to 38 years old. It's horrifying because they forced children to participate. So there were seven primary stock effects from 19 to 38. And then there were two kids, 7 and 12, that participated in the abuse and torture and ultimate murder of this man. We're hearing about it way too little and way too little about the motivation for why. You have to look at the why. You have to look at who Sam was. You have to look at the fact that Sam was trans. Because when we demonize people, when we target them and say, this person is wrong, this is antisocial behavior. When we look at them and say they're not like us, beat them down, this is what you get. This is the definition of around. And find out. [00:19:29] Speaker A: When the leader of the country decides to demonize a group of people, what you get is the population of the country saying, oh, it's okay to hurt these people. It is okay to kill these people. It is okay because the leader of the country does not like them. [00:19:49] Speaker B: Yeah, we don't have examples of people who are, well, inclusion. They seem to hate, let alone tolerance. I wouldn't even try and talk to them about that. We're going to keep talking about Sam. We won't talk about Sam as often or as. As hardcore as we do going forward. But we're not going to let you forget, because until these people are brought to justice, all of us have to be willing to speak for Sam, because Sam was a human being. Screw the fact that Sam was trans. Sam was a human being. The fact that we as a society have allowed things like this to begin to happen should be a wake up call. We should be stepping up our efforts to make sure that they don't continue to happen. [00:20:44] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:20:55] Speaker B: Let'S face it. These days we're constantly bombarded with news and info 247 thanks to our mass media and social media. This overload can seriously mess with our mental health, leading to burnout, making it harder to get involved or stay involved with politics. Some of this is actually a part of the plan by the people in power designed to wear us down. We're not about to let them do that now are we? In order to narrow things down, we've researched a bit, talked to a number of professionals, and isolated some of the most common and useful ideas on the topic of self care. So without further ado, let's take a trip through Critical Defiance's 12 tips for a Sane Resistor when it comes to. [00:21:35] Speaker A: Trying to stay sane, stay together during this great big non stop historical event we're all living through, one of the first things you should focus on is boundaries. Limit the it's important to be informed. You don't want to be ignorant to what's going on right now. But if you just consistently doom scroll and take in all the non stop negativity, you're just gonna wear yourself down. [00:22:07] Speaker B: Yeah, doom scrolling has taken on a new meaning lately, hasn't it? [00:22:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. If you don't limit yourself, you're just gonna wear yourself down and it's gonna be harder to even get out of bed in the mornings. Set times Decide the time of day. You're gonna look at the news, update yourself on what's going on, and don't let it be forever. Maybe a half hour, hour at most. If you're sitting there reading articles, choose the days, choose the time of day. Maybe have your phone calendar give you reminders of when it's time to look at the news and when it's time to put it down. [00:22:45] Speaker B: That's not a bad call. Now for me it's a little more fluid, but I'll tell you what I do. I basically look at the news twice a day unless someone tells me the world is ending. So I look at the news about 10 o' clock in the morning and then I look at the news again in the evening. I give myself time to do it then, but I just pace myself that twice a day is enough. [00:23:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:06] Speaker B: Now if those times change, that's fine, but you're not gonna see me doing it three times a day or four times a day or doom scrolling because it would just drive me insane, you know. [00:23:16] Speaker A: And I do just want to add to those more in my generation in this digital era who have things like TikTok or other video scrolling apps. Maybe you do try to make it so your algorithm does have some of that political stuff and what's going on. If you have an algorithm that is politically driven, this counts for that, you know, Facebook feed, TikTok, FYP, Instagram feed. Time yourself. Don't just sit there because all, you know, through every 10 political horrifying news video there's a video of a cat. [00:23:51] Speaker B: Right? [00:23:52] Speaker A: Don't get in that trick. [00:23:54] Speaker B: I think while we're on it and we're talking about boundaries, a great place to set boundaries is notifications. Think about what notifications you get and how often and do you really want them. In most devices, whether it's Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, you can get really fine grained control of your notifications from your settings. Drill down and say, do I really need to be annoyed by this news source or this media feed every 20 minutes or once an hour? For most of us, the answer is no. It's probably healthier to not be. [00:24:24] Speaker A: It's better to look on your own than get those consistent alerts of hey, this is on fire. [00:24:31] Speaker B: No. And speaking of boundaries, I think one of the big places that I do boundaries is alone time. The opposite of my immersion time, my couple hours a day where I'm looking at the news and the media and