Staying Human Now #1: Start Where You Are

Authoritarian harm is real. So is your capacity to respond. These three tiny moves help you pace yourself with purpose.

Apr 20, 2025

This is Staying Human Now — a weekly series offering a few strategic actions inspired by my viral post 80 Tiny Moves for Staying Human in the Authoritarian Harm Complex which has had over 25,000 likes and shares. These tiny moves are not productivity tips or wellness fluff. They are survival tools for people trying to stay human and strategically grounded inside Trump-era chaos. Think of them as scaffolding to bridge the gap between overwhelmed withdrawal and always-on activism. The goal is to enhance our strategic versatility, range, and agility.
If this work matters to you, please consider supporting it. You can upgrade to a paid subscription or send a one-time donation via Ko-fi. Your support helps me keep doing this work and sharing it widely. Thank you.

Staying Human Now #1: Start Where You Are

We are not meant to function normally during a brutal campaign to destabilize public life and dismantle democracy.

When you’re exposed to relentless harm like disinformation, layoffs, bans, threats, and funding cuts, your nervous system does what it’s designed to do: it goes into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode.

You feel overwhelmed, and that’s not a personal failure. That’s their goal.

The following moves aren’t about getting “back on track.” They’re how we remain active agents in the terrain of resistance with integrity and on our own terms — even when we feel like collapsing.

1. Cancel one nonessential task. Let the gap be restorative.

This is spirit-preserving triage. Give yourself permission to opt out of the urgency culture that says we always need to be “on.” Consider shifting the location of your boundary between “essential” and “nonessential” to preserve your energy for the long trek ahead of us.

2. Sit in silence for five minutes. No fixing. Just feel what’s there.

Sometimes our hurt is a compass. The ache might be pointing to what still matters, a specific value you can use as fuel for resistance or as strength to set boundaries.

3. Take a no-scroll hour. Just be where you are.

Trump’s authoritarian blitz, and the media’s fear and outrage-industrial complex, are designed to hijack your attention and drain your will to fight. This is one way you reclaim them.

The harm is real. So is your capacity to respond. These moves help you pace yourself with purpose.

Tiny Moves, Bigger Than They Look

Strategy doesn’t always look like a blueprint. Sometimes it looks like lighting a candle. Saying no. Checking in. Telling the truth.

If even one of these gave you a foothold, let that be enough for today. Come back when you need another. Or make your own. This is not a finished product—it’s a growing map. One we build together, one small move at a time.

Support This Work

If this helped, forward it to a friend. Or highlight a line and post it in Substack Notes, your share might reach someone who needs it.

Paid subscribers make this work possible and receive special tools and resources as a thank-you. You can upgrade here if you’re able. Or consider buying me a coffee or leaving a tip on Ko-fi.

New moves drop every week. Let’s keep building.

Where This Work Leads

This blog is part of a larger project called Progressive Strategy Now which is more than just my blog’s title. It is my attempt to meet the moment, a growing collection of resources and consultation to help mission-driven people and organizations stay human and stay strategic while navigating moral injury, institutional destruction, and the lived realities of authoritarian harm. If this post gave you words for something you’ve been carrying, you’re in the right place. This is one dispatch in an ongoing series.

Stay human. Stay strategic. Shape tomorrow.

Strategies for Staying Human in the Face of Authoritarianism

If you’re looking for practices, tools, and deeper reading to help you stay grounded under pressure, this growing list is for you. It includes some of my previous posts and a section for other resources. These are starting points for staying human in hard times.

My Posts

The Harms Are Cumulative. Your Overwhelm Is the Goal. Let’s Get Unstuck
Trump and Musk weaponize chaos to exhaust our capacity for resistance. Recognizing the patterns of harm gives us the framework to protect our humanity and reclaim our strategic power.
Befriend Yourself: A Strategy for Staying Whole While They Dismantle Everything That Matters. Trump and Musk want to disappear you into a cell of despair. Kindness to yourself is how you stay human—and begin your escape.

When They Gut Your Mission: Start Here…. You’re still standing. That means you get to choose where to go next.

Blogs I recommend

Invisible Threads. Veteran journalist Kate Woodsome is pioneering coverage at the intersection of democracy and mental health.
The American Pamphleteer. “Because freedom won’t fight for itself—but together, we sure as hell can. Subscribe for bold, unfiltered takes on resisting fascism, building real community, and living with guts in chaotic times.“
How To Resist. Great blog about sustainable ways to remain engaged in activism and mutual aid.

Other Resources

ACT for Moral Distress, online course by Dr. Jaimie Lusk. “Navigate moral distress with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a powerful evidence-based treatment that allows us to hold our pain while taking valued actions.”
In Tumultuous Times, Think Like a Hostage. “Guidance given to hostages can foster psychological flexibility in tough times.” Very clever article by Dr. Jaimie Lusk.

Please drop additional suggestions for resources in Comments

My Consulting Services

Need a new strategic plan that protects your mission and your funding during hard times? I partner with progressive leaders to navigate threats and build stronger, resilient organizations:

Strategic plan revisions to meet the moment.
Fundraising and communications.
Resilient data system to track unmet needs and the downstream harms resulting from authoritarian aggression.

Let’s talk. Direct message me to start the conversation.

***From Progressive Strategy Now, a publication of Paul T Shattuck LLC. The views expressed here reflect my personal analysis as a researcher and consultant, and do not represent the positions of any employer, clients, or affiliated organizations.