“Ce CAHIER ANATOMIQUE provient de l’édition de Notre corps, nous-mêmes parue en 2020 aux éditions Hors d’atteinte.
Les autrices l’ont voulu sous licence Creative commons. Vous pouvez le copier, l’utiliser à des fins pédagogiques ou autres, le transmettre librement, à condition d’en citer la source ( à l’exclusion de toute utilisation commerciale).”
Six years ago in 2014 we created a self-care routine video we called the Bootsequence. It shows a sequence of soft simple movements to wake up, warm up, unlock, stretch, strengthen the body from head to toes. It is recommended in the morning, before physical activity (including long hours of computer work), or as an interlude, to restore some flow in the body after prolonged stillness.
We dedicated this self-care routine video to Julian Assange, journalist founder of WikiLeaks, in a gesture of care and to raise awareness about his situation, and that of other imprisoned journalists, hacktivists and whistleblowers. Indeed at the time of shooting the video, Julian Assange was a political refugee inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, living in a situation similar to arbitrary detention (as ruled by UN working group on arbitrary detention). That abuse kept intensifying over the years, seriously damaging Assange’s physical and psychological health, as assessed and documented by doctors and by UN rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer. It culminated with Assange’s arrest by UK authorities in April 2019, his imprisonment at Belmarsh, and the US charging him with espionage act offenses and requesting his extradition. In the US, Julian Assange risks more torture and 175 years in prison – for doing great journalism.
Amid the new coronavirus epidemic and with Assange still not free, we thought we’d share this self-care video again. To stay balanced and fit through the epidemic, and, with some people confined, to remember to keep moving and find structure in a routine. All the while remembering to keep fighting for Julian Assange’s freedom and safety, because his life is more than ever at risk.
Still not free, weakened by a multipartite political persecution which doesn’t seem to ever end, Julian Assange is detained at Belmarsh prison in London, awaiting the second part of the extradition trial, set in May.
Meanwhile the new coronavirus infection epidemic progresses everywhere, overwhelming healthcare systems, costing lives, disrupting activities, revealing social divides, showing the damages done by human greed gone global. Many people across countries now practice social distancing and live confined to their homes to try and contain the epidemic – necessary vital precautions of course, and also, it could be argued, a compensation for their governments lack of preparedness, cynical neglect, years of dismantling of the welfare state, and self-interest of big private capital. Many people are toiling hard still, insufficiently protected.
Concerns are growing about the health and safety of the most vulnerable people including prisoners, often living in overcrowded unsanitary conditions, in the UK too.
Julian Assange is not imprisoned for any crime. His health is poorly and he even developed a chronic lung condition over the past years of his arbitrary detention. Doctors have documented this, they have warned, over and over again, that his situation is most unfair and that his life is at risk in Belmarsh prison. More than ever now that he is at risk of contracting a coronavirus infection inside these walls and die from it. Like all prisoners who pose no risk to the public he should be RELEASED NOW
Yet Judge Vanessa Baraister has refused to grant bail to Julian Assange. We join other fellow campaigners in denouncing this as an appalling, dangerous, cruel if not criminal decision.
FREE ASSANGE !
Take care and keep fighting
<3
Sign the petition to release Assange from Belmarsh before covid-19 spreads
by Crimethinc
“The pandemic is not going to pass in the next few weeks. Even if strict confinement measures succeed in cutting the number of infections down to what it was a month ago, the virus could resume spreading exponentially again as soon as the measures are suspended. The current situation is likely to continue for months—sudden curfews, inconsistent quarantines, increasingly desperate conditions—though it will almost certainly shift form at some point when the tensions within it boil over. To prepare for that moment, let’s protect ourselves and each other from the threat posed by the virus, think through the questions about risk and safety that the pandemic poses, and confront the disastrous consequences of a social order that was never designed to preserve our well-being in the first place.”
Surviving the virus: An anarchist guide
Sopravvivere al virus: una guida anarchica
Survivre au virus: Une méthode anarchiste
Sobreviviendo al virus : Una guia anarquista
17 a 21 de maio de 2020, Centre for Social Studies | University of Coimbra (Portugal) >> Deadline for applications: 20 january 2020 – Extended Deadline
“The Monsters Summer School II embraces monstrosity in what it offers regarding the undoing of binaries and the celebration of embodied differences in times when the advancement of extreme-right and populism threatens our existence. We aim to explore who are the contemporary monsters, what are the dichotomies they challenge and how narratives on monsters contribute to definitions of human. We want to explore monsters as a possible theoretical figuration to escape mainstream celebrations of humanity and to embrace the vivid possibilities offered by interdisciplinary, boundary-crossing contributions from different fields of knowledge. We aim at creating spaces to discuss contributions and experiences that often fall out of the map even within critical studies. Also, we interrogate the possibilities of creating knowledge from places of estrangement regarding mainstream sources of knowledge production in the academic fields of LGBTQI+ and critical studies.
Drawing on timely, interdisciplinary theoretical contributions and intersectional empirical work on queers, crips and other misfits, the Monsters’ Summer School will consolidate academic knowledge in the fields of sexual and gender dissidence, disability and other forms of embodied misfit.“
The Gendersec Curricula is a resource that introduces a holistic, feminist perspective to privacy and digital security trainings. Informed by years of working with women and trans activists around the world, this free resource covers over 20 topics such as Hacking Hate Speech, Strategies of Resistance, Creative Uses of Social Media,Technological Sovereignty, Handling Anxiety, Releasing Physical Stress, Information Mapping and Identifying Risks. Trainers can access the workshops and adapt them to their communities to help Women, activists and Human Rights Defenders to protect themselves from online and offline threats.
Cadeau de fin d’année qui répond à un cadeau, voici le POUSSY PLAISIR PROTOCOLE <3
Un protocole-photo de massage plaisir du torse, abdomen et poitrine, dédicacé à Poussy Draama, a.k.a DocteurE Duchesne, pour réaliser avec son huile ou d’autres huiles délicieuses faites maison.
Poussy Draama / DocteurE Duchesne propose des conseils et réconfort autour du bien-être sexuel/ gynécologique. Elle écoute, réponds et partage autour de plein de questions (contraception, violences sexuelles et médicales, médecines douces..) d’un point de vue queer et féministe. Elle facilite régulièrement des ateliers et propose des séances d’écoute et de conseils à prix libre (possible online). Chaque année, Poussy propose aussi une petite livraison de produits de bien-être naturels concoctés par ses bons soins, en édition limitée. En 2017 sous la sapine, je recevais l’Huile Délicieuse pour le corps, une macération de roses et fleurs d’oranger dans des huiles de sésame, coco, et olive. C’est cette huile qui a inspiré le massage crayonné ci dessous. Merci Poussy <3
Pour la contacter : poussydraama@riseup.net
Le massage : Ecris P-O-U-S-S-Y !
Veillez à toujours bien respecter les précautions et contre indications en massage ainsi que des régles de conduites et une éthique bienveillante.
Chauffez vos mains, prenez un peu d’huile, placez vous à la tête de votre ami.e … et écrivez simplement P-O-U-S-S-Y en suivant les lignes et points d’appuis du corps, comme indiqué sur le dessin ! Vous pouvez aussi pratiquer ce protocole en auto-massage !!