what's going on in the world. I take almost an equal amount of time as just alone time, just me time. I need to reset, I need to process things and I need to unwind and I need my space to do that. I would say in terms of advice, and I've heard this echoed by some of the people we spoke to in putting this episode together, is give yourself time by establishing routines. Give yourself a routine. My routine is twice a day. I completely zen out. I just go and do my thing. I either take a walk or read a book, but whatever I do, I turn the ringer off. And you need that, guys. You really do. [00:25:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And you're alone. Decompressed time that can look different for everyone. If being alone and by yourself isn't really the best way for you to decompress and recharge your battery, then go spend time with those friends for a little bit or with your safe person. But make sure you have time Away for you to just live and experience life. [00:25:43] Speaker B: I think that's a better way to put it. It's you time, not alone time. [00:25:45] Speaker A: Yeah, you time. Whatever recharges you, whatever helps you remember what being alive is and just existing, just cut out that time. [00:25:55] Speaker B: Speaking of remembering what being alive is, you had a good one that you wanted to interject. [00:26:01] Speaker A: Find joy, make room for joy, and don't feel guilty about it. We have a lot going on right now and I know for me, I can sometimes beat myself up when I'm feeling happy. While, you know, other parts of the country, people who are trans are definitely not. But don't do that. Find time for joy. Let yourself have joy and know that it's important to keep yourself moving forward, to let yourself have periods of happiness and not feel guilty about it. As long as you're not hurting yourself or others while you find this joy, there's nothing wrong with it, no matter what's going on in the world. [00:26:49] Speaker B: So the thing about joy, like my way of dealing with joy, with finding joy, right, and this is the same for a lot of people I know, is to perform random acts of kindness. To do little things, not big ones, that make a difference, that make somebody smile, that change somebody's day. They're not hard, they come around really often. The opportunity is there, more than you might think. But random acts of kindness are a great way of bringing joy into your life. So, yeah, I'm gonna see you on your joy and raise you kindness. Kindness is good for all of us. [00:27:26] Speaker A: It's good for all of us. And remember, it can be little things. A random act of kindness can be something as small as smiling at that child you see in public and reminding them that this exists. We've been saying the word self care a lot in this episode. I just need to remind everyone that we're talking about real self care, not trendy self care. I'm not talking about go to Bath and Body Works and buy yourself the most expensive candle. [00:27:56] Speaker B: Not ruling out the fact that we get mani pedis together on weekends. [00:28:00] Speaker A: If it's in your budget and that makes you happy, go for it. But that doesn't need to be what self care means. Self care doesn't need to mean having this 20 step extensive skincare routine. [00:28:11] Speaker B: You don't have to be Patrick Bateman with the face. [00:28:13] Speaker A: Yeah, self care and expression can go hand in hand. I know for me, dyeing my hair is a form of expression. It makes me feel better about myself. It makes me feel more grounded, it makes me Feel like who I am. And that's just one form of expression. It could be makeup. It could be doing your nails. It could be something that's not on your body. It could be drawing, writing, playing an instrument, or doing a hobby. Get creative. [00:28:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Because channeling emotion into creativity tends to be really therapeutic. It gives us a way to express parts of ourselves that we can't verbalize but need. A way to move into the world and actually express what else we got. I think big ones for me, you know, I work from home, so for me, getting up and moving is a big one. Getting up and moving is huge when it comes to self care. Even little things. Walking around the house, exercising is great. But when you can't, you can stretch. And if you can't, then take a walk. And if you can't, do the stairs a couple times. And if you have the opportunity, then do things that are more fun. Dance, yoga. Motion tends to balance people's emotions and improve their mood and energy. It can be huge when you live a sedentary life to make even minor changes in the amount of mobility that you have. [00:29:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Even if you work in an office setting, fill up your water bottle, walk around the office, Just remember to get up, do something. [00:29:46] Speaker B: I have friends who take laps around their office building on lunch. They take their coffee with them and walk. [00:29:52] Speaker A: Yeah. And with that going outside, nature, I think nature's a big one. [00:29:58] Speaker B: Would totally agree. [00:30:00] Speaker A: You know, I'm not trying to go full tree hugger, but there is a reason that trees exist. They give us oxygen. Vitamin D is important. Remember what the outside looks like. Even grass. Touch grass, man. Even if it's just for 10 or 15 minutes, you don't have to go do a nature walk. Take a hike, dance barefoot in the forest. If you want to do that, by all means, go ahead. More power to you. But remember that the outside exists and just some fresh air. Some 10, 15 