Moving Beyond Social Distance Towards Expansive Solidarity

By Kyra Hazilla

In times of stress, I try to get really intentional about taking care of myself. I use a couple of strategies to increase my awareness of what is going into and coming out of my mind. I attend to how I am describing my circumstances and the world around me, and what I consume in the printed or visual forms. I came upon two great resources this week from The Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley that I’ve been sharing with colleagues and friends.

First, this lovely article reminds us of the four core things we need to prioritize during challenging times. Spoiler alert: my favorite thing about this article is the change in language from Social Distancing to Expansive Solidarity. I have found that the words I use matter, and I find my choices around words influence how I experience things.

Second, Greater Good offers a great reminder about bringing some mindfulness to our consumption of scary news: This article provides some illuminating research about what happens when we watch, read, or listen to a lot of news when things are intense. It also provides a couple of resources for good news - especially helpful for lawyers, who are naturally skilled at and trained in seeing the worst-case scenario in any situation.

Stay safe and take good care.