Mondays are now Monday Motivation. What?!

The podcast is reorganizing a bit, while "being the same thing." On Mondays I will share a message to help stay motivated to fight the good fight.

Wednesday will offer an episode recorded in nature to help ground you. And Friday will offer an opportunity to reflect to help you reconnect with reality.

So, today for Monday Motivation, we explore the space between recognition of a problem, and action. That space is where many of us might find ourselves today.

Credits, contact, and more info

This podcast series was created, written, edited, produced and is hosted by Jen deHaan.

Jen has a Certificate of Graduate Studies in Developing Healthy Communities: Nutrition, Behavior, and Physical Activity from Tufts University, a degree in adult education in the arts, and various certifications and experience in group fitness instruction.

Artwork, logo, and graphics: Jen deHaan.

Chat with us on Discord! Join the discord channel for this show here discord.gg/heTSW9WnN5

Transcript: On episode pages found here.

More show info/contact: stereoforest.com/garden

Free newsletter: StereoForest.com

Support the show: One-time tip here stereoforest.com/tip

Follow on social media: YouTube, Bluesky, TikTok

This podcast is a StereoForest production. Made and produced in British Columbia, Canada.

The content provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This podcast is not a substitute for professional mental health services, therapy, counselling, or medical care. The views expressed are personal opinions and experiences, and individual results may vary. If you have specific mental health concerns, please consult with qualified healthcare professionals. We have some resources to get started here to search for local resources. Please see this page on our site for more info.

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This is a Stereo Forest production from StereoForest

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.com.

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Information, resources, and opportunities to support the show

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and connect with others are available at StereoForest

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.com daily reconnect.

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This podcast is for informational and educational purposes

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only, and is not a substitute for medical

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advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

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If you have specific mental health concerns, please

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consult with a qualified healthcare professional.

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Now, onto the show.

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Welcome to the Daily Reconnect.

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It's March 24th, and I'm your host, Jen

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DeHaan.

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This podcast is designed to help you reconnect

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with the present while you might feel detached

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or unmotivated with the world around you, or

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if things just feel pretty surreal.

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Together, we'll re-engage with the reality of

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the world, our minds, and hopefully, each other.

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This podcast is going to be the same,

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with a bit of a weekly reorganization.

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This is while I gear up towards a

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sustainable daily offering.

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On Mondays, I share some words of motivation

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to continue with your week.

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Life is a struggle, and remaining motivated to

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continue this fight that is existence, and to

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maintain democracy, well, all of it is pretty

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exhausting and draining.

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Other episodes include grounding exercises to settle the

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nerves and reconnect.

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So, use whatever resonates with you, and modify

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or discard anything that doesn't feel right or

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doesn't work for you.

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So, today, we will explore the subtle but

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pretty powerful territory that exists between recognition and

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action.

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It's a space where many of us find

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ourselves today.

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So, by now, you may have come to

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see systems of harm, things such as the

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exploitation that exists in capitalism, or the very

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dangerous patterns that we're seeing in fascism.

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You might even recognize the interconnected crises of,

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like, climate, and healthcare, and isolation, and how

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fascism rises from all of these things happening

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simultaneously.

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Recognizing this is really important, because that is

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the foundation of any meaningful response that we

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can even make to all of this that's

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going down.

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But this recognition alone, while it's really important

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alone, it changes nothing, or not very much.

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Like, sitting with signs, that doesn't change anything,

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or even attending a rally in a convention

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center, just going and showing up.

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Very little comes from that as well.

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The action after these things, that does change

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something.

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There's a particular comfort in awareness without action,

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a sense that seeing clearly is enough, that

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naming the problem somehow addresses it, just having

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the conversation.

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We tell ourselves, well, at least I understand

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what's happening, at least I'm not deceived.

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We share articles, we share posts on Blue

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Sky, we express our outrage on a Reddit

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thread.

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We might attend a big rally, or a

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presentation from our political leaders.

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We might have passionate conversations with like-minded

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friends of ours.

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And all of these things, yes, they're important,

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but they might stop short of anything that

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is really transformative.

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Action.

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And this moment in history demands action.

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Many of us find ourselves waiting.

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We wait for leaders to emerge out of

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all of this, ones who will show us

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the way forward.

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We wait for the perfect organization to join,

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or we wait for the perfect organization to,

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you know, get behind and say that we

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support.

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We wait for a moment when the action

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feels less risky, or less inconvenient to our

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schedules, less disruptive of our daily lives.

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We wait for someone else to do the

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work, someone, say, more knowledgeable than you, or

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more eloquent than me, or more qualified to

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organize the resistance, or create an alternate option

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for us.

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We're waiting to act.

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And until then, we don't want our lives

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to be disturbed.

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Now, this is understandable.

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What we're looking at today, our rights as

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humans, or the climate, or our workspaces, or

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money, or access, or politics, it's enormous.

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All these things are huge.

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Individual action can seem insignificant against these huge

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things, these huge systems.