minutes of sitting outside can help your brain. [00:30:35] Speaker B: You want something really wild too. If you can take a walk in a natural setting like a park, or even better, a forest. Even small parks that have a decent amount of woods and trees are great for this. There are actually bacteria in the soil that have an effect on human neurochemistry. They tend to mellow us out and make us more in touch with our senses and decrease the level of chemicals like cortisol and increase the level of chemicals like dopamine. [00:31:05] Speaker A: Wow, that's actually something I didn't know. [00:31:08] Speaker B: Yeah, most people didn't catch that study. It came out Three or four years ago. And they had found a number of different bacteria that have a direct effect on the human animal, so to speak. And it explains a good chunk of why nature is so refreshing. There's an actual thing going on there. There's something that you can quantify. That's really cool. [00:31:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that is really cool. [00:31:29] Speaker B: I like my walkies and I like my trees. [00:31:32] Speaker A: But yeah, I was gonna say we're getting to some of the key elements of taking care of yourself. Sleep is a big one. It's hard in our capitalism, fast paced driven world to remember that sleep is important. But it is. If you're somebody who can take naps and enjoys taking naps, do that. Try to go to sleep at a regular time every night, or at least as close to a regular time. [00:32:00] Speaker B: Remember that sleep mode on your phone or do not disturb. Make sure that you're actually sleeping. There are a couple big ones that people forget. Make sure your room is dark. There are a thousand things in our lives now that have little LED lights on them to show that they have power, that they're charging, that they're working, or just because they wanted to put lights on them when you go to bed, turn them off. [00:32:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:24] Speaker B: Because even small amounts of light have been proven in studies to disturb your body's natural rhythms during sleep. [00:32:31] Speaker A: So go for talking about to intertwine boundaries with the news and sleeping. Don't make your time to check up on the news right before you go. [00:32:42] Speaker B: To bed or first thing after you wake up. [00:32:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Don't be looking at that screen and then be trying to go to sleep. You know, it's very hard. I know my generation, we hear that and we just go, yeah, but no, really, really try to avoid screens, you know, and try to make sure your bedroom's main purpose is sleeping. [00:33:04] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:33:05] Speaker A: Don't do everything in your bedroom. It's not the easiest thing for everyone. But if you can section off the parts of your bedroom, like you, Nils, you work from home. So section off the part of the bedroom that is work and the part of the bedroom that is sleep. [00:33:21] Speaker B: It goes back to habits and routines and setting up rituals. Having a dedicated, safe space for sleep is very important to the human mammal. [00:33:31] Speaker A: If I'm gonna go with sleeping, I'm also just gonna add in. Hydrate and eat. [00:33:38] Speaker B: Hydrate. [00:33:40] Speaker A: Drink the clear, splashy liquid water. [00:33:45] Speaker B: It is your friend. [00:33:48] Speaker A: Yep. Drink water. Make sure you're eating again. Make sure you're doing both regularly. [00:33:56] Speaker B: Pay attention to the little things, the little basics. Are you eating? Are you Sleeping. Are you breathing? All right, moving on, Moving on. [00:34:05] Speaker A: All right, so those are some of the big ones. [00:34:07] Speaker B: Some big, big ones, someone said that are in a different direction or a different style. We've been talking about things to do with yourself or to yourself. You know, community care is a thing, too. We talked earlier about having alone time. It's just as important to have social time. Connect with your loved ones, friends, family and support groups, whatever works for you. Sharing experiences and leaning on one another can make a huge difference and helps make the burdens in life feel a lot lighter. I need to control the size of my social engagements. Otherwise, it's too much for me. You want to balance it. You don't want to overdo it. Keep it small, keep it simple, keep it close. [00:34:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Remember, even though not all of us feel like it, humans are inherently social creatures. So make time. And if you can get involved with your community as well with what's going on right now in the world, your immediate community is going to be impacted. [00:35:02] Speaker B: You can find community groups, neighborhood watches, clubs, you name it. If you look in your local papers. [00:35:09] Speaker A: You might even be able to find soup kitchens and other things you can physically do to help out, or food pantries, things like that. Also, being part of your community could be doing something as simple as going and getting a library card. [00:35:25] Speaker B: Yeah. A simple act of support for a community organization. When you get a library card, you give them numbers, you show their patronage, you say, hey, there's another citizen that we're serving and that helps them. So even if you don't use library as often as you should, you should. [00:35:44] Speaker A: Probably help get into libraries on another episode. [00:35:47] Speaker B: Definitely major. [00:35:48] Speaker A: But yeah, getting a library card helps your