Ce sont des manoeuvres simples, mains pleines, paumes à plat, qui épousent et confortent la peau (mais libre à vous de faire entrer des variations). N’hésitez pas à répéter plusieurs fois chaque geste. Le rythme est plutot lent (ou langoureux disons), car on ne peut pas aller trop vite si on veut bien “épouser” le corps, mais introduisez tout de meme des variations, ralentissez, voire marquez des pauses – laissez bien la place à la respiration (la votre et celle de votre ami.e) et laissez vous guider.
D’un point de vue des bienfaits, outre la détente et le plaisir, ce massage informé par la Médecine Classique Chinoise soutient la circulation sur le méridien Conception a.k.a Ren Mai (avec le P et le Y), le transit intestinal (avec le P et le O) , renforce la force vitale du centre (O), soutient l’ascension de la rate (U) et le méridien du foie qu’il désengorge (avec le U et le Y, les S), et soulage / relax le coeur et péricarde (les S). Un massage qui peut donc être bien indiqué en cas de contrariétés pré-moonstruelles (avec par exemple tensions dans les seins, problèmes digestifs, irritabilité, tristesse..)
Vous souhaitant bien du plaisir, chaleur au coeur et au corps, harmonies amoureuses et infinies amitiés
Emily <3
CC-BY-NC-SA
Emily King / Poussy Draama
Below is a guidelines for a simple yet powerful exercise, if you give it a chance. The simultaneous placing of hands on – and thus connecting of- important centers (brain, heart, stomach..) can have an effect on the nervous system and help balance emotions on a daily basis. Importantly, it can open a “path back home” to a calm composed state in case of a crisis/panic. Like all exercises designed to help in times of emergency, it is best to practice in relatively more peaceful times, so as to be familiar with it.
Note you can also use these placing of hands to help soothe a friend, if they are OK with your touch in that moment.
>>>> Printable 2 steps self-holding exercises
source: The Art of Healing Trauma, Heidi Hanson, citing Peter Levine.
Here is a nice massage tip to alleviate or prevent fatigue pain caused by over-exertion of the thumb and wrist (from giving many massages for example!). It is also the opportunity to discover a muscle in the forearm, the Flexor pollicis longus muscle, that flexes the phalanges of the thumb. And, we get the anatomical reason why a good massage of the hands is a massage that includes the forearm as well as the fingers ! As shown in our Handshake massage manual !
Instant crush on the works and words of artist/”personal trainer” Nina Cristante ! She develops a low key, intuitive, diy, fluid, elusive (as opposed to marketable), critical/common sense approach to well-being, diet, exercise… Part of her “frugal” Fitness Povero program (a take on the italian Arte Povera) is her “homeworks” collection of physical exercises videos, which she made in her bedroom and to which she also composed the music.
Below is an excerpt of the chapter on Security Indicators in the Holistic Security Strategy Manual for Human Rights Defenders, by Tactical Tech (a recommended resource/read). It describes indicators of health and well-being as security indicators. A security indicator being defined as “anything out of the ordinary that we notice which may have an impact on our security”.
Indicators in our health and well-being :
“It can be easy to overlook our health and well-being, but changes in our health can indicate a reaction to an external problem such as increased stress, which in turn impacts our security situation. As activists we sometimes continue to push ourselves, but in doing so we risk causing lasting damage to our health over time, or hindering our ability to analyse our security situation. We may not be used to monitoring our own health and changes can occur gradually, so adopting a methodological approach to our physical, emotional and psychological selves is a good start. One way of doing this is by making a stress table, like in the exercise below.”
These considerations are followed by an exercise in the form of a stress table, to “help you to identify your limits concerning different kinds of stress, how to recognise these limits and measures to counter stress.”
Don’t forget this week in Montreal is the TransHackFeminist meet-up !
Decolonizing Technologies, Autonomous Infrastructures, Queer and Feminist Pedagogies and Hacking with Care !
Check out the program !
Among the other empowering careful activities organically proposed at THF!2016, it will be the occasion to take part to one of the cherished Hacking with Care body-mind-machine awareness workshop with Goldjian Attent!ion Som(t)a(c)tic, and for the first time to the get into the excitement and ex-plo-rations of the Cryptodance !!!!
<3
Info et planning détaillé des activités / Info and events schedule >> Politics and Care
Sudden shortness of breath, choking, racing heartbeat, pain in the chest, nausea, sweating, shaking, feels like dying, completely losing it… What is happening ? It might well be a Panic attack.
Although very impressive, panic attacks are often not as dangerous as they look, manageable, reversible, and can be avoided in the future. Much of the terror they bring can be controlled by understanding what is actually going on in the body and mind of the person. Whether it’s you or friend. So, in times of peace and quiet, do a bit of research on that extreme physiological state, so you are able to help yourself or someone when the attack attacks. Also, when the emergency has passed, it is important to consider the personal context in which the attack(s) took place, identify, maybe, some triggers. Only then can remedies be found in life and lifestyle that will prevent such challenging crisis from happening again.
Here are some suggested reading:
>> Panic attacks information sheets, Centre for Clinical Intervention
>> Panic attack first aid guidelines, Mental Health First Aid Australia
Whether you’re a chronic sitter, a daily exerciser, or a weekend warrior, you probably know stretching is a critical habit. By sending blood flow to your muscles and helping your joints move through their full range of motion, stretching improves your posture and athletic performance while lowering your risk of pain and injury.
But when you do yoga or a flexibility routine, do you know which muscles you’re actually stretching? Or whether you’re performing each stretch correctly?
With this knowledge in your back pocket, you can choose the best stretches for your goals. And if you ever feel pain — and I don’t mean the good, stretchy kind of pain but the “Whoa, something doesn’t feel right” kind of pain — you can pinpoint the muscle giving you trouble and alter your technique to avoid getting injured.
http://beyoungbegreen.com/36-pictures-see-muscle-youre-stretching/
“I’m going to say it. I want to see an end to “self-care.” Can we put a nail in self-care’s coffin and instead birth a newer discussion of community care?
As I most often hear it, self-care stands as an importation of middle-class values of leisure that’s blind to the dynamics of working class (or even family) life, inherently rejects collective responsibility for each other’s well-being, misses power dynamics in our lives, and attempts to serve as a replacement for a politics and practice of desire that could actually ignite our hearts with a fuel to work endlessly.
Talking about how we sustain ourselves, honor our personal needs, and prioritize our well-being in this brusque and brutal world is a huge advance from movement culture generations before. However, centering that conversation on ‘self-care’ devoid of our place in the collective misses the central point of why we need to care for ourselves. And that is because we must have all of our strength in place to counter the systems which, without our ability to resist and transform, without the self-preservation Audre Lorde describes, would see us destroyed.”
>> Continue reading An End to Self-Care, by B. Loewe, and visit Organizing Upgrade for more thoughts on the subject and community care resources
DocteurE Duchesne dit :
Le DocteurE Duchesne vient faire un tour à Toulouse !
SAMEDI 7 NOVEMBRE
À 16H
Je serai au festival Femme Scandal à Terre Blanque, pour un talk interactif sur les sexualités et la santé féminines, trans & queer. Ecrivez vos questions sur un pâpier, on met tout dans un saladier, et je répondrai en public pendant 1h30 aux questions les plus inspirantes !!!
DIMANCHE 8 NOVEMBRE
À 15H
Atelier auto-exam au spéculum dans un lieu cozy secret à Toulouse !!! Ça va être super love comme d’hab. Dans la première partie, “théorique”, je raconterai histoire du spéculum et de la gynécologie (TW : c’est violent !!), puis on passe à la pratique pour (re)découvrir son col de l’utérus et s’initier aux bases de l’auto-examen (manipulation du spéculum, observation). Atelier non-mixte meufs/gouines/trans.
