Just before the election, Founder of Choose Democracy Daniel Hunter wrote a great advice column: “Thus, for us to be of any use in a Trump world, we have to pay grave attention to our inner states, so we don’t perpetuate the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion or constant disorientation.”

A last minute opportunity to go away for the weekend to a place with no Internet coverage presented itself; so we took it! When we booked it, before the US election day, I had no idea how badly I would need to log the fuck off. I am going to be, quite literally, touching grass.

It means I’m writing the newsletter a bit earlier than usual, while some elements of the US election are still unknown. It’s not yet clear who will control the House of Representatives (if the Republicans win, they will control all forms of federal government). If you have been reading Zee Feed for a while you will also know we’re very big on not jumping in with analysis too quickly. We’ll have a bigger dissection of what the fuck just happened soon, which will tackle some topics I’m yet to see anyone mention. To do a good job of that, I’m gonna need my heart rate to come down first.

Hunter’s advice is focused on Americans – as it should be. While we are all, unfortunately, “in a Trump world” now, it’s also important to remember to not centre ourselves too much in public displays of grief, distress and panic. The people most vulnerable and most at-risk right now are, generally, not in Australia.

For us, I thought I’d have a go at sharing some of the things I’m doing to regulate my emotions and build up my resilience in this moment. A little extension pack to my advice column from 2023.  

1. Touch Grass (literally). I wasn’t joking about this! Putting your bare feet in direct contact with the earth – standing on grass, soil or sand – does have a calming effect and helps mental health. I am not a very ‘woo woo’ kind of person, and hearing it called “grounding” or “earthing” initially felt too mystical, but it absolutely works for me. Studies have been done to show that being physically connected to nature does have a relaxing effect. But to be totally honest with you, the research into why it has that effect is less compelling at the moment (still too woo woo for me).

For the ‘why’ aspect, the ideas from The Nature Principle by Richard Louv make the most sense to me: we’re human, and nature is meant to be integrated into our lives. He puts forward the concept of ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’ to describe how not spending enough time in nature in our modern lives contributes to behavioural changes, mental and emotional distress. 

2. Learn, try or explore something brand new. And I mean new, something you are genuinely unfamiliar with. Being a journalist and working in news can be a very distressing job (I’ve written about those fears before) but there is at least one mental health benefit: I constantly have to learn new things. And even though I get to speak to experts and thinkers and interesting people, a lot of the time to write even one good article on a topic I have to teach myself the basics, enough to be able to ask those people the right questions. It’s my favourite part of this work.

Learning new things is very good for your brain. It helps with neuroplasticity (the ability for our brain to form new neural connections and pathways), which is necessary for strong memory skills, problem solving skills, and general mental resilience. It keeps our brains alive. You know how they say that once you’ve learned a second language, it’s easier to learn a third or fourth? It’s because the first time around your brain re-wires itself to accommodate the new skill, so you’re not really starting from scratch with the second. 

Being in the habit of learning new things and practising new skills is essential for living in an changing world. We have to adapt as our environment does, so we need to be comfortable with picking up new things and getting our brains to thinking differently. Plus, it’s good to practise fighting the urge to give up or shut down when you’re not very good at the thing to begin with. And if you pick something fun, like a new hobby, focusing deeply on something that’s not work and not the news is at least a nice distraction. 

3. Have a conversation with a stranger. We have to stay open to new ideas. Or maybe it’s better to say different ideas. We have to stay curious about the way other people think, and find points of connection with each other. That’s the only way to build solidarity and combat the fear of the ‘other’ which yes is political action, but will also make you feel good. Having nice exchanges with other people feels nice! The physical act of smiling tells your brain to be happy!

It’s not about making new friends, or “changing people’s minds about politics” – in fact, absolutely do not start any of these interactions on political topics. But again, it’s about practising a good habit. Low stakes, fleeting conversations with someone you might not ever see again. The more different they are to you, the better. In the Zee Feed community we refuse to commit generational warfare, remember?

This is the most intimidating of the three options for me, which is a sign it’s what I need to do most of all. If you see me out and about in Hobart, please come and say hello!

In honour of the above, none of the content recommendations this week are related to the current news cycle. I’ve focused on picking interesting and unusual ideas, in long form storytelling. It’s good for us!

– Crystal
Founder & Chief of Everything at Zee Feed
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Smart stuff on the Internet 💭

All the stuff I found on the web that made me think, smile, or have an ‘aha!’ moment. Spend your Sunday reading them – you'll be better off for it:

The joy of clutter on AEON 
“In suburbs across the nation, homes filled to the rafters with hoarded junk are common enough to have an ironic idiom: gomi-yashiki (trash-mansions). And in areas where space is limited, cluttered residences and shops will often erupt, disgorging things onto the street in a semi-controlled jumble so ubiquitous that urban planners have a name for it: afuré-dashi (spilling-outs). This is an ecstatic, emergent complexity, born less from planning than from organic growth, from the inevitable chaos of lives being lived.”

My Quest to Exterminate an Earworm on Vulture
“Earworms were not uncommon for me, though they’d eventually get forced out by something else. “It’s Hard to Say” was different. It wouldn’t leave. By the time of my engagement, it had been wedged in my mind for months, a chorus joining me the second I got out of bed and popping back up as I went about my morning errands … It followed me for the next two years, on trips around the world and during my normal daily routine, in a way that seemed like a taunt: My brain was taking the mechanical “now press repeat” directive at the end of the song a little too literally.”

Mistakes make poetry on Overland
“Creative mistakes are ones made by accident or deliberately. In poetry, this comes from misreading, a powerful tool of creativity often ignored or dismissed by the literarily correct. Years ago, when I started reading Dana Gioia on the recommendation of a US-based poet, I found I was prone to making mistakes whenever the poetry bored. Normally, I would chuckle to myself and went on. But it was around that time that I started recording my mistakes wherever they appeared on the pages, because – I’m now on the point of sharing my most secret secret with you – I found my mistakes inducive to poetry.’

The Strange & Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit on GQ
“For nearly thirty years, a phantom haunted the woods of Central Maine. Unseen and unknown, he lived in secret, creeping into homes in the dead of night and surviving on what he could steal. To the spooked locals, he became a legend—or maybe a myth. They wondered how he could possibly be real. Until one day last year, the hermit came out of the forest.”

Want to Build a Perfect 21st Century Town? Ban Cars. On Outside Online
“Ditching cars entirely might seem crazy. But what Culdesac is attempting to accomplish is a revision of city living, where the pedestrian, not the automobile, is more valued. To Johnson, Culdesac is an oasis in a desert of car-fueled aggravation—a walkable community that’s safe, entertaining, better for the climate, and better for the individual. And he believes that if he builds it, people will come.”

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