Finding Your Voice When the World is On Fire

The U.S. feels really heavy right now, and if your body and brain feel like they’re on permanent high alert, that's you responding like a human living in a country that’s politically fractured, exhausted, and unsure of what comes next. When violence and constant “we're in crisis” news stack up, it all lives in our nervous systems, and our voices.

Naming the weight we’re under

Many people across the world are reporting a mix of anger, fear, overwhelm, and numbness as conflict keeps escalating. It all trickles down into our minds as anxiety, doom-scrolling, or feeling too drained to do anything at all.

As someone who literally studied history and oppressive systems, I know how fast “this feels bad” can slide into “this feels dangerous,” and how that can make your body flip into full fight-or-flight. And you're right. It is. Your brain is not overreacting; it’s trying to protect you, even if that “protection” looks like panic, shutdown, or wanting to disappear under blankets.

I'm not going to say this isn't happening or it's all in your head. It's not. It's real and it's scary. What I want you to hear, before anything else, is this: there is nothing morally superior about any particular way of responding. If you’re in survival mode, you are not “doing it wrong.” If you’re ready to march, you are not “too much.” No level is better or worse than the other. Every level of using your voice that I’m about to name is valid, needed, and powerful in its own way.

Level 1: When getting out of bed seems tough

If you are in full fight-or-flight (or freeze or fawn or all the other f's you can't bring yourself to give) and basic tasks feel impossible, your job is not fix the country. Your job is to come back into your body enough to get through the next few minutes. Grounding is step one of resistance, because you can’t think clearly or act intentionally if your nervous system is going haywire.

Here are some grounding options if all you can do is the bare minimum:

• Where are your feet? Literally look for them, feel the floor or the bed under them, notice temperature, pressure, texture. Wiggle your toes. Let your attention live there for 30–60 seconds.

• Rainbow scan: Sit where you are and slowly find one thing that’s red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple in your space. Let your eyes land and rest on each color.

• Tree watching: Pick one tree outside (or a plant, or even the shadow of one) and study it like you’re going to have to describe it to someone later - the shapes of branches, tiny color shifts, the way the light hits it.

• If you can, add water or movement: Take a shower or bath if accessible, focusing on the sensation of water on your skin; go for a short walk and feel each step; or hum on a comfortable pitch and let the vibration buzz against your lips and face.

None of this fixes the nation. But it does something more immediate: it tells your body “You are here. You are in this room. You have a body. Right now, you are safe enough to feel your feet.” An that’s not small.

Level 2: When you're ready to create

If you have a little more capacity, this is where creation comes in. Don't worry about polished, or perfect, or “worthy of posting.” Just concentrate on you, your feelings, and some way to get them out of your head and into the world where they can move.

• Singing: When we sing, we use deeper, more rhythmic breathing, which can help move us out of constant stress mode and into a more regulated state. Singing (even alone in your car or shower) is physically cathartic. Using your voice can release endorphins and help your body process emotion instead of storing it.

• Writing: Rage journaling, messy poetry, bullet-point lists of “Things I Hate About Late-Stage Capitalism,” it all counts. Getting specific on the page keeps the dread from swirling as one giant fog cloud in your brain.

• Other art: Collage, doodling, painting angry red streaks, playing guitar on the same chord for five minutes, dancing in your kitchen. Remember: awkward is welcome. Clumsy is welcome. Get messy.

Historically, art has always been a way people survived oppressive conditions and made meaning when nothing made sense. You’re allowed to add your small, raw piece to that long human tradition.

Level 3: When you can use your voice for others

If you’re in a place where you can do more than survive and create—where you feel a pull to act—this is the level where your voice expands beyond you. Again, this is not “better” than the other levels. It’s just a different place on the same continuum. If you’re here today, great. If you’re not, that’s okay.

Some ways to act using your voice:

• Call your representatives: Even in a deeply polarized era, officials track contact from constituents and look at volume on specific issues. You can write a short script focused on one concrete concern and read it word-for-word. Even if you don't think they're on your side, they need your call. Think of communities most impacted by current policies, and let your nervousness be the price of standing beside them. Here's a great website to find your reps: https://5calls.org/

• Talk in your circles: That might mean gently naming what you’re feeling in a group chat, sharing resources, or asking “Hey, can we check in about how we’re all actually doing with the news lately?” You don’t have to have perfect talking points.

• Support others’ actions: If you can’t speak up, you can still donate, share vetted information, offer rides, watch someone’s kids while they attend a meeting, or bring snacks to people doing direct work.

• Find the communities: Don't reinvent the wheel by taking on everything. Grass roots activists have been working on this stuff for decades. Find them and see what you can do together. Here's a great article on the efficacy of community: https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/organize/

Your work here might look like a phone call, or like making art that helps someone else feel less alone, or maybe like surviving another day in a body that history has repeatedly tried to erase. All of that is part of the same ecosystem of resistance.

You are stronger than you think

Whichever level you’re at today, you are already doing something that matters. The fact that you’re noticing how you feel instead of numbing out completely is a form of courage (and don't forget, numbing out is also a valid protective mechanism you don't need to be ashamed of).

Here’s what I want you to carry with you:

• Grounding is action.

• Creating is action.

• Speaking up is action.

You are allowed to move between these levels as often as you need. Some days you’ll be the person humming on the couch, some days you’ll be the person making angry art, some days you’ll be the person on the phone with an office that doesn’t want to hear from you. And some days you'll be hiding under a blanket wondering where your feet are. And all of those versions of you are worthy, powerful, and needed.

If nothing else, start here with me: pause, feel for your feet, notice one color in the room, and take one steady breath. That’s your first act of reclamation today.