Sanity During Trump 2.0
Developing Our Inner Resources
I have been filled with anxiety, chaos, and uncertainty since Trump won his second presidential election. During this collective crisis, I am wondering how we can both fight back and remain sane. I have lots of practice fighting back. However, I sometimes need a reminder on how to stay sane. To keep the peace in my heart, I turn to lessons I learned during the other high-tension moments in my life.
Three of these peak-stress times in my life gave me unexpected gifts. After losing my father to suicide in 2008, I learned the importance of cultivating peace of mind through meditation. During the onset of the COVID pandemic, I intentionally developed the courage to share my writing. In the wheelchair days of the summer of 2023, I learned to combat the psychological drain from FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Thanks to these opportunities, I developed useful tools for staying sane. These are the tools I need now!
Resisting helplessness and despair during Trump 2.0 chaos will make us stronger. Applying these tools to stay sane is part of maintaining a sense of personal agency and self-efficacy. In a nod to these lessons, I am revisiting and sharing my own advice.
My Practices for Sanity:
People often say time is our most valuable resource. I disagree. Our emotional energy is even more precious than clock time. Our attention, actions, and the buzzing energy of our consciousness are our biggest resources. Emotional energy powers focus and the capacity to care, feel, and be moved.
Keeping that in mind, I will be incredibly selective on where I put my emotional energy in 2025.
1. Save Social Security: Intentional & Aligned Friends
In 2024, I often worked to include diverse members of my social circle in my various social activities. In some ways, I felt that I owed the whole community because they took care of me after my accident a year and a half ago.
In 2025, I feel the need to be much more selective about aligning with individuals who share the values of respect, thoughtfulness, and consideration. This means not chasing anyone for friendship, community, and company. To find that, I will spend my emotional energy with individuals who can reciprocate with similar frequencies of thoughtfulness and effort.
2. Growing Your Assets: Developing & Nurturing the Heart
The devices we use regularly challenge our capacity to focus. Our energies scatter while our phones, computers, and cars constantly beep at us. Consider the last time you looked at your phone for ONE specific reason only to fall into a black hole. When I do this, I emerge with less energy and lose time.
To counterbalance this in 2025, I find myself pausing and taking breaths as a centering practice. Beyond just an intentional time out, I feel myself drawn deeper into the practice of meditation. Last week, a friend taught me about a meditation center just minutes from my home. The instruction for meditating there was unique. It was my first time trying to meditate with my eyes open! By learning to sit with the swirling of thoughts, we are actually growing the capacity to develop our inner reserve of peace and focus. Doing this with eyes open seemed like the perfect metaphor for Trump 2.0.
Another source of power and peace at this time is literature. We can develop empathy and understanding through literature. In 2025, I have invited others to join me in reading heart-opening classics. To prepare for the onslaught of chaos, I have started a very small and invite-only group of friends to read with me. The book club strongly prefers readers with expansive minds and soft hearts. Our readings are designed to further our common search for humanity and compassion through literature. For our first book, we will be reading The Fire Next Time.
3. The Tax of Appreciation: Gifts of Gratitude
In moments of challenge, a physical form of beauty is the easiest reminder to pause with gratitude. By gaining the capacity to appreciate beauty, we bring presence and awareness into the moment.
I return over and over again to develop the capacity for gratefulness. It is a treasure to have, and it cultivates the ability to appreciate beauty. During the pandemic, I began purchasing fresh flowers on a regular basis. This tiny luxury constantly paid for itself.
The intentional honing of gratitude is a reminder to say thank you to the universe. Something as simple as rearranging a room, noticing light and beauty, or feeling moved by a poem can bring us to a better emotional state. It helps us see our privileges and assess our situation with more perspective. We can move toward a place of better emotional energy from one simple physical observation. I have found such small pauses aggregate into replenishing good heart energy. I invite you to try it.
With this handful of intentions, I see 2025 as an opportunity. It will be a moment to find alignment, growth, and appreciation.
How are you maintaining your peace through this rough patch?
This is really beautiful, Sabrina. I have found myself meditating at various moments on things that are eternal (at least within the human understanding of time). It helps me keep the tragic events happening in my lifetime in perspective. On a recent bike ride, I was able to almost constantly name things that are eternal. Light. Shadow. Motion. Stillness. Laughter. Clouds. Trees. All of it is so much larger than the petty actions of humans motivated by hatred, greed, and cruelty. I don't understand WHY these motivations exist; I don't even know anyone who lives this way. That, too, is comforting to me.