Combating hopelessness

[friendofdorothy]

I can understand this.

I've been feeling the same.

More so recently as local community stuff seems full of , to me, a lot of personal disagreements and unpleasantness. Some of which I can't deal with because it's stressful and not that rational. Which has led me to dropping out of one meeting I go to. Which I feel guilty about.

( To add I find this on urban to)

I find dealing with Lambeth council over the years depressing. At best Council/ Labour party here regard one as just being difficult. A problem.

I have been feeling depressed recently without wanting to be. And trying not to allow myself to wallow in it.

Various things. But some I think connected with local volunteering.

Always done a bit in my years in Lambeth. But feel I have little to show for it.

I'm going to pm you. thanks

 

[frogwoman]

Also i highly recommend if you've ever felt that you're shit at your job or that you struggle in dealing with people, to read The Art of The Deal by a certain Donald J. Trump. It's very good at reassuring the Project 2025 worries as well. The guy is batshit. Utterly unhinged.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

A lot to think about there. Like the ' fetish for the present moment' phrase - perfectly describes the adoption of "mindfulness' in vogue with employers, or use by advertising to sell crap.

Not Buddhist but I've come to terms with acceptance in recent years. Accepting mostly myself, ageing, my grief, anxiety, sadness. And the shit state of the world that I can do little about. And forgiveness. It's difficult though.

as i think i've said elsewhere on here, i have a bit of a with the mindfulness stuff i have seen - seems to be very much 'stay in your lane, accept your station in life, put up with the shit the establishment throws at you, don't make waves'

although it's possible it's random platitude generator like the 'astrology' in the tabloids and may not bear any resemblance to what mindfulness was meant to be.

having said that, yes, there's a limit to just how many battles any individual can fight.

 

[redsquirrel]

as i think i've said elsewhere on here, i have a bit of a with the mindfulness stuff i have seen - seems to be very much 'stay in your lane, accept your station in life, put up with the shit the establishment throws at you, don't make waves'

IMO that certainly is how employers increasingly use it.
There's a mental health and safety issue in this area - take a stress risk assessment and do some wellbeing exercises.
Rather than the responsibility being on the employer to fix the root cause of the problem, the responsibility of looking after mental health becomes that of individual employees.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

and in general, i'm not doing all that well with the hopelessness thing.

(conscious this isn't in k+s) so on a personal level will just say that national / local political circumstances means redundancy may be coming next year

bits of social media from the US consist of a mix of people frightened about the next 4 years (or longer) and trying to come up with options for moving to a (hopefully) better state, or leaving the country altogether, or wanting to rush to sort out medical or legal situations, e.g. entering in to same sex marriages before they are banned (although i have an idea that s-s marriages in some states got annulled once before) and noticing that people are taking rainbow (etc) flags down from being visible on their homes and so on.

and other people offering what help they can to people in those situations. i'm not convinced it's going to be enough.

and the idea that if it's not a complete disaster (from the view of the republicans' polling, rather than for people on the receiving end of it) can see the tories / refuck going for the same sort of line in 2028 / 29 when it comes to challenging an uninspiring centrist incumbent party that hasn't delivered much at ground level.

at the moment, i don't feel like i've got the energy to join the resistance movement...

 

[BigMoaner]

and in general, i'm not doing all that well with the hopelessness thing.

(conscious this isn't in k+s) so on a personal level will just say that national / local political circumstances means redundancy may be coming next year

bits of social media from the US consist of a mix of people frightened about the next 4 years (or longer) and trying to come up with options for moving to a (hopefully) better state, or leaving the country altogether, or wanting to rush to sort out medical or legal situations, e.g. entering in to same sex marriages before they are banned (although i have an idea that s-s marriages in some states got annulled once before) and noticing that people are taking rainbow (etc) flags down from being visible on their homes and so on.

and other people offering what help they can to people in those situations. i'm not convinced it's going to be enough.

and the idea that if it's not a complete disaster (from the view of the republicans' polling, rather than for people on the receiving end of it) can see the tories / refuck going for the same sort of line in 2028 / 29 when it comes to challenging an uninspiring centrist incumbent party that hasn't delivered much at ground level.

at the moment, i don't feel like i've got the energy to join the resistance movement...

Stopping social media can help i find. of course it;s not the only solution. but if you're largely powerless to affect things, then what's the point in reading about things you are powerless over? for all that i want to help people, i cannot do that without looking out for myself, managing my own mental and emotional life. thing is, what iwth the average human spending about 5 hours a day on their phone, we are so immeshed, so pulled around by this stuff. it's not just tut tut social media rolls eyes, this stuff kind of is reality now. we buy into so many narratives. exhausting.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Stopping social media can help i find

i'm not on social media a lot (i regard urban as more anti-social media ) but it's the only way of keeping contact with some people / circles

 

[Eivets Rednow]

My take on combating hopelessness is that for me, becoming a truer version of myself is helping. I try to take intentional actions wherever I go, and connect with people. I can’t say that it is easy as sometimes we all feel hopeless, however I think I have found a path to walk through to make the changes to the world around me. Education and career combined, leading to better, more complex decision making and strategies.