PLACES LIMITÉES !! Réservation obligatoire par mail, à poussydraama@riseup.net
Le lieu te sera révélé à la suite de ton inscription !
Je fournis les spéculum, apporte un petit miroir et une lampe de poche !
LOve
Thoughts on the restless mind (a.k.a “monkey mind” ), exhaustion from over-thinking, and simple breathing exercise to help drop the bananas, here in this article on Zentacles.
“You’ve got a monkey in your brain. Let’s call him Alan.
Alan is like most normal monkeys. He swings about from tree to tree, he loooooves bananas, and in all likelihood he will never stay in one place for longer than a few minutes. Now let’s say you have something you need to tell Alan – you get him down from whichever tree you find him in, you sit him down on a chair, and you start talking to him. Only before you’ve even finished your sentence, to your dismay, Alan is off back up the tree. You try a few more times, and Alan very helpfully sits there for a number of seconds whilst you try and get your words out. But the same pattern continues, and in the end you give up.”
Quinta-feira, dia 8, às 19h
Filme MIAU: Movimiento insurrecto por la autonomía de Una Misma
* seguido de conversa de boca cheia sobre saúde sexo e autonomia
“Convidamos todas e todos a assistir a este documentário!
É uma chamada a todas as que ignoramos o funcionamento do nosso corpo e nos vemos submetidas a qualquer estrutura machista e patriarcal, seja a médica, a farmacêutica ou qualquer pessoa ou instituição que nos tente silenciar.
Nós lutamos para viver numa sociedade livre e enquanto o fazemos, criamos laços de confiança e compartilhamos o conhecimento aprendido, esperando que se entenda que aí está a graça, em aprender e ensinar, com generosidade, matando o ego e a usura.
Por isso este documentário é uma prenda, porque é conhecimento livre.”
Sexta-feira, dia 9, às 18h
Workshop livre – Calendário menstrual e partilha de experiências
CYCLE is a “calendar program for women. Given a cycle length or statistics for several periods, it can calculate the days until menstruation, the days of “safe” sex, the fertile period, and the days to ovulations, and define the d.o.b. of a child. It allows the user to write notes and helps to supervise the reception of hormonal contraceptive tablets.
Cycle is written in Python (also wxPython required) and distributed under the GNU General Public License.”
Youpi “Livret de gynécologie maison à base de plantes médicinales, écrit par Isabelle Gauthier et distribué par les Bloodsisters, collectif féministe montréalais, au début des années 2000”
C’EST TOUJOURS CHAUD DANS LA CULOTTE DES FILLES
Versao Portuguesa aqui !! CUECAS QUENTES
Gender and Tech Ressources >> ZEN and the art of making tech work for you, complete manual (Tactical Technology Collective + Association for Progressive Communication)
From the Introduction:
“This manual is a community-built resource for our growing community of women and trans* activists, human rights defenders and technologists. It is designed to be a living, growing collection of practical guidance and information that uniquely speaks to our needs, experiences, and activism, both online and offline. Content listed in the manual was created in response to our community’s requests for ideas and guidance they needed, but couldn’t find elsewhere. Therefore, this initial manual content doesn’t cover many other topics that we hope to add with your support and input as it evolves here on the wiki. The current manual explores two overlapping issues:
“This is a process: Stay centered, cultivate patience, and practice self-care
The first most important thing to remember when using this manual, is that we have used the concept of “zen” in the title to highlight the importance of embracing technology with the calm understanding that it won’t always work perfectly. Sometimes you might need to spend time pondering technology and the significance of it in your life, in your community and in the world. And other times you might need to take a break and come back to it.”
“The three months of autumn,
they denote taking in and balance
The Qi of heaven becomes tense *
The Qi of the earth becomes bright.
Go to rest early and rise early,
get up together with the chicken.
Let the mind be peaceful and tranquil, so as
to temper the punishment carried out in autumn**.
Collect the spirit Qi and
cause the autumn Qi to be balanced.
Do not direct your mind to the outside and
cause the lung Qi to be clear.
This is the correspondence with the Qi of autumn and
it is the way to nourish gathering.
Opposing it harms the lung.
In winter this causes outflow of undigested food and
there is little to support storage. ***”
*Wang Bing: Wind blows with a cutting sound
** Violent storms in autumn appeared like a punishment. This was also the season, in ancient China, to perform executions of criminals sentenced to capital punishment. Wang Bing: When the mental Qi is hectic, one is not careful in their activities. If one is not careful in their activities, one accentuate the severity of autumn punishments, goes along with killing, and destroys life. Hence, one establishes a peaceful and tranquil mind to soften the punishments carried out in autumn.
*** Wang Bing: It is to say: to carry out the orders of summer in contrast [to the requirements of autumn]. The lung corresponds to metal and flourishes in autumn. Hence, to carry out [in autumn] the orders of summer, this harms the Qi. In winter the water flourishes and the metal perishes. Hence, the disease develops in winter. If one opposes the [orders of] autumn and harms the lung, this results in diminished Qi [with a reduced ability] to receive the storage in winter.
Comprehensive discourse on regulating the spirit in accordance with the Qi of the four seasons, in Huang Di nei jing su wen, annotated translation, by Paul U. Unschuld and Hermann Tessenow, University of California
Painting: John Grimshaw, Autumn Sun
The Lifelong Activist is a self-help guide for activists by Hillary Rettig. Topics include Manage your mission, manage your time, your fears, your relationship to yourself and to others. Translations section with Indonesian, Italian, Spanish..
“I believe that progressive activists are the world’s most precious resource. We tackle the most difficult and important problems— including hunger, war, disease, poverty, violence, cruelty and exploitation— and work to further humanity’s evolution in the direction of compassion and kindness. Conservatives may create more wealth, but we create more of the values, including justice, equality and freedom, that make life worth living. As history has repeatedly shown us, and as we are unfortunately witnessing in the United States today, wealth without the tempering of progressive values and mores leads inevitably to corruption and despair.”
“
En Aout Poussy Draama, a.k.a DocteurE Duchesne, vous convie à deux ateliers DIY gyneco camping et partages, dans la campagne en été :
“Pour changer des consultations individuelles, nous travaillerons en groupe autour des thèmes habituels du DocteurE.
2 sessions au choix :
du 1er au 4 août
et
du 8 au 11 août
– Discussions, écriture, lecture, partage de connaissances
– Initiation et pratique de l’auto-examen
– Cueillette/transformation de plantes
– Rituels, healing, chill et amitié !
Construisons ensemble une gynécologie adaptée à tous les corps, non-violente, non-jugeante et non-discriminante !
Enfants et femmes enceintes bienvenu.e.s !
Couchage en tente ou en caravane
Repas et good vibe inclus
Tarif : ±30 € selon tes moyens (gratuit si tu es du planning familial, ou sex educator, ou si ta vie est dédiée à changer le monde à temps plein)
Nombre max. de participant-e-s : 5
Emmène ton sac de couchage et des vêtements dans lesquels tu te sens bien. Attention ! Ici nous n’avons ni eau courante, ni électricité, ni internet : les prince-sse-s sont prévenu-e-s !
Possibilité d’arriver et repartir quelques jours avant ou après, pour prolonger le plaisir ou si tu viens de loin.
