Make Your Damn Bed

Julie Merica
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Mar 4, 2025 • 8min

1380 || "feeling like a punching bag" part II

"...the most important move a frozen person can make is whatever breaks the cycle. When so many people are isolated, community-affirming events are vital. When everything feels like it is simultaneously too much, and not enough, we must recognize the importance of beginning. As Mariame Kaba reminds us, we must strive to reduce the distance between our actions and our values. Whatever brings us closer to other people, whatever allows us to act, rather than simply react, is worthwhile." - Kelly HayesTHE KELLY HAYES' NEWSLETTER: https://organizingmythoughts.org/how-to-be-a-fighter-when-you-feel-like-a-punching-bag/Mariame Kaba + Kelly Hayes book: Let This Radicalize You—a text about organizing in catastrophic timesDean's Book Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together, Aaron Goggans: WildSeed Society,Elise Granata: “Becoming a High Agency Person,” Subscribe to Kelly's work: https://organizingmythoughts.org/Donate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.netDonate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-fundsGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcastOR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcastOR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 3, 2025 • 11min

1379 || on "feeling like a punching bag" - by kelly hayes

Most of us feel disconnected and unsure of where to begin. That's by design. We must be willing to redesign our reactions so we can reclaim a bit of agency we've been stripped of. THE BLOG POST BY KELLY HAYES: https://organizingmythoughts.org/how-to-be-a-fighter-when-you-feel-like-a-punching-bag/Donate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.netDonate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-fundsGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcastOR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcastOR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 2, 2025 • 8min

1378 || reclaiming agency || patreon

What sources remind you most of your own innate power? What saps you of it?What helps you feel the most "free to act" and how can you curate more of that feeling?How can you lessen the gap between having an idea and acting on it?The "Group Hug" Substack by Elise Granata: https://grouphug.substack.com/p/becoming-a-high-agency-person?r=iw9zm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true&ref=organizingmythoughts.orgDonate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.netDonate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-fundsGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcastOR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcastOR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 2, 2025 • 8min

1378 || reclaiming agency

What sources remind you most of your own innate power? What saps you of it? What helps you feel the most "free to act" and how can you curate more of that feeling?How can you lessen the gap between having an idea and acting on it?The "Group Hug" Substack by Elise Granata: https://grouphug.substack.com/p/becoming-a-high-agency-person?r=iw9zm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true&ref=organizingmythoughts.orgDonate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.netDonate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-fundsGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcastOR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcastOR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 1, 2025 • 11min

1377 || hopepunk isn't utopia

Hopepunk is a much needed reaction to decades of dystopian and nihilistic fiction. It explores how goodness, joy, optimism, and collective action can be acts of rebellion. Alexandra Rowland's Tumblr: https://ariaste.tumblr.com/post/163500138919/ariaste-the-opposite-of-grimdark-is-hopepunkSam's Monologue to Frodo: https://mountebank.org/sams-speech/A Blogpost on Hopepunk: https://www.centreforoptimism.com/blog/hopepunkDonate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.netDonate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-fundsGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcastOR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcastOR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Feb 28, 2025 • 11min

1376 || hopepunk

"We want the world to be better—kinder, more just, more merciful. We still yearn toward noblebright, toward an honest and desperate belief that love conquers all. Except, when the other guy has more guns and fewer moral objections than we do, it doesn’t.We forget, sometimes, that we have knives too in this empire. That we can unsheathe them, that we can turn our blades to the defense of an atom of justice and a molecule of mercy that might not even exist—except . . . except for where we make them exist, in the hands we hold out to each other, and in the shelter we offer even when we ourselves are exhausted, footsore, and filthy, with the wolves at our doors.There are no heroes and no villains. There are just people. That’s hopepunk: Whether the glass is half full or half empty, what matters is that there’s water in that glass. And that’s something worth defending." - Alexandra RowlandAlexandra Rowland's post about Hopepunk: https://festive.ninja/one-atom-of-justice-one-molecule-of-mercy-and-the-empire-of-unsheathed-knives-alexandra-rowland/Hopepunk on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HopepunkA conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland: https://www.alexandrarowland.net/a-conspiracy-of-truthsDonate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.netDonate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-fundsGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcastOR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcastOR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Feb 27, 2025 • 9min

