When doing nothing is more valuable to the world

‘It just makes me feel so powerless’ - a sentence you often hear in response to witnessing the injustices of war, climate change, and the destruction of nature.

It’s a feeling most of us really don’t like. And we don’t want it to linger.

Some people shake it off and go about their day accepting (or pretending to accept) it.

But you might prefer to do something, and go into ‘action mode’ - the basis of activism.

And while activism is obviously very important, on a personal level it can become avoidance in disguise. You may start to overthink, overwork, judge others, or judge yourself for not doing enough. So you don’t have to face those ‘bad’ feelings.

Circling away from uncomfortable emotions is useful sometimes, but doing it consistently can cause you to feel disconnected from yourself.

And it can undermine your work as a changemaker.

When you avoid certain feelings, you will start to avoid certain situations, including those that are important for change to happen - situations where people might oppose you, might not believe you, or reject your ideas. Because it can trigger anger, fear, or shame, leaving you feeling even less empowered.

This avoidance is not a sign of weakness. It’s very normal - from worms to humans, animals are programmed to move away from pain.

But luckily, you have also have an incredible ability to override this.

The key is to gradually increase your window of tolerance for uncomfortable emotions.

Mentoring, coaching or therapy can support you in this. But there is something even more direct and simple you can start doing at any moment of thee day. It take a couple of minutes.*

When you’re feeling triggered, first become aware of the physical sensations in your body. Without trying to understand it, just let that ‘energy’ be – give it space.

Then mentally whisper to yourself: ‘This won’t hurt me, and I don’t have to do anything with it now.

What this does is interrupt your tendency to dissociate, to move away from yourself. It trains the mind to be OK with discomfort, enabling you to stay open and present to what is. I find it helps me a lot, especially when I know (in that moment at least) I can’t fix it.

In this unprecedented time in history increasing our capacity to tolerate and appreciate our uncomfortable feelings is at least as urgent as tackling climate change.

Turning around the current trends will be extremely hard without an evolution of emotional maturity of sorts - we need it to access compassion and patience in the most challenging and often infuriating situations.

As for you, if you feel powerless, it says two important things to me. Firstly, you have a fire in your heart for change - that’s a beautiful thing!

Secondly, you have an opportunity to no longer be intimidated by your own uncomfortable feelings, and access a clear head for your mission towards a better world.

That’s when powerlessness becomes your greatest strength.

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Do you feel stuck in your work as a changemaker? Do you just struggle with overwhelm in these strange times? I offer a free exploration session to find out if The Smart Activist work is for you. You can register for this session here.


(*This exercise is not meant for situations that are actually unsafe, involve trauma, or where medical attention is needed!)