“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” -Audre Lorde
Amidst our actions for peace and justice, we must also ensure that we are caring for ourselves and our communities. These times call for radical ways of caring. But “radical” doesn’t need to mean “big”; even our small ways of caring for ourselves and each other go a long way toward creating the world we want to see.
New tips, practices, and resources will be added to this page each month. Return to this page as often as needed for support in caring for yourself and others.
April 2026: Check In with Collaborators and Comrades
If you’re reading this, you already know how heavy the world feels right now. Many of us are protesting in the streets, contacting our representatives, and coming together with neighbors to keep our communities safe in the face of violence and domination—both at home and abroad.
This month, make it a point to intentionally check in with someone you’ve been organizing or taking action with. Ask how they’re really doing. In urgent times like these, it’s easy to focus solely on the external work and forget to connect with our comrades and collaborators.
Checking in can take many forms. Here are a few ideas:
- Call someone you’re organizing with—whether they’re nearby or across the country—and have an honest conversation about how you’re both feeling in this collective moment, not just what you’re working on.
- Take a walk or make art with someone in your community. Ask what’s resourcing them right now and where they need more support.
- Send a text to a movement partner: “I’m grateful to be in this work together. How are you doing today? How is your heart?”
In these conversations, people often aren’t looking for solutions—they simply want to be heard and witnessed.
And don’t forget to check in with yourself, too. How are you really doing, and what support do you need from yourself and others right now?
March 2026: Practice Care in Conflict
“Conflict is inevitable, but violence is not.” This statement is the motto of The Conflict Center, a Denver-based organization that shares practical tools to engage in conflict in ways that strengthen—rather than damage—our relationships. These tools are vital across all areas of life, including activism. Without the skills to stay connected as we pursue the world we envision, we risk deepening divisions instead of healing them. Learning to stay in relationship with one another, even through conflict, is essential to shaping the world we long to live in.
Below are some tips for engaging in conflict with care:
- Shift from righteousness to curiosity. Righteousness can hinder connection with those we’re in conflict with, while curiosity invites deeper understanding of both others and ourselves. What might happen if we set aside the need to be right and become curious about why someone thinks or acts as they do? This shift is challenging because it asks us to set our egos aside and recognize that our worth is not defined by “winning” an argument. We must be open to being changed ourselves—not only to changing others.
- Use “I statements.” In conflict, begin your statements with “I” instead of “you.” For instance, rather than saying, “You changed our plans at the last minute, so it’s all your fault,” try, “I felt frustrated when our plans changed because having a plan helps me feel secure.” Using “I statements” helps prevent conflicts from escalating into blame and encourages us to take responsibility for our feelings.
- Take a rain check. If you feel too activated to have a productive conversation, ask to pause and revisit the discussion later. Pausing gives you space to process your thoughts and emotions and return when you’re better able to engage. If you initiate a rain check, set a clear time to return and follow through. Taking a pause signals that you value the relationship and conversation more than simply “winning” in the moment.
- Find ways to regulate your nervous system. Breathing exercises, walks, hugs, shaking, singing or humming, spending time in nature, or even screaming into a pillow—there are many ways to tend to our feelings during conflict without harming ourselves or others. These practices help us manage our internal experience so we can approach conflict in alignment with our values.
February 2026: Mutual Aid
“The only thing that keeps those in power in that position is the illusion of our powerlessness. A moment of freedom and connection can undo a lifetime of social conditioning and scatter seeds in a thousand directions.”
― Dean Spade, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis
Activism can take many shapes. From marches and boycotts to political education and artmaking, all of this work helps us create a more just and loving world. One grassroots form of activism that illuminates the necessity of cultivating cultures of care is mutual aid.
Mutualaid.coop defines mutual aid as “where people in an area, or a community, come together to support one another, collectively meeting each other’s needs without the help of official bodies like the state or NGOs. It often arises due to neglect of government provision for certain classes of people. Mutual aid, in simpler words, is cooperation for the common good.”
Mutual aid can take many forms: community fridges and free pantries, offers-and-needs markets, community disaster response, direct financial support, eviction defense groups, resource libraries, free health clinics, and so much more.
What types of mutual aid networks already exist within your community? This month, spend time exploring the work happening near you. If you’re already involved in mutual aid organizing, reflect on how this work has shaped you and how it connects to other forms of activism in your life. How might you invite others into this work?
Mutual aid is how we take care of each other. It ensures everyone in our community has what they need while simultaneously resisting oppressive systems that fracture our connections with one another. When communities are connected and attuned to both individual and collective needs—when they organize around caring for each other—they can more effectively resist direct acts of oppression such as ICE raids, laws that violate bodily autonomy, and budget cuts to public resources.