Infos et inscriptions :
poussydraama@riseup.net
ou 06 86 14 00 02″
Big bisous !
Performer Porn Artist Sexologist Annie Sprinkle big hearted advices on How to cure sex worker burnout :
Step 1
Admit you are burnt out. This sounds easy, but it’s the hardest step. Our egos, as well as our incomes, are invested in feeling good about our work. It’s not easy to admit that you are a mess. See it as an opportunity to grow.
Step 2
Take breaks and vacations from your work as a matter of course. Get sun, fresh air, take a boat ride. Spend time in nature. You may never even get crispy.
Step 3
Spend time alone. Do something relaxing and meditative. A languorous candle lit herbal bath can do wonders.
Step 4
Get in touch with your feelings and express them. Repressed emotions alone can create burn out.
POSTER HERE http://anniesprinkle.org/photos/writings/swbo.pdf
Here is a nice (and somewhat soothing) article on a subject that is maybe not discussed enough among caregivers, or not discussed with the right approach ? The author calls it “Compassion fatigue”. Exhaustion from caring. It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional or not. Caring. Sometimes a very special kind of fatigue sets in, hard to describe. Sleep doesn’t even seem to heal it sometimes. The author notes that, contrary to what most people think and ask all the time, “protecting” oneself from the emotions of the person we’re helping, or setting boundaries between them and you not only doesn’t make sense, it is impossible, and absurd to even want to try, like a dead end. So how then, to recuperate ? What self-care for caregivers ?
>> Compassion and Compassion fatigue: balancing your emotions in the treatment room, Tracy Walton, Massage today
GYNEpunk‘s objective is to make emerge DIY-DIT accessible diagnosis labs and technics in extreme experimentation, down the rocks or elevators if is necesary. Has to be possible in a situated stable place or/and in nomadic mobile labs. Has to be able to perform as much as WE WANT, in a intensive way: smears, fluid analysis, biopsy, PAPs, synthesize hormones at will, blood exams, urinalysis, HIV tests, pain reliefs, or what ever WE NEED. Hack and build our own ultrasound, endoscope or ecography devices in a low-cost way. All this in a strict complementation with herbs and natural knowledges, oral traditions, submarine recipes, seeking with hunger generate superavit of DIY lubricants, anti-conceptives, open doula domains, savage caring of any visceral hands on technologies, as menstrual extraction, all elevated at maximun potential of common learning and radical self-body-power…!
To draw to take the time to look at things, to perceive and to design, to be delicate, to sense beauty, to relate to it, to rejuvenate one’s mind after the ravages of emergency, or boredom, or blackness, to save one’s eyes.
Some thoughts and drawing exercises in the Three Letters for beginners of THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING, by John Ruskin
“5. Everything that you can see in the world around you, presents itself to your eyes only as an arrangement of patches of different colors variously shaded. Some of these patches of color have an appearance of lines or texture within them, as a piece of cloth or silk has of threads, or an animal’s skin shows texture of hairs: but whether this be the case or not, the first broad aspect of the thing is that of a patch of some definite color; and the first thing to be learned is, how to produce extents of smooth color, without texture.”
“21. You will see that all the boughs of the tree are dark against the sky. Consider them as so many dark rivers, to be laid down in a map with absolute accuracy; and, without the least thought about the roundness of the stems, map them all out in flat shade, scrawling them in with pencil, just as you did the limbs of your letters; then correct and alter them, rubbing out and out again, never minding how much your paper is dirtied (only not destroying its surface), until every bough is exactly, or as near as your utmost power can bring it, right in curvature and in thickness. Look at the white interstices between them with as much scrupulousness as if they were little estates which you had to survey, and draw maps of, for some important lawsuit, involving heavy penalties if you cut the least bit of a corner off any of them, or gave the hedge anywhere too deep a curve; and try continually to fancy the whole tree nothing but a flat ramification on a white ground. Do not take any trouble about the little twigs, which look like a confused network or mist; leave them all out, drawing only the main branches as far as you can see them distinctly, your object at present being not to draw a tree, but to learn how to do so. (…)”
“22. You cannot do too many studies of this kind: every one will give you some new notion about trees. But when you are tired of tree boughs, take any forms whatever which are drawn in flat color, one upon another; as patterns on any kind of cloth, or flat china (tiles, for instance), executed in two colors only; and practice drawing them of the right shape and size by the eye, and filling them in with shade of the depth required.”
I think friends, yoga and smart lawyers are essential for living these days.
— Jacob Appelbaum (@ioerror) January 16, 2015
“The three months of Winter
they denote securing and storing.
The water is frozen and the earth breaks open.
Do not disturb the yang [Qi].
Go rest early and rise late.
You must wait for the sun to shine.
Let the mind enter a state as if hidden,
{as if shut in}
as if you had secret intentions;
as if you already had made gains.
Avoid cold and seek warmth and
do not [allow sweat] to flow away through the skin
This would cause the Qi to be carried away quickly.
This is the correspondence with the Qi of Winter and
it is the Way of nourishing storage.
Opposing it harms the kidneys.
In Spring this causes limpness with receding Qi, and
there is little to support generation.
“Now,
the yin and yand [Qi] of the four seasons,
they constitute root and basis of the myriad beings.
Hence the sages
in spring and summer nourish the yang and
in autumn and winter nourish the yin, and
this way they follow their roots.
Hence,
they are in the depth or at the surface with the myriad beings at the gate to life and growth.
To oppose one’s root
is to attack one’s basis
and to spoil one’s true [Qi]”
From Comprehensive discourse on regulating the Spirit [in accordance with] the Qi of the four [seasons], chapter 2 of Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen, an annotated translation of Huang Di’s inner classic – basic questions, by Paul U. Unschuld and Hermann Tessenow.
So winter is here and you want a strong immune system : make sure you get some good sleep first thing (quantity, quality, regularity..).
Summary:
Severe sleep loss jolts the immune system into action, reflecting the same type of immediate response shown during exposure to stress, a new study reports. Researchers compared the white blood cell counts of 15 healthy young men under normal and severely sleep-deprived conditions. The greatest changes were seen in the white blood cells known as granulocytes, which showed a loss of day-night rhythmicity, along with increased numbers, particularly at night.
Abstract:
Scientists are only beginning to fully understand the purpose of sleep and its underlying mechanisms. Lack of sleep is associated with many diseases, including infection, and with increased mortality. Lack of proper sleep is an important problem in the intensive care unit, and interventions have been designed to improve it. Sleep is associated with immune function, and this relationship is partially based on the physiological basis of sleep, sleep architecture, the sleep-wake cycle, cytokines and the hypothalamic-pituitary axis.
Sleep is one of the biggest riddles known. The knowledge that all animals sleep implies that sleep fulfills some basic physiological need. Yet, scientists are only beginning to fully understand the purpose of sleep1 and the underlying mechanisms.2 Lack of sleep is associated with many diseases and with increased mortality1,3 and is an important problem in the intensive care unit (ICU).4–8
In this review, I describe the relationship between sleep and immune function. Understanding this complicated association requires knowledge of the physiological basis of sleep and the basic elements of immune function as applied to sleep. Therefore, I briefly review sleep architecture and the sleep-wake cycle. I also discuss immune function and cytokines and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.
