Core values exercise, and when we feel alone in the struggle

WEBVTT

1

This is a Stereo Forest production from StereoForest

2

.com.

3

Information, resources and opportunities to support the show

4

and connect with others are available at StereoForest

5

.com slash Daily Reconnect.

6

This podcast is for informational and educational purposes

7

only and is not a substitute for medical

8

advice, diagnosis or treatment.

9

If you have specific mental health concerns please

10

consult with a qualified healthcare professional.

11

Now on to the show.

12

In this episode we will do an exercise

13

that helps you reconnect while reflecting on your

14

core values and then we'll discuss some reasons

15

why we feel isolated while struggling.

16

Welcome to the Daily Reconnect.

17

It's March 17th and I'm your host Janda

18

Han.

19

This brief session aims to help you connect

20

with the present moment when feeling disconnected or

21

adrift from your surroundings.

22

Together we'll rediscover and reconnect with our place

23

in this beautiful, wild, distressing, fascinating reality.

24

After we complete this practice we'll hopefully gather

25

the strength or just the willingness to face

26

our day.

27

Take the elements that resonate during this exercise

28

and feel free to adjust or leave behind

29

anything that doesn't work for you.

30

This is your time to focus and reset.

31

Then you'll hear some encouraging words to help

32

you align your actions with these values throughout

33

your day.

34

This week's episodes offer exercises that can help

35

in particular with an inundation of news.

36

Something that might affect us even during less

37

stressful times.

38

The exercise today helps you reconnect with your

39

fundamental principles during times of news overwhelm.

40

It can provide some steadiness in the face

41

of this onslaught by helping you navigate information

42

while being able to return to your core

43

values to remind you who you are and

44

how to proceed.

45

So find a comfortable position or a walking

46

pace and take several deep breaths as we

47

get started.

48

As you begin to regulate your breathing allow

49

yourself to become curious about what matters most

50

to you beyond your daily concerns.

51

Think of a moment when you felt truly

52

aligned with your authentic self.

53

This might be a time when your actions

54

reflected what you deeply believe in.

55

Perhaps it was standing up for someone, creating

56

something meaningful, connecting deeply with others, or pursuing

57

knowledge.

58

Notice how your body feels as you recall

59

this memory of living or acting aligned with

60

those values.

61

Now begin to identify specific core values that

62

guide your life.

63

It might be a pattern, it might be

64

something you keep coming back to, or perhaps

65

it's something related to your work or a

66

lifelong hobby.

67

These values might include compassion or truth, justice,

68

your family, creativity, learning, your community around you.

69

There's no right or wrong set of values,

70

only what genuinely matters to you.

71

And now if you can, visualize those values

72

as signposts that surround you.

73

Or you might visualize a compass or a

74

map if that's easier, or just acknowledge them

75

if visualizations are not available to you.

76

Now choose one value that feels particularly important

77

to you right now, one that might help

78

you navigate your current challenges.

79

Imagine this value as more prominent in your

80

visualization, a bigger sign, it might be glowing,

81

perhaps it's a mark on the map, and

82

allow this value to fill your awareness.

83

Now consider how this core value might guide

84

your response to overwhelming information this week.

85

Could you return to this when encountering fear

86

or anger inducing headlines or some form of

87

disinformation, in confusing unpredictable times or situations that

88

may lead you to want to give up?

89

Could returning to this value help balance emotions

90

that are not useful to you in the

91

moment?

92

So now take some deep breaths as we

93

end our exercise, return your awareness to the

94

present time.

95

And I want to acknowledge something that many

96

of us feel quite deeply.

97

In this struggle against oppressive systems, we quite

98

often feel profoundly alone and isolated.

99

And this isolation, it really isn't an accident.

100

The systems around us of capitalism and fascism

101

are designed to fragment us apart, to make

102

our struggles feel individual rather than collective, really

103

to convince us that our pain is a

104

personal failure rather than a problem of the

105

system.

106

When you can't make rent even though you

107

work full-time, or when healthcare remains out

108

of your reach because of cost or access

109

issues or both of those things, when your

110

community faces targeted harassment, these experiences are deliberately

111

structured to make them feel like they're just

112

your burden alone.

113

And the message that we receive is quite

114

clear.

115

You're on your own and figure it out

116

by yourself.

117

This isolation is made worse because of the

118

physical and digital parts of our life.

119

Neighborhoods are not all that walkable for so

120

many of us.

121

They're designed that way.

122

They're designed without community in mind or our

123

third spaces.

124

Those are pretty much completely gone now.

125

Online algorithms that amplify this division.

126

Workplaces, they discourage unions.

127

And the constant grind means that we don't

128

really have a lot of time for connection

129

as it is.

130

But I want you to know that recognizing,

131

that acknowledging this isolation, naming it and seeing

132

it, that's an act of resistance.

133

And just doing that starts the process of

134

weakening the powers that are making us so

135

isolated by discussing it with others, by identifying

136

it with somebody else, even more so.

137

So take a moment and recognize that so

138

many other people around you are experiencing the

139

same kind of struggles, the same kind of

140

doubts.

141

They have similar moments of despair.

142

Not because there's something wrong with you or

143

them or any of us, but because these

144

systems are functioning just as they were designed

145

to do.

146

Unfortunately, your isolation, that isn't a personal failing

147

of yours, but it was a structural, like

148

an obstacle that was placed into your path,

149

really with intention, with forethought, by somebody else

150

to benefit them, not you.

151

Now, recognizing this isn't going to immediately transform

152

your circumstances, what's happening right now, of course

153

it won't, but it shifts something essential in

154

how we might relate to these feelings, to

155

relate to this isolation.

156

It places your experience, it places that loneliness

157

in a much larger context, and that opens

158

the possibility of connection.

159

Even when physical proximity might not be accessible

160

or might not be possible for some of

161

us, there are other ways.

162

But remember that throughout history, the very first

163

step in all of these movements for justice,

164

movements for change, it was when humans recognized

165

that their individual suffering was connected to a

166

much larger system, to a larger design or

167

plan.

168

Before collective action, before mass movements even came

169

about, there was this moment of clarity that

170

this thing, it isn't just happening to me,

171

it's happening to all of us.

172

And in this case, it's not really a

173

left versus right, but more a top versus

174

bottom.

175

So you're not alone in what you're experiencing,

176

even when everything might make it feel that

177

way.

178

And in the next episode, we'll explore how

179

to maintain your strength and your dignity when

180

the systems are designed to break it.

181

Your struggles, they're shared by many people, and

182

this shared experience, even when we might be

183

physically distant from each other, it contains the

184

beginnings of real connection and real possibility.

185

And remember that the world is better due

186

to your presence within it.

187

So that's it for today, March 17th.

188

Thank you so much for joining me in

189

this brief episode, and let's connect again on

190

Wednesday.

191

Thank you for listening to The Daily Reconnect.

192

Episodes are released on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

193

every week.

194

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

195

produced by Jen DeHaan.

196

Links to contact information, ways to support the

197

show, transcripts, the free newsletter, and our community

198

discord can be found in the show notes.

199

This is a Stereo Forest production.