For those feeling overwhelmed by what’s unfolding in our world…
I think this time has different challenges depending on the generation you are from. Older folks are shaken up because the world is changing so fast and things they thought were certain are dissolving.
Young people are fighting for the future of our planet that they and their children and grandchildren wish to inhabit.
It is a BIG time to be human.
If you’re feeling like the ground is shifting beneath your feet, like stories you were told your whole life are crumbling, like institutions you trusted are revealing themselves to be something entirely different – you’re not losing your mind.
You’re awakening to truth. And yes, it is painful.
This process of awakening is inherently a grief process. We must collectively mourn the loss of a world we thought we knew, the safety of familiar narratives, the comfort of believing that those in power had our best interests at heart.
Image by Frans (Amina) Al-Salmi, Palestinian Artist, killed June 30th, 2025 by an airstrike on a cafe full of journalists by the IDF. May she Rest In Peace. Find her work on IG @francalsalmi
Right now, we’re watching systems that have caused immense harm desperately trying to preserve themselves.
Like a medical team administering increasingly toxic treatments to a terminal patient, those in power are using more and more destructive methods to keep colonial, extractive systems alive.
The weapons shipments to enable genocide. The censorship of voices calling for justice. The manipulation of historical narratives to prevent accountability.
The weaponization of trauma to shield ongoing atrocities.
These aren’t signs that the system is strong – they’re signs that it’s dying and, like a wounded dinosaur, becoming more dangerous in its death throes.
Much of what we’re witnessing follows a pattern: genuine suffering gets co-opted and weaponized by power structures to create immunity from criticism.
Real trauma becomes a shield for ongoing harm.
This doesn’t diminish the reality of that original suffering – it reveals how even our most sacred wounds can be exploited by those who see everything as a tool for control.
Understanding this pattern can help explain why questioning certain narratives feels so morally dangerous, why some stories become untouchable, and why those who ask legitimate questions get painted as callous or conspiratorial (or thrown in detention centers!)
And in this moment, it is more critical than ever to hold your grief as sacred.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, full of rage and sorrow and confusion and stuckness, that might actually be a sign of health.
I define emotional health as the ability to have an appropriate emotional response to the situation in front of you.
Often, when we are carrying unresolved trauma and grief, our emotional responses to the moment are based in this unprocessed energy. We over react or don’t respond when we should. And yet still, holding it as Sacred and bringing it into ritual and healing spaces is key to uncover what is needed most – to uncover the Truth.
When we have done the work and the situation at hand calls for sacred action, you can act from a place of knowing that your actions are aligned with integrity and an appropriate emotional response.
And to be clear – the work is never ‘done’ and true integrity is the ongoing process of recognizing this and holding ourselves accountable.
But the overwhelm you might be feeling right now – that isn’t necessarily weakness or unprocessed material – it actually just makes sense.
It could be your heart and soul responding to witnessing immense suffering while recognizing that much of it is unnecessary, preventable, and maintained by systems we’ve been taught to respect.
Allow yourself to grieve, to feel, to rage and cry and move this sacred emotion through the body. Dancing is really good for this. Even better, join a grief support group where there is dancing as a part of it. 🙂
This grief is not self-indulgent. It’s necessary. It’s how your spirit processes the death of illusions and makes space for sacred truth & action.
Your healing and awakening is critical in this moment.
Portrait of Bisan Owda, Palestinian/Gazan independent journalist by @softspoonie on IG.
While you can’t single-handedly stop weapons shipments or dismantle corrupt networks, your awakening matters more than you know.
Every person who sees through the propaganda, every conversation that cuts through manufactured narratives, every act of solidarity and truth-telling weakens these systems.
Truth telling is powerful. It is how we heal. To the Palestinians right now, being witnessed and understood in their stories – in their truth, even as they die, (because we can’t seem to stop that no matter how much we care), is incredibly meaningful and life changing. I have heard this from so many of them as I keep raising my voice on their behalf. It changes everything.
The trauma becomes softened, a little bit, when we are witnessed and affirmed that no, we didn’t deserve this, and yes, this is wrong.
The fact that public opinion has shifted so dramatically on issues once considered settled shows that collective awakening is real and powerful.
The desperation of those in power reveals that they’re losing their grip on the collective consciousness. We are freeing ourselves. We are recognizing our liberation.
5 Practical Ways to Tend Your Grief While Contributing to Healing & Change
Create Space for Truth-Telling
- Have honest conversations with trusted friends and family
- Share articles and perspectives that cut through mainstream narratives
- Support independent journalists and researchers doing real investigative work
Practice Presence with What Is
- Allow yourself to feel the full weight of what you’re learning without rushing to fix or solve everything
- Notice when you’re trying to spiritually bypass legitimate anger and heartbreak
- Remember that staying present with difficult feelings is a form of activism
Support Direct Action
- Donate to organizations providing direct aid to those suffering
- Participate in protests, boycotts, and other forms of organized resistance
- Contact representatives, even when it feels futile – it’s not. Public opinion matters.
Nurture What Wants to Emerge
- Connect with others who share your values and vision
- Participate in or create alternative economic systems (local food networks, mutual aid, etc.)
- Practice forms of governance in your own circles that embody the transparency and inclusivity you want to see
Tend Your Own Nervous System
- Grief work is intense. Take breaks from the news and analysis
- Spend time in nature, with loved ones, doing things that restore your faith in beauty and goodness
- Remember that your own healing and the world’s healing are interconnected
The Birth Hidden in the Death
Indigenous wisdom teaches us that death and birth are two sides of the same process. What we’re witnessing isn’t just the death of corrupt systems – it’s the birth pangs of something new trying to emerge.
The transparency that’s breaking open long-held secrets. The global solidarity movements connecting people across borders. The return to indigenous wisdom and ways of being. The growing recognition that another world is not only possible but necessary.
Your grief is midwifing this transformation. Your willingness to face difficult truths, to stay present with collective pain, to continue acting from love despite overwhelming evidence of cruelty – this is the medicine our world needs.
The overwhelm you feel is partly because you’re carrying not just your own grief, but collective grief that has been unprocessed for generations.
The trauma of colonization, slavery, genocide, environmental destruction – it’s all moving through us now, asking to be witnessed and transformed.
Your sensitivity to this pain isn’t a burden – it’s a gift. You’re part of a growing network of people who refuse to look away, who insist on truth-telling, who choose love even in the face of seemingly insurmountable darkness.
Trust that your awakening, your grief, your commitment to truth and justice matters.
Trust that you’re exactly where you need to be in this great turning. Trust that the death of these harmful systems, however painful to witness, is making space for something more beautiful than we can yet imagine.
And it doesn’t need to be so hard. In fact what it needs more than anything is our softening.
As my friend Tecca Thompson of the Rested Black Woman says, “Rest is a form of Spiritual Warfare.”
Rest and pray, beloveds. The time for action is coming.
May we have the courage to see clearly what is dying and what is being born, and to differentiate between the two.
May we trust that our grief is sacred and our awakening is medicine enough.
May we find each other in this darkness and remember that we are not alone.
May we tend what is emerging with the same fierce love that helps us witness what must pass away.
May we be present for this great transformation, knowing that our presence itself is a form of prayer.
You are not broken for feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world. You are awake.
And your awakeness, even when it hurts, is part of what will bring us all through this death-birth process.
Stay with us!
With Big Love,
Josea & the Dark Woods Team