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And yet, throughout history, the significant movements for

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justice and liberty didn't start very often with

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charismatic leaders, or the perfect plan.

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They started with ordinary people who simply stopped

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waiting.

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These important movements, the ones that have succeeded,

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have often started with a bunch of people

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in a community meeting in the basement, and

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coordinating, and staying in solidarity, being consistent.

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Powers that be, they don't concede that power

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from way up there, but they do respond

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to a significant amount of pressure from below,

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from people like us.

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Grassroot action, organized effort that just emerges from

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the communities that are affected, have been the

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primary catalyst for meaningful change.

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Now, that doesn't mean that all of us,

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every single person, has to become an activist

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full-time, or organize a massive movement.

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And if there's something that's already out there,

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already organized in motion, go and join that.

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But know that these grassroots movements, the ones

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that start in basements, they thrive when they

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have diverse forms of participation, diverse participants with

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a bunch of different skills from a bunch

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of different backgrounds that can offer their insight,

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offer their expertise.

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And what makes these movements so powerful and

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so effective is because they aren't uniform.

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They're people, they're groups that are refusing to

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wait for someone else to do it, for

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someone else to fix it.

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So honestly assess, sometime this week, assess your

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life and see if you are waiting, perhaps.

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If you notice any of these patterns of

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thought, like I'll get more involved when I

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have more time or more energy or more

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money, or I'll do something when I find

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the best organization, or maybe I'll do some

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more research and look into it later.

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Or maybe it's something like I'll act when

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I feel more confident, like I don't feel

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comfortable on video, or whatever it is.

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And now these thoughts, they're totally normal.

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So many of us share them, but they

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end up working as barriers essentially, between recognizing

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that big problem, the thing that you recognize

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and understand, and actually starting to act upon

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that concern.

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So what would it look like to stop

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waiting?

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You might need to be a little bit

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shy or uncomfortable until you get to know

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people in the organization.

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Recognize that.

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If you know that's probably going to be

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true for you, recognize that it's occurring and

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know that it won't necessarily be forever.

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Or maybe you need to reorganize a part

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of your week to be able to fit

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in some sort of volunteering or effort into

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a hectic schedule.

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So your contribution might be small, and that's

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okay too, because it still matters.

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Grassroot efforts and changes, this comes from consistent

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and coordinated efforts across many people with many

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different skills and talents.

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It doesn't come from one or two heroes

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or notable names.

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The change comes from hundreds or thousands of

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people, each doing what they can wherever they

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are with what they have, and that's often

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enough.

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So find the courage to act on what

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you care about today.

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Notice when complacency might appear as your voice

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of reason.

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Maybe that voice is telling you to wait

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for something better or any of the things

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that I mentioned earlier, like better leaders or

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tasks or a better time in your life,

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and challenge this voice.

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Challenge it.

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Be curious and challenge it.

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The cost right now with a lot of

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what we're dealing with is pretty darn high,

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and because of what we're looking at, we

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might feel like we're never quite ready.

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You don't need to have all the answers

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or know the entire path forward or what

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we should do, but grassroots action begins with

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just showing up in your community.

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Bring your honesty, your curiosity, your humanity to

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these spaces where people are working collectively towards

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justice, towards our shared goals.

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And in those spaces, that's where the strategy

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comes out.

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That's where it emerges through that relationship that

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you start building.

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Clarity.

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What we need to do develops through these

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shared experiences, and confidence grows through this little

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victories, the small wins that we win together.

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Because it's not easy, and it's not supposed

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to be, but also you're not alone.

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These huge scary systems that we're confronting, these

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systems, they want us to permanently wait.

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That's how they win.

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They don't want action.

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So our most powerful response to what's going

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on is to just begin.

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Just start anyway.

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If it's imperfect or partial, like that's fine,

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but we need to act decisively and now.

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The world that we want doesn't come from

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perfection or sometime later, or someone else fixing

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it, somebody else saving it.

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But if we have the courage to come

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together right now, we can build this from

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the ground up with the people around us

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today.

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There's so many more of us than there

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are of them.

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You're not powerless in the face of these

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systems.

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Your capacity for action, especially when it's joined

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with others in your own communities, that has

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a real potential for change, even if things

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seem pretty hopeless right now.

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And the time for waiting, that passed a

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while ago.

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The grassroots movements, those will shape our future,

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and they're here, and they're growing in size.

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They don't need you to be perfect.

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They don't need a perfect time.

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They simply need you to be there, to

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be present, to be persistent, consistent in it

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for the long run, in whichever ways you

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have the capacity for.

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So that's it for today, March 24th.

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Thank you so much for joining me, and

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let's reconnect again on Wednesday for a grounding

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vagal nerve exercise.

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Thank you for listening to The Daily Reconnect.

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Episodes are released on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,

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every week.

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This show was created, written, hosted, edited, and

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produced by Jen DeHaan.

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Links to contact information, ways to support the

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show, transcripts, the free newsletter, and our community

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Discord can be found in the show notes.

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This is a Stereo Forest production.