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Over these past years, there has been many chaotic moments which have taken over, well our lives. Many of these moments don't directly affect us, but most of them have an indirect impact on our thoughts, perspectives, and emotions.
My emotions are pretty strong (yes I cry at sad commercials), and I feel deeply. No matter how many times I tell myself not to let something bother me, it does not work I still feel the emotion. I also think about things, a lot. I question the why’s and how’s and what I may be missing.
The other evening the husband and I watched a comedy special and the laughing felt so good. It got me thinking how do we maintain joy in these unpredictable, sometimes overwhelming and chaotic times.
But what if we could find joy in the midst of chaos? What if we could cultivate a positive mindset that helps us stay grounded and focused even when everything around us seems to be falling apart?
Strategies for Cultivating Positivity in Chaotic Situations
Cultivating a positive mindset takes practice, especially in chaotic or stressful situations. Here are some strategies you can try to help stay positive and find joy in difficult times:
Mindfulness Techniques to Find Calm in Chaos
Mindfulness is a powerful tool for finding calm in the midst of chaos. By focusing on the present moment and letting go of worries about the future or regrets about the past, we can reduce our stress and anxiety and find a sense of peace. Mindfulness techniques like deep breathing, meditation, and yoga can help us cultivate this sense of calm and reduce our reactivity to stressful situations.
The Role of Gratitude in Staying Positive
Practicing gratitude is another way to cultivate positivity in challenging times. Reflecting on the good things in our lives when things feel chaotic or overwhelming shifts our perspective, allowing us to find joy in the present moment. Some ways to practice gratitude include keeping a gratitude journal, expressing gratitude verbally, or simply taking time each day to reflect on the many things you’re thankful for.
Coping Mechanisms for Dealing with Stress and Anxiety
When we’re faced with chaos and uncertainty, it’s normal to feel stressed or anxious. However, we can use many coping mechanisms to reduce our stress and anxiety and find a sense of peace. Some examples include exercise, spending time in nature, or practicing relaxation techniques like deep breathing or meditation.
Find Joy in Simple Things
Sometimes, finding joy in the midst of chaos means looking for the simple things in life. Finding pleasure in small moments can help us stay positive and focused, even when things feel overwhelming. Whether it’s a beautiful sunset, a good book, a warm cup of tea, or something else, simply take a few moments each day to enjoy life’s offerings.
“Many fail in the face of chaos, but not this one. Not today”. (Reddit)
So do not forget to be joyful, have joy and laugh. Even in the face of all the chaos.
Beavers Are Back in London — and They’re Thriving
The clues are unmistakable. A muddy embankment is covered in webbed, triangular footprints. A tree’s bark has been gnawed on one side, exposing the pale innards of its trunk. But the real giveaway is the thick dam made of branches that’s blockading a stream.
This site may be in London, a bustling metropolis of nine million people dominated by concrete high-rises and traffic-filled main roads, but it is now under the management of a new, or at least returning, critter on the block: the Castor fiber, or Eurasian beaver.
Beavers were hunted to extinction in England during the Elizabethan times, in the 16th century. But last October, these stout, furry rodents were reintroduced into London for the first time in 400 years as part of an effort to rewild the city.
The family of five beavers — a breeding pair and three offspring — were transported from Scotland by the Beaver Trust, a UK-based nonprofit, and released in Paradise Fields, a leafy, eight-hectare public park in West London, at an event attended by the mayor of London.
“Beavers are a keystone species,” adds Mirochnitchenko. “That means they have a disproportionately large impact on ecosystems. They alleviate flooding, they boost biodiversity, they keep everything in check. They’re like ecosystem engineers.”
Moroccan Farmers Are Banking Traditional Seeds for a Hotter, Drier Future
Ibrahim Fajea’s family is one of 131 families remaining in a small community of subsistence farmers in Sidi Ifni on the west coast of Morocco, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Nestled in the north African country’s Guelmim province, Fajea’s land has suffered from a debilitating drought for almost six years, which drove many farmers away.
“When the water dried up in the oasis many families were forced to leave,” Fajea says. “I worked with a few people in our farmers’ collective to dig three wells to use groundwater for irrigation.”
But keeping farming alive in this region requires more than just wells. That’s why Fajea is one of a hundred farmers participating in an ecological seed bank initiative by Dar Si Hmad Foundation to help his farming community. Launched in 2021 in Sidi Ifni, the seed bank sources indigenous seeds from across Morocco and Europe. By focusing on traditional, drought-resistant varieties and carefully storing the seeds, the seed bank — and an accompanying training program for farmers — is helping to revive the land and improve the livelihoods of those who rely on it.
‘Slowly Forging a Relationship’: Rural Vermont’s New Blueprint for Addiction Recovery
Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are familiar with the response, knowing that most substance abusers are ashamed or frightened — deterred by the stigma attached to drug use and terrified they might not get their next dose soon enough to endure withdrawal.
In most places, the drama would end here. But in Bennington a new collaborative program is being tested, targeting alcohol and substance abusers who have fallen through the cracks. The pilot program partners the Bennington Rescue Squad with the peer recovery organization Turning Point Center of Bennington (TPCB) in what the Vermont Office of Emergency Medical Services calls the first collaboration of its kind in the state. Organizers hope it will offer a blueprint for other rural communities as well.
The First of 2,000 Privately Owned White Rhinos Get New Home – Rewilded by South African Conservancy
An ambitious plan to rewild 2,000 southern white rhino into secure protected areas in Africa over the next 10 years has officially begun, with 40 of these majestic beasts on their way to a new home at the Munywana Conservancy in Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
It’s the first relocation of a continent-wide effort organized by African Parks called ‘Rhino Rewild, and follows the recent acquisition of 2,000 southern white rhino that had been privately owned by a multi-millionaire who dreamed of keeping them in a preserve for the purpose of harvesting their horns to flood the illegal rhino horn trade and crash the price to disincentivize poaching.
