the world continues to be heavy and suffering with all the unethical decisions from the world's billionaires trickling down to the rest of earth's population, animals and land. i don't need to name everything that's happened in just the last few weeks (ericka hart posted a rant recently that i resonate deeply with), but what i can do is share some tips that i've learned to help get through each day, one day at a time. fortunately these tips can apply no matter what you're going through on a personal, interpersonal or global scale. 

what does the world have to do with skincare?

you may ask - what do world events have to do with self- and skincare. i say, A LOT! community care IS self-care. we take care of ourselves so we can be there for others. and if others are taken care of, then we are taken care of too. if a black trans woman is safe to walk down the street late at night, then ANY woman / person is also safe to walk down that same street late at night, because of a trickle UP effect. (we've been working with the trickle DOWN effect for a while now and... it hasn't been working). on a practical body level - all these stressors impact our overall stress (not just mental but also physical, emotional, etc), raise inflammation, lower immune, and many other negative effects.. by just living in survival mode.

environmental, social and economic stability are the baseline foundations of community wellness so we can all live on a solid foundation to build upon - no matter what our individual (and collective) life dreams may be. 

introducing dr. kayla and her mental health tips for survival

one of my favorite things about my line of work is getting to know each client and discovering their super powers. dr. kayla jimenez - who happens to be a psychologist specializing in anxiety, trauma and couples' work in san francisco through the practice she co-founded called palmetto psychology - has been such a joy to work with. and even though her case has a bit more stubborn than most (she's a girl with deep feelings and deep pores!), her positive attitude and ability to stay the course has been super inspiring to me. 

i asked dr. kayla what are 3 tips she could share with us to help stay grounded, here's what she had to say:

find your like community. 

if you are an ER nurse working in a hospital during COVID, a small business owner in today's economy or a single dad, it's going to be difficult to really truly bond with the "regular" folks in your life that don't understand the same deeply nuanced experiences that you live everyday. finding a community with a similar lifestyle (other health professionals, entrepreneurs or single parent groups) can help you really feel seen, heard and understood.. which will help create a sense of comradery, shared resources and support you can lean on. 

last summer, i started a community care group in my neighborhood to help build awareness, support and resource sharing around ICE, as well as get to know each other as neighbors for fun. i'm happy to say that we have over 150+ members in our signal group chat, and we've started rehabbing our community garden under the stewardship of neighborhood elders!  i attend workshops and events that help me cultivate better relationship skills (like parents reimagined, a berkeley, ca and online-based cohort for adult children who want to improve their relationship with their parents). and i love connecting likeminded folks (friends and clients alike) with similar interests when the opportunity arises. 

daily action working towards bigger value driven goals

all the "bad" things in life can easily turn into an insurmountable mountain, leaving us feeling defeated, like anything and everything we do won't make a dent to help. but this isn't true! it's so corny but the saying "to the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world" rings true. yes, there are tons of living beings and land suffering over there, but there is also plenty of the same suffering here, close to where we live. 

the impact you can make locally is immeasurable, and does ripple out into the larger world around us. there are so many local non-profits doing amazing work that are fundraising for "not-that-much" just to survive. if we all donated just $20/mo to any one we choose for a year, it would really add up! 

two of my fave local orgs AAPI women lead and sogorea te' both shared in past gatherings that all they need is "just" $1.5 million to operate for a year.. and i say "not-that-much" and "just" $1.5m a year because we live in the freaking bay area, the epicenter of tech startups that blow through that in a nanosecond, who are also adding to eradicating actual humans in work (AI), are heating up the world and killing living beings in it (data centers) and continue to oppress "regular" citizens with unjust budget cuts that all favor the rich (oakland USD cuts, SF non profit cuts and senior/disabled program cuts). there is no excuse for how much money that flows through the bay area for how poorly resourced our public transportation, safety and healthcare access is. this makes me big mad! 

there's a lot of little acts of resistance i do each day. i donate to and volunteer at local orgs. i pay shuumi land tax, boycott the big box stores and support local smaller ones as much as i can. i bank with a credit union instead of the corrupt big banks. i stay away from using AI and chat GPT and exercise my brain, do research the old fashioned way and lean into my community/reddit instead. i garden and have been growing veggies! with these little daily choices and actions, i feel like i am making a difference and am a real part of the community, not just another person of privilege that's gentrifying or settling onto this land. 

self compassion

ooooh quite possibly the hardest one. i have another client friend who just graduated with a masters in east / west psychology who'd come visit me during her rare breaks. i remember one time she was about to finish that program (while working full time at a community mental health org), was stressed to the max and felt guilty discovering that after working in the mental health space, she wanted to pivot towards acupuncture. i playfully asked her, "awww. are you feeling guilty that your heart is so big but your arms are too tiny to heal the entire world???"

capitalism and social media leads us to believe that we aren't doing enough, so that we can just give up and let the billionaires have their way with us. these oppressive systems want nothing for us but to be oppressed and kept silent, unhealthy, lifeless and quite frankly, dumber so that we can't thinking, speak or act for ourselves. if we were all resourced, healthy and energized, we could research, organize, make real change and demands. but if we are constantly tired, stressed, under resourced and malnutrition-ed, we're much easier to be held captive.

micro-joys are how we survive macro-grief, says IG influencer glo antanmo. i know i feel guilty enjoying something when someone somewhere else is suffering, or will never be able to enjoy the thing i'm enjoying. but if i don't get a boba drink, that also doesn't automatically translate to saving a life in palestine. african american poet toi derricotte reminds us that "joy is an act of resistance," as does audre lorde who said that "caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." we have to remember that every self-preservation win is an F-U to the powers that oppress and exploit!

some other daily practices

herbal tea

herbal tea has been a literal balm for my body and mind. herbs have powerful nervous system calming properties and are easily accessible. chamomile is great for cooling and calming. holy basil is a well known adaptogenic herb that can help reverse all the effects stress causes on our body. ginger, mint, leftover fresh herbs - heck, even warm or hot water after meals - can help with digestion a lot.

check out this youtube video to see my 4 fave ways to brew loose tea. 

deep breaths

this is a fave 7 minute youtube video of mine that i do in the car, in the mornings while i'm getting ready or actually sitting in a meditation type of way, lol. if you do all the sounds and pay attention, you can actually feel how each sound really does vibrate that chakra space in your body! so cool. 

i like to remind clients that though everyone knows how to breathe, no one really thinks about doing it. by bringing awareness to our breath just a few times a day, we can utilize the power of breath to calm our nervous systems down. 

a tip: the longer your exhales, the faster your nervous system calms down! and breathing deep is the ultimate hack - it's free and you can do it anywhere, anytime. 

fat cat timer

i love this thing. it's so cute! and also free. you download it as an extension and can set up what exact sites you want it to regulate you on, how often and for how long you want it to appear.

i hope all these things help you keep it together, they've certainly helped me. and remember, it's ok and natural to lose it and come back to yourself. this is all hard. everyone is feeling it and you're not alone. please feel free to hit me up if you need additional support, and comment below if you have more ideas to add to this list!