The following resources can help you learn more about mutual aid:
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade
December 2025: Rest
Many of us receive consistent messages suggesting that when we are resting, we “aren’t doing enough.” Especially during these times of urgent crises—climate collapse, genocides, rising fascism, and cuts to critical social support—it’s easy to feel that there’s no time to rest.
Our capitalist economy reduces us to mere “workers” and extracts our labor for the profit of others. While it is essential to continue advocating for change, we must also remember who we are beyond systems of oppression as we work to dismantle them. One way to reconnect with ourselves is through rest.
What if we viewed rest not merely as a way to recover and return to work, but, as Tricia Hersey reminds us, as our birthright?
This month, take some time to reflect on your relationship with rest. What messages did you receive about rest throughout your life? Do you make time to rest in your daily life? Consider allowing yourself regular time to rest by taking a nap, reading a book, engaging in a hobby, or participating in any activity that feels restorative to you.
If you want to explore the topic of rest more deeply, the following resources are excellent starting points:
- The Nap Ministry
- Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
- Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
- For the Wild: Tricia Hersey on Deprogramming from Grind Culture (podcast)
- Stillpoint: A Self-Care Playbook for Caregivers to Find Ease and Time to Breathe, and Reclaim Joy by Sheila K Collins, PhD, and Christine Gautreaux, MSW
November 2025: Host a Skillshare
Do you have a skill or talent that you would love to share with your community? Is there a skill you would like to learn but don’t know where to start? Skillshares or skill exchanges provide a way for community members to share and learn skills together, outside of commercial or institutional settings.
Sewing and mending, fixing bikes, gardening, budgeting, and more—all of these skills could be shared with your community through a skillshare. These events can range from informal meet-ups—where a few friends gather to share and learn together—to organized community events featuring multiple people teaching different skills.
Skill exchanges not only help individuals learn essential skills but also foster connections among neighbors and community members. A more closely-knit community is better equipped to respond to challenges like climate emergencies, local detentions by ICE, and other threats to peace and justice.
Interested in organizing a skillshare in your community? Check out the following resources to get started:
“How to organize a successful skillshare”
“How To Organize a SkillShare and Shift the Culture of Your Community”
October 2025: Find a “Sit Spot”
What can nature teach us about the time we are living in? How can we listen to and root into the natural world to become more resilient in the face of today’s challenges?
This month, consider connecting with a “sit spot” practice. Find a place near your home or another location you visit frequently that is safe, comfortable, and allows you to connect with nature. “Sit spots” are often outside, but if that is not accessible to you, you can find another way to connect with the natural world—perhaps with a houseplant, a pet, a tree outside your window, the water that comes out of your sink, a fire in your fireplace, or even your own body. Remember, we are part of nature and never separate from it.
Return to your “sit spot” regularly (you decide what that means for you!) for at least a few minutes. While there, open your senses to experience the world around you. What can you hear, smell, touch? What lessons is nature offering you? Perhaps you bring a journal to record your observations, or maybe you decide to sit quietly (or you may feel moved to sing, sway, or dance!). The most important thing about this practice is that you bring a spirit of curiosity to your experience.
Fall is a beautiful time to cultivate a “sit spot” practice, as we can more distinctly observe how a place changes over time. What might we learn from these changes about how to respond to the world’s crises?
More “sit spot” practice inspiration:
https://www.awakentonature.com/post/the-sit-spot-practice-all-you-need-to-know
https://www.sensorytrust.org.uk/resources/activities/sit-spot
https://www.journalingwithnature.com/blog/nature-connection-through-a-sit-spot
September 2025: (Re)connect with a Hobby or Creative Practice
What activities bring you joy and leave you feeling rested and rejuvenated? When was the last time you connected with a hobby? How do you tap into your creativity? This month, set aside some time (even just one hour!) to engage with a hobby or creative practice you love—or one you have been wanting to try. Whether it’s sewing, writing, gardening, baking, birdwatching, playing an instrument, hiking, or something else entirely, what matters is that it feeds your spirit in some way.
Even if you try something new and decide it’s not for you, that’s okay! You took time to discover something about yourself. Hobbies are a time to engage with our creativity, which studies have shown can help reduce anxiety. Though there is much to be anxious about in our world today, we must care for ourselves so that we can respond from a centered, thoughtful, and strategic place.
Not sure where to begin? Try pairing up with a friend or fellow WILPFer to support each other in connecting with a hobby or creative practice this month!