Although evidence linking sleep and immune function has come from studies of the sleep-wake cycle, cytokines, and the HPA axis, most investigators have relied on 2 basic approaches. In the first approach, laboratory animals and human volunteers are deprived of sleep and the consequences of the deprivation on immune responses, bodily systems associated with the immune system, and/or immune products are measured. In the other approach, laboratory animals or human volunteers are infected with pathogens or given substances that challenge the immune system, and the effects of these interventions on sleep are determined.9 I present evidence provided by using both of these research strategies. Finally, I describe how sleep in the ICU affects patients’ immune function and suggest interventions to improve patients’ sleep.
CrimethInc. zine on self-care.
“Following up our feature “For All We Care” analyzing the contradictory currents within the category of care, we present “Self as Other: Reconsidering Self-Care.” This zine combines that text with three more essays in which individuals recount their personal struggles with the concept and practice of care. Please print and photocopy these to share with anyone who is confronting the same issues!”
http://www.crimethinc.com/blog/2013/09/06/new-zine-about-self-care-self-as-other/
“In the 1980s, as she struggled with cancer, Audre Lorde asserted that caring for herself was “an act of political warfare.” Since then, self-care has become a popular buzzword in activist circles. The rhetoric of self-care has moved from specific to universal, from defiant to prescriptive. When we talk about self-care today, are we talking about the same thing Lorde was? It’s time to reexamine this concept.”
Excerpts
(…)
“Caring for ourselves doesn’t mean pacifying ourselves. We should be suspicious of any understanding of self-care that identifies wellbeing with placidity or asks us to perform “health” for others. Can we imagine instead a form of care that would equip each of us to establish an intentional relationship to her dark side, enabling us to draw strength from the swirling chaos within? Treating ourselves gently might be an essential part of this, but we must not assume a dichotomy between healing and engaging with the challenges around and inside us. If care is only what happens when we step away from those struggles, we will be forever torn between an unsatisfactory withdrawal from conflict and its flipside, a workaholism that is never enough. Ideally, care would encompass and transcend both struggle and recovery, tearing down the boundaries that partition them.”
(…)
“If we want to identify what is worth preserving in self-care, we can start by scrutinizing care itself. To endorse care as a universal good is to miss the role care also plays in perpetuating the worst aspects of the status quo. There’s no such thing as care in its pure form—care abstracted from daily life in capitalism and the struggles against it. No, care is partisan—it is repressive or liberating. There are forms of care that reproduce the existing order and its logic, and other forms of care that enable us to fight it. We want our expressions of care to nurture liberation, not domination—to bring people together according to a different logic and values.”
(…)
“So rather than promoting self-care, we might seek to redirect and redefine care. For some of us, this means recognizing how we benefit from imbalances in the current distribution of care, and shifting from forms of care that focus on ourselves alone to support structures that benefit all participants. Who’s working so you can rest? For others, it could mean taking better care of ourselves than we’ve been taught we have a right to—though it’s unrealistic to expect anyone to undertake this individually as a sort of consumer politics of the self. Rather than creating gated communities of care, let’s pursue forms of care that are expansive, that interrupt our isolation and threaten our hierarchies.
Self-care rhetoric has been appropriated in ways that can reinforce the entitlement of the privileged, but a critique of self-care must not be used as yet another weapon against those who are already discouraged from seeking care. In short: step up, step back.
(…)
“If self-care is just a way to ease the impact of an ever-increasing demand for productivity, rather than a transformative rejection of that demand, it’s part of the problem, not the solution. For self-care to be anti-capitalist, it has to express a different conception of health.”
(…)
“Your human frailty is not a regrettable fault to be treated by proper self-care so you can get your nose back to the grindstone. Sickness, disability, and unproductivity are not anomalies to be weeded out; they are moments that occur in every life, offering a common ground on which we might come together. If we take these challenges seriously and make space to focus on them, they could point the way beyond the logic of capitalism to a way of living in which there is no dichotomy between care and liberation.”
Soon is the 31st Chaos Communication Congress “annual four-day conference on technology, society and utopia.” Some might remember Hacking (with) Care was present last December at 30C3, cocooning, massaging, sharing and caring with La Quadrature du Net at their tea house.
The four days promise to be intense, here is the program of talks. There are, indeed, many subjects of interests, and more than one can chew in four days. Below is a selection of suggested lectures, assemblies, projects… somewhat related to HWC topics and interests.
(27) Personal tracking device and online identity
(27) Mobile self-defense
(27) Crypto tales from the trenches
(27) Citizenfour (film)
(28) The Invisible Committee Returns with “Fuck Off Google”
(28) Hacking ethics in education
(28) Internet of Toilets: Trend in the sanitarian territory
(28) From Computation to Consciousness: How computation helps to explain mind, universe, and everything
(28) Reconstructing Narratives – Transparency in the service of Justice
(28) Doing right by the sources, done right (whistleblowers and sources protection)
(29) Freedom in your computer and in the net
(29) Security Analysis of a full-body X ray Scanner
(29) The Machine To Be Another : Exploring identity and empathy through neuroscience, embodiment, VR and storytelling
(30) The Taste of Surveillance: Artistic responses to invasive observation
Crying on the bathroom floor for no apparent reason
Monty Python’s Funniest Joke in the World – Killer
“C’était une construction intérieure, une base de repli, une secrète terre d’accueil, mais aussi quelque chose d’offensif, qui participait au complot à mains nues de quelques individus contre l’univers capitaliste et contre ses ignominies sans nombre.”
Antoine Volodine, Le post-exostisme en dix leçons, leçon onze.
Étendues infinies indéterminées, guerres en boucles, déserteurs botanistes, mémés communistes increvables, espaces-temps intermédiaires, poches de résistance mentales, tactiques révolutionnaires chamaniques, animaux en errance karmique, cryptographie surréaliste, amitiés instinctives, poésie de combat, ordres de missions hallucinés… Voici quelques composés de la littérature “complot à mains nues (…) contre l’univers capitaliste” menée en une quarantaine de livres par l’auteur connu sous le pseudonyme Antoine Volodine et sa bande d’hétéronymes (Lutz Bassman, Elli Kronauer, Manuela Draeger…) comme autant de dissidents à l’ordre mondial inhumain, ainsi que des “amies” comme Maria Soudaieva, dont le fantastique Slogans, qu’il a traduit du russe au français, pourrait bien être une mine de pass-phrases imprenables. Coup de coeur aussi pour les livres de Manuela Draeger à destination du jeune public, à l’école des loisirs, et surtout pour Onze Rêves de Suie.
Son dernier roman Terminus Radieux a reçu cette année le prix Médicis de la littérature, ce qui signifie que pour une fois, on peut s’acheter un excellent livre en speed à la gare, et se ressourcer âme, coeur, imaginaire, action, en base de repli, secrète terre d’accueil. En littérature amie.
—————————————————
Julian Assange is the founder and editor in chief of Wikileaks.
The publication by Wikileaks of US diplomatic cables and the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs in 2010, exposing US wrong doings and crimes to the public, has brought considerable heat on him and the organization.
In 2012 Assange entered the embassy of Ecuador in London asking for asylum, which he was granted in protection against the political persecution and threats to his life coming from the USA. Indeed in the USA, a secret grand jury is investigating him and Wikileaks, and public figures have called for his assassination, meaning exceptional (illegal?) law and bad treatments most probably await him there (see how Manning was treated).
Contrary to what medias are spinning, Assange is not trying to escape justice in Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning (and not charged) in relation to alleged sexual offenses. Only Sweden is not giving guarantees he would not be extradited to the USA should he travel there for the investigation, nor is the Swedish prosecution accepting alternatives proposed by Assange’s legal team – among other dubious bizarreries in this case.
