“Maintain yourself, find your community who loves you for you and who wants to celebrate you. Being yourself as you navigate the world in a way that’s safe and authentic and good to you is going to help in the long run. Know that you’re loved and supported, that time goes on and more people will see us for who we are as we continue to advocate for ourselves.” Aaron Philip
#TheMetalDogArticleList #louder
Psychologist says people that listen to heavy metal think more logically and are less stressed than those who don't
According to science, heavy metal is doing wonders for our brains
-A rapid strep test plus antibiotics mean my daughter felt well enough to go to school today.
-My new blow dryer is lighter, quieter, and more efficient than the one it replaced.
-We found a $20 replacement for medicine that had been costing $100 a month.
Bonus: I have an interesting editing project from Cornell University Press--an academic work with a feminist twist.
"Through my own identity as a trans man, and one of a race other than white, I really wanted to share my own experiences to show that everyone's on a different path. It's not an easy journey and I don't think it's ever really over. It can be emotionally draining, but it can also be really rewarding." Leo Sheng
"If I were to give advice it would be that whatever you are doing or whatever you are going through , you gotta enjoy the little things in life. Enjoy and cherish those moments." Ruby
If you're having trouble having hope, watch some social media videos from the early pandemic - people were opening their hearts, pitching in for the greater good, supporting one another, making big organizational changes...until they were propagandized NOT to.
We have the power to form positive community. Remind yourself of what we're capable of at our best. Do not allow the rich to convince you that we have no power even over ourselves. #COVID#Pandemic#MutualAid#Positivity
“My life has changed profoundly since transitioning. I now enjoy life, have better relationships with my family, have increased my social circle, have returned to education and am well on my way to a new career, live in a brilliant town, quit drinking and no longer suffer chronic anxiety and depression.” Charlotte F
(Accessibility: Purple background with Charlotte wearing a white shirt and black bottoms, with the above text mentioned.)
As my father is fond of saying, "every day you spend on the right side of the grass is a good day." In that spirit, #FediFam, let's try to let go of our sadness, frustration, and fear and think of THREE GOOD THINGS™️!
🌨️ A snow flurry rolled through while I was out shopping.
🧘🏻♂️ Tried a new #yoga routine for my back and it felt great.
🧍🏻♂️🧍🏼🧍🏼♂️Housework goes fast now that our little family has grown to 3!
Embrace self-expression and creativity to harness the day's positive energies. Engaging in artistic activities boosts mood, fosters growth, and enhances problem-solving skills. Elevate your spirit through art.
A bottle of water can be $1 at the grocery store, $3 at a restaurant, $4 at the movies, and $6 at an airport. The only thing that changed its value is the place, so the next time you feel like you have no value, maybe you're in the wrong place.
🙏🏽So grateful for this message from an online fitness client!
🏋🏽♂️ I had the privilege of working with Kevin to prepare for his knee surgery today. We focused on personalized exercises to set him up for a smooth post-surgical rehab. 🏃🏾♂️
💯Helping clients achieve their goals, pre-hab and post-hab, is what truly motivates me. Here's to Kevin's successful surgery and a strong comeback!
"During my transition, I discovered packing boxers. I loved the idea and knew they would provide me with immense gender euphoria. However, every reputable brand was located overseas. This lack of access to gender-affirming products in the UK encouraged me to launch Casual Reign early in 2023." 🏳️⚧️
“I don’t think we as trans people, particularly trans people of colour, get spaces where we can simply look good and where it doesn’t go deeper than that.” – Sabah with photo credit to @hollyrevellphotography
(Accessibility: Picture of Sabah in pink-lensed sunglasses a a cool floral shirt behind a colourful flower display.)
Someone I recently met who studied under Buddhist monks put it this way:
"The only thing we can really control is how we relate to everything else."
When you choose to relate to everything around you in conflict, when you choose to relate to the world as its victim, you inevitably become a void. You accept a station that was not given to you, but that you've given to yourself. You accept a mindset of eternal war: war with yourself, war with others, war with community, war with society.
I find myself less and less on here, because this once positive space of learning and shared ideas has, for some reason, devolved into voids. Voids of self-appointed victimhood, of constant warring with everything, everyone. I find myself more and more particular about the people I allow into my space, because even some people I find very dear are voids, and I am very sensitive to it, and because I am still learning how to create the appropriate psychic boundaries. Because I am, also, prone to becoming a void, and because if I spend too much time in others' I tend to then create one myself, and I want to choose not to allow myself this.
It's harder for many of us to choose the alternative: to relate to the world as its beneficiary, as a responsible steward of it, as a crucial moving part of it, even when it sometimes wrongs us; to relate to others with compassion and empathy and appropriate boundaries rather than constant conflict. It's easy to choose neural feedback loops of cortisol and adrenaline -- it feels good for a moment (and then it feels bad long term as it impacts our health negatively), our society provides plenty of opportunities to do so, and many of us learned to seek these feedback loops in our environments growing up. But what feels better, long term, that is harder to cultivate, are the feedback loops of dopamine through appropriate action and fulfilling achievement, oxytocin through true connection and existence among and with others, and so on.
It's easy and even rewarded in our society to tell me I'm wrong: "I don't get to choose how I feel about anything. If it's bad, it's bad, and it has to be bad." It takes work to relate to hardships with resilience, to accept that "trauma", the way that our lives shape us, is not always negative.
Pain is real, suffering is a choice. This I've learned. This I continue to learn, the hard way, each and every day as I engage with this journey I've been tasked with.