community and can also help you be more involved in your community. [00:35:56] Speaker B: Now, I think the place we wrap this one up, we call the 12 points. We didn't break them out individually and say, this is point one, this is point two. We just kind of ran through them, which I think is cool. It was more organic. But one that I wanted to separate out and give special attention to was very simply put, sometimes we need professional support, folks. Sometimes we need guidance from a therapist or a counselor if things are too heavy or we're too anxious or awkward and it's interfering with our ability to live our lives. Knowing that there's strength in asking for help, not weakness, that there's bravery in it, that it's something you can take pride in is very important for a lot of people to hear. What do you think, Bobby? [00:36:43] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a big one. And that's a very good one. Professional help is nothing to feel ashamed about. I agree with you. It's something take pride in. It takes a lot of courage to be able to admit when you need help. And. [00:37:00] Speaker B: And that's social, by the way, guys. That's cultural. That's because of the world we live in in the 50s and the 60s and this perception that it created. If you are mentally ill, there is something wrong with you. And here's the thing. Animals become ill. They get sick. They all do. Whether it's a matter of getting a cold or the flu or funky toenail fungus, we all get sick. Sometimes your brain gets sick too. Sometimes it's as simple as your chemistry or as complex as your mind and spirit. But either way, there are people who can help. And you have to remember what we said earlier is the truth. Self care is not something that you can just walk away from. It's not something that you can just put aside. So if you need to find that help, go ahead and do it. Don't be afraid. [00:37:53] Speaker A: Don't be afraid and know that you can go to therapy for anything. You don't need to seek out professional help. Just if you know that you've had the worst childhood in all existence. [00:38:07] Speaker B: My therapist has been hearing about my relationship with my hair for 20 years. [00:38:10] Speaker A: Yeah, or you could just sit and admit that what's going on in the world right now is crazy and you need to talk it out with someone. Sometimes having that impartial party to just say, hey, this is what's going on in my life right now. It's crazy, can be really helpful. We all have our support systems and those are great, but sometimes you don't really want to bog down the people who are closest to you with everything that's going on in your head, which is where professional help comes in. [00:38:44] Speaker B: And there's another place where people in my generation get a lot of fear of it, which is, you know, they don't. In my generation, I'm a Gen Xer. We tend to not like the idea of having to manage other people worrying about us or having to deal with how they feel about the fact that something's up with us. It's not the healthiest thing. But going to a third party, someone outside of your circle of friends and family, opens things up for you. It gives you a way to talk to somebody in a safe space that's kind of your own. And that can be really important in life. If you haven't tried it, I would say give it a shot. See if it works for you. Most people on this earth could benefit from a little bit of time with a good therapist just to get their heads together and have more enjoyment of life. [00:39:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:30] Speaker B: So don't even look at it as always being a matter of I'm sick, I need to fix it, I'm broken, something needs to change. Sometimes it's a matter of how can I do it better, how can I be more me? [00:39:42] Speaker A: And sometimes you just need somebody else to help you figure out how to put those pieces together in the right order. [00:39:49] Speaker B: Yep. [00:39:49] Speaker A: That's what therapy does. [00:39:51] Speaker B: Yep. Sometimes it's the instructions for the Lego set. [00:39:54] Speaker A: Sometimes life is like trying to follow Ikea instructions and then you go to therapy and you're handed a Lego instruction booklet and things start to make sense. [00:40:05] Speaker B: Yep. I love that analogy. I think that's a great place to leave our discussion for today. As always, there's going to be more info in the post that comes along with this and the newsletter that goes out. Really cool. [00:40:18] Speaker A: Yeah. For anyone following us on Blue sky, if you guys want to add more ideas of how to self care, definitely. [00:40:29] Speaker B: Give us some ideas. Give us some things we haven't thought of. That would be cool. I am always looking to learn and grow and get better at being me because that's sort of my. So yeah, let's go for it. [00:40:40] Speaker A: Yeah, so anywhere you follow us where you can comment or send us ideas, do it. The more ways we have to take care of ourselves, the more ways we have to spread to others to help them take care of themselves. [00:40:55] Speaker B: All right guys, so thanks for joining us on Critical Defiance this week. Don't forget to subscribe and share our podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and wherever you listen. Really, it all helps. While you're at it, sign up for updates over@critical defiance.com bonus points if you tell your friends how to find our podcast. Until next time, this is Niels and my partner in crime, Bobby Socks, signing off. Stay informed, stay engaged and keep the spirit of democracy alive out there. [00:41:32] Speaker A: Sam Sa.