Meanwhile, the UK keeps the Ecuadorian embassy under constant police watch, refuses Assange safe-passage to his host country, ready to arrest and extradite him to Sweden should he set foot outside.
Consequently Assange has not been able to leave the building and see daylight in over two years, a situation effectively equivalent to pre-charge detention and a violation of his rights denounced by 59 international organizations.
More info and support :
“The siege of Julian Assange is a farce”, John Pilger
“We are Women Against Rape but we do not want Assange extradited”, Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff
Listener-supported, commercial free, SF based SomaFM has a selection of quality music channels from which to pick. Get into a groove, chill, feel, soothe your soul, be inspired, find focus, make a sound cocoon for yourself, immerse your friends in good vibes, create distraction, noise barriers…
We currently have a thing for Earwaves, “spanning the history of electronic and experimental music from the early pioneers to the latest innovators”. It fills space with a relaxed yet strong focus. Good for work, meditation, and bodywork sessions.
Easy indispensable basic health guides for people and communities worldwide, accessible for free in many languages HERE on Hesperian Health website – including David Werner classic Donde No Hay Doctor. Covering many topics, for when there is no doctor, no dentist, for people with special needs, women and children, disabled, and because health is a right.
Classic, concise, clear, accessible yoga book ASANA PRANAYAMA MUDRA BANDHA by Swami Satyananda Saraswati is available HERE although not in its latest version.
Imo, this manual is particularly interesting when new to yoga and/or or looking for some easy body routines that you can start practicing alone. The Beginners group is good indeed, with different series of basic exercises to help prevent or help alleviate disorders caused by overexertion and stillness-stasis combined (as in a lot of computer / office work). Check out the Exercises for the eyes !
(Remember to first read the advice and precautions in the introduction)
Surveillance Self-Defense is EFF’s “guide to defending yourself and your friends from surveillance by using secure technology and developing careful practices.”
Activists or protesters, journalists, human rights defender, everyone, on the move or at home: Be introduced to threat modeling, find out how to keep your data safe, how to create strong passwords, learn about encryption, choose your tools…
For inspiration, you can read Laura Poitras on the crypto tools that made her journalistic work with whistleblower Edward Snowden possible, and the film CITIZENFOUR
>>> Programme des ateliers découvertes des massages proposés par l’école Biopulse à Paris pour les semaines à venir. Une variété de thèmes et de formateurs, pour apprendre ou revisiter des bases et se faire du bien dans un moment de partage. Tous niveaux et horizons bienvenus. Les jeudis soirs de 19h30 à 21h30. 15 euros. Inscription nécessaire au 01 44 82 51 29.
Portuguese film sound engineer, producer and director Joaquim Pinto has been living with HIV and Hepatitis C for years and lost quite a few of his friends and collaborators to the virus along the way.
Beaten but not down, blurred yet bright and sharp, he offers a rare testimony with E agora ? Lembra-me a personal diary he filmed over a year as he was undergoing experimental drug testing in Madrid. His collections and recollections though, are mostly set in and outside the home he shares with his long love and husband Nuno (also infected) in a dry luminous countryside of Portugal.
As the four seasons go round we are invited to feel along the repercussions of the clinical trials, but mostly the passing of time, with its very own pace, its redundancies big and small, challenging will, challenging life, the questions and, eventually, the answers only time can bring… The movie opens with a shot of a slug crossing the screen on a dead leaf: You could not accelerate certain processes even if you would, so bear with them. The trips to Madrid, transiting through frantic airports, seem all the more brutal in that perspective (Why do we do that to ourselves ? is among the questions that are raised).
While the announced intention of the film is to record and evaluate the effects of the drugs tested in Madrid (noting side effects you’ll never read about in a drug leaflet) it soon appears that the subject is not so much that but rather other forms and ingredients of care, which although not mentioned as such (and maybe they shouldn’t!) become evaluated in parallel, much more positively. Pretty honestly or “sem merda” as some friends around me have put it.
So yes, honestly : At the end of the day what is really keeping Joaquim, Nuno, us, alive through hardships ?
Here are some suggestions from the film:
Love, definitely. Partnerships, setting the preservation of (a good) life and care of one another as priorities… Abundance of fresh air and sunlight, a connection with nature, mediated by animals, through farming, all of which help keep regular (and circadian) cycles of work, play, rest… Being responsible for someone else, caring for them, a lover, an old dog, a young tree threatened by drought and wildfires… A connection with past generations, some sort of historical inscription in the community of mankind and on the tree of life on earth (“we are not special, just recent”)… Peaceful renunciations to what is no longer suited, all the while reaffirming commitments to what matters most… Solidarity, sharing information, experiences, expression of the voices of the weak… A relative autonomy and self-sufficiency, carefully balancing the dependencies to absurd and adverse economical and healthcare systems… Critical thinking, intellectual curiosity… Creativity, art… Cinema..? As a critic notes “this hypnotic video essay eases the discomforts of the flesh with the comforts of moviemaking” and “the film repeatedly erases the neutral hues of sickness with the lush vibrancy of nature.” So it does.
Forest bathing, in japanese. Time out with the trees. Proven to be good for your mental well-being (do we really need studies ?)
Julian Assange on emotions as body states, cultivation of character, passion, and purpose. From the archive of his Interesting Question, IQ.org.
Words have no power to change except when there’s a fork in the road with equally attractive paths.
In your position, I’d take a deep book, a backpack of food and a tent and go walking for three months along the.au or .nz coast. You need to recalibrate your emotions through recalibrating your body. Emotions are body states. The mind can not be strong without strength in its relation to the body. ‘Whatever’ is then quickly answered; wake with the sun, take the next step, eat the next bite and behold people and chairs become a delight. It’s hard for you to see this now, since future visions are colored with present emotional responses. But these emotional responses are just another part of your flesh, built from the integration of your neurons and body. It’s material, stuff, like muscle, constructed from last weeks potatoes and environmental stimulus. You can strengthen your will through overcoming physical hardship.
The natural environment provides man with ready motivational gradients, but civilization has filled them in. Hyper-civilized influences, such as computing, artificial lights, drugs, films, instant food supply, telephones and reading decalibrate by disconnecting behavior and reward and failing to provide the sense data that our biological mental and physical structures have evolved to require.
There’s little difference between a mouse exploring a new maze or a scientist realizing the greatest intellectual act of the age. Both are motivated by the same primitive brain regions that control feelings.
‘The point’ comes when feelings demand it. It can only be rationalized from the axioms of primitive emotion. If these axioms are weak due to decalibration by civilization, ‘the point’ eludes us. If they are strong, we pursue our goals with passion and vigor.
When the world extended to one’s surrounding hills and mountains and over them was only legend, saving the world was approchable and a natural activity to all of independent character.
You do not need to justify the possession of these noble instincts. Such attributes are normally distributed. You have a constellation of these attributes and that makes you who you are. Recognise that the substantial ones are invariant.
You must satisfy your invariant instincts or you will be at odds with your own character. It is only when we are not at odds with our basic makeup that we can find life meaningful.
To exercise your instinct for saving the world, requires saving what you perceive to be the world.
Being modern, educated and wordly, the world you perceive is immense and this is disempowering compared to the valley world of your ancestors where your feelings were forged and where saving 10 people saved 10% of the “world”‘s population.