1375 || burnout refresh

Stage 1 – HoneymoonInitial commitment and excitement to engage in tasks. For example, when you first start your journey in a new activism group.Stage 2 – Onset of stressCommon symptoms of stress start being felt, such as fatigue, lower productivity and sleep disturbances.Stage 3 – Chronic StressLack of motivation + more intense symptoms felt on a very frequent basis. At this stage, bad habits such as smoking, drinking etc may beginStage 4 – BurnoutDifficulty even to cope with the minimum of daily tasks. Everything seems dull and ugly, and the person starts feeling either numb or else always overwhelmed.Stage 5 – Habitual burnoutSymptoms of burnout become incorporated into normal life and person experiences chronic fatigue, depression and apathy.The Resource: https://commonslibrary.org/activist-burnout-guide-with-videos/Donate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.netDonate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-fundsGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcastOR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcastOR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Feb 26, 2025 • 9min

1374 || what is a "wicked problem" + how do we solve them!?

Horst and Webber's examples of wicked problems: There is no definitive formulation of a wicked problem.Wicked problems are often ongoing.Solutions to wicked problems are not true or false, good or bad.There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked problem.All attempts to find solutions have effects that may not be reversable.Wicked problems do not have a set of solutions.Every wicked problem is essentially unique.Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another problem.There are many explanations for wicked problems.There are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers.The wicked problems article: https://commonslibrary.org/what-are-wicked-problems/More information on wicked problems: https://uq.pressbooks.pub/publicinterestcomm/chapter/wicked-problems/#term_53_357The UN's 2030 Agenda example: https://sdgs.un.org/2030agendaDonate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.netDonate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-fundsGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcastOR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcastOR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Feb 25, 2025 • 10min

1373 || expressive vs. instrumental resistance

“I had to examine, in my dreams as well as in my immune-function tests, the devastating effects of overextension. Overextending myself is not stretching myself. I had to accept how difficult it is to monitor the difference. Necessary for me as cutting down on sugar. Crucial. Physically. Psychically. Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” - Audre Lord"The best actions are both expressive and instrumental, but it is more important than ever to approach direct action from an earnest, strategic perspective, with an eye toward what harms we can halt and what values we can materially enact." - Kelly HayesTODAY'S RESOURCES: Kelly Hayes Article: https://truthout.org/articles/how-must-we-reorient-our-movements-under-a-second-trump-administration/Kelly Hayes Blog: https://organizingmythoughts.org/collective-survival-adaption-and-direct-action/Resistance Resources: Choose Democracy "what can I do?": https://choosedemocracy.us/what-can-i-do/Find Local protests + actions: https://www.buildtheresistance.org/actionsMore action resources: https://www.buildtheresistance.org/actionsDonate: Donate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.netDonate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-fundsGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcastOR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcastOR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Feb 24, 2025 • 9min

1372 || essential self care

“I had to examine, in my dreams as well as in my immune-function tests, the devastating effects of overextension. Overextending myself is not stretching myself. I had to accept how difficult it is to monitor the difference. Necessary for me as cutting down on sugar. Crucial. Physically. Psychically. Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” - Audre LordTODAY'S RESOURCES: The article: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/05/10493153/reclaiming-self-care-audre-lorde-black-women-community-careRead Audre Lord's A Burst Of Light: https://eddierockerz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/a-burst-of-light-and-other-essays-pdfdrive-.pdfBuy Audre Lord's A Burst Of Light: https://www.akpress.org/catalog/product/view/id/3259/s/aburstoflight/category/6/Resistance Resources: Choose Democracy "what can I do?": https://choosedemocracy.us/what-can-i-do/Find Local protests + actions: https://www.buildtheresistance.org/actionsMore action resources: https://www.buildtheresistance.org/actionsDonate: Donate to Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund::www.pcrf.netDonate to Mutual Aid Funds: https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-fundsGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcastOR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcastOR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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