Tool Swap
Tools for thriving in chaotic and trying times
Hello Friends,
In the conversation about last week’s post on how practicing terraphilia has saved my life and could save all of us, writer commented,
“We need all the tools we can, even on a good day, and right now, many of us would say there have been a lot of hard days. We need more tools than we've ever needed before.”
So let’s do a tool swap in the comments, sharing the tools we depend on to make it through the hard days.
To get us started, here are are some terraphilic tools I noticed in Substack newsletters I’ve read in the past few days:
• Practice presence and receptivity
from A Woman’s Place is in the Wild:These are tumultuous days. Everyday I ask: “Am I doing enough?” But perhaps the question is, “Am I being enough?” Emergence isn’t about action, it’s about receptivity.
If the world is going to change, we must change not just our minds, but our hearts, the way we inhabit this world. We must meet cruelty with kindness, destruction with beauty, fear with love. Take action, make your calls, shield the most vulnerable, march—but also practice presence, practice gathering.
• Be with the turbulence instead of resisting it
from Life in the Real World:I’ve learned techniques to help me be with [the turbulence]. … Breathing. Shaking. Tapping. Qi massage. Walking. Talking out loud to myself. Rocking. Somatic exercises. Music. Dancing. Smiling. Tense and release movements. … Trying to make it go away - fighting - is rigid. Welcoming it in and allowing it to be here is soft. This is where peace starts.
• Build your Seasonal intelligence
Jill Consor Beck from Go Long:
Nature’s rhythm isn’t just poetic—it’s practical.
Simple Ways to Reconnect
You don’t need to go off-grid to feel grounded. Start small:
Take a different route home just to notice what’s blooming
Buy whatever vegetable is actually in season at your farmers market
Stand under a tree and feel the breeze at lunch (just avoid any falling fruit!)
The action doesn’t matter. The noticing does.
• 5-10-20 morning sunlight formula
from Goodbye Anxiety:At about 40 seconds into this brief video, Stephanie gives the formula for getting sufficient morning sunlight for healthy “reticular activation” and keeping calm and well in disorienting times.
Get outside for five minutes of morning sunlight on a clear day, 10 on a partly-cloudy day, 20 minutes on a foggy day.
• Have each other’s backs
from Holly’s Rolling Desk:And finally, this essential terraphilic tool from Holly Starley’s heartfelt story about Ken, the mechanic who not only stayed open late to diagnose an issue with her new (used) van-home; he fixed it for no charge.
What’s the moral of this story? For me, it’s two-fold: Seek out small businesses like Ken’s. Keep having each other’s backs. We’re all we’ve got.
Okay, it’s your turn. What terraphilic tools have you used when life kicked you down?
Hit the comment button and let us know!
Blessings, Susan
In the afternoon I walk with my walker to one of the local coffee shops and while I'm drinking I read a book. Lately I've been reading Seed to Dust: Life, Nature and a Country Garden by Marc Hamer. His musings about being a gardner for a widow in Wales is real and connected to my experience as a gardener. If the weather permits, I follow this with a walk to the cliff above Puget Sound. Sometimes I birdwatch with a light pair of binoculars and a camera, often I watch the tide go out or in, sometimes I call friends, sometimes I just sit there. The waves can be interesting in themselves and nobody can control their actions. On a few occasions I have observed square waves, resulting from conflicting currents. Mostly the waves come from the southwest and roll along the beach from south to north. If I am there near sunset I can often see a spectacular sky as the sun drops behind the Olympic Mountains. On a clear day the imposing cone of Mount Baker in the northern Cascades is visible past the looming presence of Whidbey Island. On rare occasions I have seen Orcas from the Fishing Pier near this island and a humpback whale from my vantage point on the cliff. Harbor seals and brant geese are much in evidence lately. Yesterday a great blue heron landed on the incoming tide and became a silhouette next to Brackett's Landing.
Thanks for the mention, Susan! I find animals to be extremely helpful. Pets and random wild animals (foxes, squirrels, etc.) are doing their own thing, much like plants are. I call one of our cats "Chief Therapy Cat" because she's warm, loving, and blissfully unaware of the world outside her microcosm (which includes the people in her world). Animals are obviously experiencing their own lives, apart from us, and that's also part of why they are great. Theirs is a world without a newsfeed, mean people in traffic, or worries about the future of the planet. They also know to take care of themselves. Chief Therapy Cat takes her "me time." When she goes under the bed, I say she's going into her office and shutting the door. There may be a lesson there for people who perpetually worry about everything and everyone.