Here lays the difficulty in actualising your character. Your perception is of a world so vast that that you can not envisage your actions making a meaningful difference.
People try to fool themselves and others into believing that one can “think globally and act locally’, however to anyone with a sense of proportion (not most people, btw) thinking globaly makes acting locally seem to be a marginal activity. It’s not setting the world to rights.
To meaningfully interact with the world, you have to either constrain your perception of what it is back to valley proportions by eschewing all global information (most of us here have engaged on just the opposite course which is what has provoked this discussion), losing your sense of perspective, or start seriously engaging with the modern perception of the world.
That latter path can be hard to find, because it is only satisfied by creating ideas or inventions that have a global impact. Perhaps I have found one, and there’s others out there, but for most people of your character a combination of eschewing knowledge of those parts of the world they can’t change, and robust engagement with the parts they can is probably optimal.
Do not be concerned about when one is to do good, who defines good, etc. Act in the way you do because to do otherwise would to be at odds would to be at odds with yourself. Being on a path true to your character carries with it a state of flow, where the thoughts about your next step come upon waking, unbidden, but welcome.
I support similarly minded people, not because they are moral agents, but because they have common cause with my own feelings and dreams.
Laughter is fear and relief. Fear is all around. Every step is conditioned by the fear of falling. It is the relief from primitive anxiety and alarm responses that give rise to laughter. The release of the breath that wasn’t needed. That sudden surprise rendered harmless by higher perception. Wonder, when accompanied by the expression of laughter is the unknown and fearful transformed. A transformation by subconscious brain functions typically of sub second duration. A transformation that takes the unknown and therefore possibly lethal and yields up the unknown and harmless to observe. Something to be explored, understood and remembered by wide eyed curiosity. Those eyes wide to suck in the world and a memory hungry for its details. A psychological and physiological stance that makes the unknown known. A state of maximal observational learning.
Guía fácil para el aborto espontáneo (y salvaje) –
An Easy (and wild) guide to miscarriage (also available in English) –
1.- Definición de términos. ¿Qué es un aborto espontáneo?
Un aborto espontáneo o aborto natural es la pérdida de un embrión por causas no provocadas intencionadamente. Se distingue pues de un aborto inducido. El término se puede aplicar solo cuando la pérdida se produce antes de la semana 20 del embarazo, a partir de ese momento se denominará parto prematuro.
2.- Antes de abortar.
Las causas de los abortos espontáneos son un misterio para la medicina occidental y no hay nada que un médico pueda hacer para impedirlos. Si intentan recetarte progesterona, recházala. No hay pruebas de eficacidad y solo conseguirán ponerte de un humor depresivo y suicida.
Si te prohiben tener relaciones sexuales, desconfía. Se suele desaconsejar el sexo cuando hay amenaza de aborto (como pérdidas de sangre) pero no existe evidencia científica de que el sexo provoque el aborto. Lo que sí puede suceder es que empieces a abortar después de tener relaciones sexuales. Pero las relaciones no son la causa, simplemente estimulan un proceso que YA a empezado en tu interior. Es como cuando te viene la regla después de follar. No te viene la regla porque folles, te viene porque no te has quedado embarazada. Que no te confundan. Algunos ginecólogos tienen vocación de curas.
3.- No vayas a un centro médico.
Si te has hecho una ecografía y ya no hay latido (es decir el embrión ha muerto) vas a sufrir un aborto. Es solo cuestión de tiempo. Tienes que tener paciencia porque la cosa se puede demorar semanas. Prepara tu cuerpo y despídete. Cada caso es distinto. Cuando comience te darás cuenta, empezarás a sangrar y a sufrir calambres. No vayas a un centro médico porque hay muchas posibilidades de que te hagan una intervención muy agresiva y en absoluto necesaria.
(Emma Rich, Andy Miah)
Abstract :
This paper examines how ‘surveillance medicine’ (Armstrong 1995) has expanded the realm of the medical gaze via its infiltration of cyberspace, where specific features of healthism are now present. Drawing on Foucault’s notion of biopower, we examine how digital health resources offer new ways through which to discipline individuals and regulate populations. The emergence of health regulation within and through cyberspace takes place in a context wherein the relationship between the body and technology is rendered more complex. Departing from early literature on cyberspace, which claimed that the body was absent in virtual worlds, we articulate a medicalized cyberspace within which the virtual and corporeal are enmeshed.
The range of health issues articulated through surveillance discourses are many and varied, though of significance are those related to weight and health, as they provide a particularly rich example through which to study medical surveillance in cyberspace due to their moral and regulative focus. We argue that the capacity for health resources to encourage disciplinary and regulative practices defies the designation of virtual, as non-reality. Moreover, with the advent of a range of digital platforms that merge entertainment with the regulation of the body, such as Internet based nutrition games, and the use of games consoles such as Nintendo wii fit, cyberspace may be providing a forum for new forms of regulative practices concerning health. These virtual environments expand our understandings of the boundaries of the body, since much of what takes place occurs through both a virtualization of identity, such as the use of an avatar or graphic image of one’s body on screen, and a prostheticisation of the body within cyberspace. To conclude, while surveillance medicine regulates physical selves in real time, we argue that there is a growing tendency towards a prosthetic surveillance, which regulates and defines bodies that are simultaneously hyper-text and flesh.
Full article (pdf) on Surveillance & Society journal :
http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/3256
Some states of psychological distress can be more severe than others. Some might not require that you seek assistance from friends and/or health-care professionals, some can wait a little before you do, others are emergencies. Some might require medication, even hospitalization, others not necessarily or better not.
When / if your physical and mental integrity are critically at stake, you should seek competent assistance immediately (If you are a friend of such person, stay with them always and seek assistance ASAP). For example, you have been experiencing symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, depersonalization (feeling of being unreal), you have attempted suicide, are thinking about it, or have engaged in other self harming/ dangerous behaviors. A variety of symptoms can come with psychological distress, affecting your overall state, from insomnia to lack of appetite, to apathy, agression, lack of enthousiasm, increased vulnerability to infections, memory loss and other forms of cognitive impairement, and more… Your need for outside help will of course depend on the intensity and chronicity of these manifestations (or the absence of thereof, for that matter). In any case, you should maybe start taking (extra) care of yourself.
Following are some advices for self-care (still valid even if someone else is also taking care of you) to go through such times, based upon my knowledge and experience with myself and others. Please bear in mind that I am NOT a doctor nor a psychology clinician. Like I said, if your symptoms are very intense and/or long going and your mental and physical integrity are at stake, you should seek competent assistance immediately.
For more informations about mental health and what to do in specific situations, you can also look for mental health care “educational” handouts that I have posted from specialized organizations (it can be a good idea to distribute them in your community).
Mental health first aid guidelines, by MHFA Australia
Mental health care handouts, from Icarus project.
SO, WHAT CAN YOU DO NOW TO HELP and CARE FOR YOURSELF IN TIMES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS ?
* NURTURE YOUR BODY, don’t let it down or put extra stress on it by neglecting your “vitals”. Make sure you get what you need in water, nutrients, sleep, rest / activity. Don’t tire your system more with junk food, excitants, alcohol. Re-install regular cycles for eating, sleeping… Wash. Change clothes. Get some fresh air and light. Get a massage. Use your senses, smell good smells, listen to good sounds. Get moving if you’ve only been resting, get some rest if you’ve only been running. If possible, don’t drop out of your favorite sport or hobby; that is of course, assuming you are eating, drinking water, sleeping, and that you have no injuries or disease (otherwise, physical activities might actually be harmful). In any case, don’t overdo it, your body is probably weaker. Also, in times of adversity, certain holistic disciplines (like yoga or others), practiced safely and softly, can reveal their core-lessons: your learn that you can carry yourself through life. If it has become impossible to look after yourself, consider moving in with someone nice whom you can be inspired by, and or having good people over (for example for meals), until you are able to take good care of yourself and/or taken care of by a professional.