Oxford Breakthrough Could Allow Cancer to be Detected 7 Years Earlier Than Current Methods
Oxford University scientists have discovered proteins in the blood that could warn people of cancer more than seven years earlier than currently possible.
In two studies, they identified 618 proteins linked to 19 different types of cancer, including 107 proteins in a group of people whose blood was collected at least seven years before diagnosis.
The research team discovered that the proteins could be involved at the very earliest stages of cancer, when the disease could be prevented.
This made me smirk a bit. Okay I laughed out loud.
Tesla shareholder group opposes Musk’s $46B pay, slams board “dysfunction”
A Tesla shareholder group yesterday urged other shareholders to vote against Elon Musk's $46 billion pay package, saying the Tesla board is dysfunctional and "overly beholden to CEO Musk." The group's letter also urged shareholders to vote against the reelection of board members Kimbal Musk and James Murdoch.
"Tesla is suffering from a material governance failure which requires our urgent attention and action," and its board "is stacked with directors that have close personal ties to CEO Elon Musk," the letter said. "There are multiple indications that these ties, coupled with excessive director compensation, prevent the level of critical and independent thinking required for effective governance."
TV meteorologist attacks Ron DeSantis over Florida’s ‘don’t say climate change’ law
A TV meteorologist condemned the Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s so-called “don’t say climate change” law on air and urged viewers to vote.
Steve MacLaughlin of WTVJ in Miami addressed viewers on Saturday amid rising heat records across the state, saying: “On Thursday, we reported … that the government of Florida was beginning to roll back really important climate-change legislation and really important climate-change language.”
MacLaughin condemned DeSantis’s position on the matter, saying that it came “in spite of the fact that the state of
Florida over the last couple of years has seen record heat, record flooding, record rain, record insurance rates, and the corals are dying all around the state”.
He said: “The entire world is looking to Florida to lead in climate change, and our government is saying that climate change is no longer the priority it once was.
US justice department sues Oklahoma in challenge to immigration law
The US Department of Justice sued Oklahoma on Tuesday over a state law that seeks to impose criminal penalties on those living in the state illegally.
The lawsuit in federal court in Oklahoma City challenges an Oklahoma law that makes it a state crime – punishable by up to two years in prison – to live in the state without legal immigration status. Similar laws passed in Texas and Iowa are already facing challenges from the justice department. Oklahoma is among several GOP states jockeying to push deeper into immigration enforcement as both Republicans and Democrats seize on the issue. Other bills targeting undocumented immigrants have been passed this year in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.
We May Know a Whole Lot More About UFOs Soon
It’s very possible we’ll know more about UFOs soon. Due to a stipulation inside the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, the federal government is now required to share any and all internal reports on the subject of unidentified flying objects with the National Archives, which will then (eventually) share those reports with the public.
The law in question would create an ‘‘Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Records Collection” that would ostensibly include any and all historical records that exist about the UFO subject. According to the National Archives, the
new law requires that, by October 20, 2024, “each federal agency review, identify, and organize each Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) record in its custody for disclosure to the public and transmission to the National Archives.”
Let’s get some more joy.
“I have always believed you have to steal the joyful moments when you can”.
Jill Biden
From Indivisible: Your 5 weekly to-dos
- RSVP for the Majority over MAGA Weekend of Action Kickoff Call on Thursday, June 13 at 8pm ET/5pm PT. The Dobbs decision changed the course of contemporary American politics by making it clear to all of us that MAGA Republicans weren’t just here to make threats, they were going to follow through and rip away our rights. Help us use that anniversary to remind people that there’s a better option. Join the kickoff call to hear about how we’ll be highlighting the fight for reproductive rights during our upcoming weekend of action on June 21-24. For more information on the weekend of action itself, check out our Majority over MAGA Weekend of Action (June 21-24) Toolkit.
- Register for a virtual informal coffee chat with Leah and Ezra on Friday, May 31 at 4pm ET/1pm PT. Join Leah and Ezra in a laid-back setting to discuss the current state of play for the 2024 election with a focus on their most recent newsletters. If you’ve been looking for a place to ask specific questions of our national leadership, this is the space. Drop your questions in the Zoom registration and hear directly from our Co-Executive directors.
- Check and see if Neighbor2Neighbor is available in your area. We have opened pre-registration for Indivisible Action’s version of our highly effective, community conversation program -- Neighbor2Neighbor. If you want to have the biggest impact on voter turnout, this is the most effective way we’ve found to mobilize community members (our numbers prove it). Check and see if Neighbor2Neighbor is available in your area and, if it is, sign up today.
- Call your representative and tell them to hold the corrupt Supreme Court (SCOTUS) accountable. Whether it’s Clarence Thomas taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from a billionaire MAGA donor, or Alito publicly supporting insurrection, the Supreme Court has a crisis of accountability. Tell your representative that they must pass the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act to impose ethical rules on all SCOTUS justices today. When you’re finished, call your senators and tell them they must hold SCOTUS accountable too.
- Call your senator and demand they protect in vitro fertilization (IVF) access nationwide. The MAGA agenda did not just stop at repealing Roe. They intend to ban contraception, IVF, gender-affirming care, marriage equality, and more. Sen. Tammy Duckworth has introduced the Access to Family Building Act, a bill that would enshrine access to IVF and related services as a federal right, protecting both would-be families and their medical providers. If your senator is a Democrat, call and make sure they are a cosponsor. If your senator is a Republican, tell them to put their money where their mouth is, pass this bill, and actually support families. When you’re finished calling, send your senators an email urging them to protect IVF access.
That’s a wrap for me. You know what to do from here.
Peace! ✌️