* BE WISE ABOUT (FURTHER) ALTERING YOUR STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS Consider strong psychological distress as an already altered state of consciousness, a painful one, with its own special chemistry. Maybe it is wiser not to fiddle with it more, at least without competent supervision. Avoid self-medication. Beware of alcohol. Remember what Bob Marley said ? Alcohol just gets you drunk man. Be wise with psychedelics: If you are unexperienced and/or without the supervision of someone who is (preferably not just in the recreative department), then you should maybe avoid them altogether (you can also look for psychoactives / psychedelik knowledge and wisdom through MAPS and/or Erowid resources). If you’re already with a habit of say, smoking pot or drinking, try not to do more, and beware of taking on a new habit you didn’t have before. Also, know that lack of sleep can play serious tricks on your mind too. Careful with sur-stimualtion of your intellect and senses. Get a rest once in a while from your computer (or other sources of mental input) and all it is feeding your burned-out-intellect with.
* IDENTIFY AND STOP SELF HARM. You are aching. You are vulnerable. With vicious logic, you might engage in behaviors that will, more or less directly and quickly, lead to more harm to yourself. Like what ? Like intoxicating yourself, not eating, over-eating, over spending, betting, taking stupid risks, cutting yourself, punching doors, being aggressive towards strangers, driving fast, not wearing a helmet, trusting the wrong persons, disclosing information, lying about your health, sabotaging or destroying your work etc. These behaviors will only make things worse. All aches will ache more eventually. You may be depressed, but if you don’t limit self-harm, then one morning you wake up and you still have a depression + liver damage + weight loss + infection + injuries + brand new addiction + no friends + your work has disappeared + god knows what. Disengage from this process.
* COME OUT about your psychological distress. Say how you are feeling, what your are going through, to your family and/or friends and/or co-workers, without ambiguity, in your own simple words, without minimizing nor exaggerating. You need not go into details, certainly not with everyone. What you want is to make sure that the persons around you and/or whom you trust, become aware that your condition is serious and that you are engaging in a process of taking extra care of yourself. If they are smart and they care about you, from then on they will not take you on crazy binge-drinking sessions on saturday nights, or drop pills down your throat screaming “you gonna be oookaay “. They will not say “I hear you”, then hand you a ten tons file to work on over the weekend. If they still do that after you’ve told them how you are, they might be ignorant/stupid and/or toxic to you, at least for now (see below): Make yourself clear once more and/or maybe avoid them…
* CAREFUL WITH THAT EXTRA LOAD OF WORK / DECLINE MORE RESPONSABILITIES ? Note -and make others note- that if you are not well, it could be irresponsible on your part to accept more responsabilities, especially when OTHER people depend on your good shape for their health and safety. Desist. Don’t raise the probability of “human-error” being made, it’s bad enough as an expression.
* ACCEPT GENUINE HELP from others, whether your know them well or not, when it comes your way. It can be that someone you didn’t think cared about you proposes to drive you somewhere you need to go. It can be a smile or a conversation with a stranger. Something warm, simple, gently destined to you. How do you know if a helping gesture is genuine and good for you ? You feel it, mostly. Of course it has a certain consistency with observable facts. As for feeling, you should feel more free, a little more alive, when you accept/receive the gesture coming from that person, not the contrary. You can know when a hand is lifting you up, or pushing you down. Trust your instinct. That said, beware of full-on saviors invading your life/privacy, especially if their personal life is a total mess !
* ACCEPT THAT HELP MIGHT NOT COME FROM WHERE YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD. We are all different, and all striving at times not to lose it. Your intense state of distress might be to hard to deal with for some, who will tend to protect themselves from it. And maybe they should, so respect that. Let them be, let go of any resentment or disappointment. Who knows, they might start providing help at other stages of the sometime long process of psychological recovery, they might help in ways you don’t recognize yet, they might not help at all. You’ll see if you can catch up with them later. DO KICK them out of your life, though, very far, if they start attacking you, being nasty or clearly disrespectful to you (see below “avoid toxic people”).
Know that when you start REDEFINING yourself, for example through therapy or even self-care, it is not unusual that your relationships, the world around you, start redefining themselves too. It can be an interesting, healthy, and pacific process, with familiar faces moving a bit afar and new faces entering your life. It is OK, it is often for the better, and it doesn’t mean the end of old good things/partnerships. Everyone gets an opportunity to change/update when you do (that they will or will not take, it’s not your call).
* SEEK GOOD COMPANY especially if being alone makes you more at risk of neglecting/hurting yourself. Ask if you can stay with someone close and/or have someone stay over and/or come for meals with you (that will make it easier to actually think about eating). Surround yourself with good harmonious lovely loving beings, inspiring, talented, and caring. Yes, some persons have all qualities and some of them are even your friends. Rub your face in these friendships. Tell them you love them.
* AVOID TOXIC PEOPLE.
I have already mentionned above the full-on savior-invader with fucked-up personal life, well, that’s one type of toxic people. There are plenty. They feed on you, they parasite or pollute you, they irritate, manipulate, exhaust or confuse you, or they make you feel like shit when you’re trying to feel better. Generally, you recognize that someone is kind of toxic to you when you feel somehow worse after they’ve “helped” you or after you’ve been with them than before. And maybe they, on the contrary, strangely look all pumped up, kind of invigorated, by your torments…
* IMPROVE / CARE FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE SURROUNDINGS/ HOME: Keep or make a clean, tidy home. Take the trash out. Open the windows once in a while, let light and air in. Have distinct spaces for distinct activities, if possible (if not possible, you can invent some sort of code/ritual to transition between space/activities). Remember what grandma said: You make the bed you wake up in. You don’t need to master Feng-shui or even “believe” in it to understand that a certain state of things in the house creates a certain flow, a certain circulation, a certain vibe, around the house, around you, that will both reflect and affect you, that will “attract” certain situations, thoughts, feelings, more than others. Well, you know what to do. Help yourself, materialize well.
* PROJECT YOURSELF, VALUE LIFE. You like what you do ? If you don’t like what you’re doing with your life well then, no wonder you are distressed… Maybe it should be the first thing you consider changing ?! But let’s assume you really like what you do, and maybe that you are even very good at it, and maybe that you know it is very important for others – You want to be able to keep doing it, right ? As best as possible ? Is that very clear to you ? I repeat, is that very clear to you ?
* BE COURAGEOUS ! Yes, it takes a load of courage, patience and dedication to get oneself through a crisis, and grow from it. And your own demons and weaknesses can be real hard to face. But guess what, once you start doing that, caring for yourself, you will have plenty more energy free to fight other fights. You will become able to help others better, and maybe in more ways, both simple and sophisticated ways. Remember : COURAGE IS CONTAGIOUS. Help yourself, help others.
(This article was reviewed 06/05 by a friend qualified psychotherapist – It was not changed after except the section avoid toxic people was just shortened a bit not to inspire too much “paranoid” feelings – THANK YOU/HER)
Art ©Michelle Blade – gathering into being
