Coping with chaos: What’s keeping us going in this political moment
by: Lunden Mason
posted on Thursday, February 20, 2025
As the policies and upheavals of this administration bring fear, uncertainty, and pain to our communities, BMSG staff are processing and grieving this moment alongside all of you, dear readers.
Many of us are bouncing back and forth between calling our legislators and binging garbage TV with a pint of ice cream in our hands. Each day brings new headlines that appear to be ripped from a dystopian novel and, with them, a flood of emotions from sadness to anger and everything in between. Yet, among the many complex feelings we’re processing right now, one is chief among them: resolve.
Right now, public health advocates, researchers, community health workers, journalists, and so many others are working tirelessly to preserve our institutions and protect people from harm. Despite the growing challenges we face, BMSG is dedicated to doing our part to further public health, equity, and justice by supporting strategic communication that uplifts our values and helps people visualize what is still possible.
But we know we can’t do that without a deep commitment to community- and self-care. After all, exhaustion and overwhelm don’t serve ourselves or the causes we care about. Amid the unrest, we have found solace in each other, in small and simple joys each day, in our communities, and in the resilience we’ve cultivated. Our small but mighty team is multi-racial, intergenerational, from all across the country, and we bring forth a diversity of perspectives and experiences that inform how we’re coping. In the spirit of solidarity, progress, and resilience, we’re sharing what’s been keeping us going, and how we’re moving forward.
Take the lessons and strategies that resonate, and leave the ones that don’t.
Connect with nature — and your body
Ooof. Their “create chaos” strategy is working on me: the relentless lies, the battering of human rights, and the profound disrespect for all of us and our government makes me want to retreat under the covers. Just one month in, it’s hard to stay focused even when I remind myself that everything we work on at BMSG is crucial to this moment.
And that’s what keeps me going. My passionate coworkers, our brilliant partners in the work, the voices that are surfacing to counter the blatant misogyny and racism — calls to Congress going from 40 to 1600 per MINUTE — all bring me back to focus on the work.
Music and drawing bring me back into my body. After the election I dusted off The Highwomen and now have Crowded Table on repeat in my head. Walking in the neighborhood and pulling weeds in the backyard helps. So does losing myself in another part of my brain drawing for a few minutes or a few hours.
Mostly, though, it’s the resolve I see building in all my communities that we, too, will be relentless.
-Lori Dorfman
Director
Only tackle one thing at a time
I’d never wish cancer on anyone, but my 2023 breast cancer diagnosis (I’m still in treatment but doing well!) has made my reaction to the political moment of 2025 feel very different from 2017.
When I was first diagnosed, I skipped fight, flight, or freeze and went straight to fix — trying to do everything at once. It wasn’t sustainable. With time and support, I learned that doing everything meant focusing on nothing. Instead, I had to get clear on my goal — being cancer-free — and prioritize what mattered most each week, day, and hour. I also learned I could handle things that once felt impossible, as long as I took that first step and stayed focused.
That’s the mindset I’m bringing now. Yes, things feel hard. I’m trying to think beyond the next four years — to the world we want to build — and focusing on what I can do to help create it. Then, it’s rolling up my sleeves and getting to work.
And, just like with cancer, community is everything. We keep each other going, take care of each other, and live in ways that reflect our values. That’s how we move forward — together.
-Katherine Schaff
Director of Racial and Health Equity Strategy
Remember your why
As a government major, a studier of human interaction, and constant observer of cause and effect, the recent political and societal upheaval has left me overwhelmed, exhausted, and grappling with uncertainty. As with any new administration and change in power at any level, my first question is, “What does this mean for my kids?” And not just my children, but all children.
Adults are in a privileged position of being able to frame current events with context, understanding what came before and what the big-picture implications are; for good reason, kids don’t have this perspective. My focus is to understand the world in a way that allows me to productively explain it to my kids. We encourage them to be advocates, teach them to be the helpers and not those who cause hurt, remind them that we do good even when nobody is there to see it, and we give voices to those who are too weak or too afraid to speak.
-Rachel Shewmaker
Program Administrator
Accept every emotion, even the negative ones
It’s time to grieve. Yes, you behind the screen, frantically sending memos to your organization and consuming every media bite on the internet. We just lost an administration and, truly, a political agenda that prioritized historically marginalized communities, from Native American tribes to Black and Brown communities in rural parts of the country. In these moments, I have grounded myself by witnessing, feeling, and processing the feeling of loss because I’ve noticed if my cup of energy is empty, I won’t have anything left to pour into others.
For me, this means taking an hour or so a day to prioritize my thoughts and understand where they stem from. I know that looking internally may unleash my inner demons, but I’ve learned that I need to level with my darkest sides and start acknowledging and loving them. The more I resist, the more my demons persist, so I try to grieve my sadness in order to gradually liberate myself from my own fears and worries. As a result, I find that I have the capacity and willpower to conquer any challenge that presents itself.
-Diana Guardado
Program Associate for Racial and Health Equity Strategy
Lean into community
Like my coworker Kathi, I’m leaning into lessons from my experiences with breast cancer. When I was diagnosed in late 2019, just before the start of the Covid pandemic, I was so stressed that I lost seven pounds in the first week, and I hadn’t even begun chemotherapy yet. Everything that I thought I knew about my future was gone or in limbo, and everything I thought I knew about myself — from my physical identity to my role within my family — was about to be challenged and, ultimately, remade.
As the pandemic stripped my options for in-person support, I became isolated. I had to remind myself that no matter how alone I felt, thousands of other women were going through the same thing; I just had to find them. And that’s what I did. I used social media strategically, setting up filters and joining groups to allow me to hear more of the voices that could commiserate with or comfort me.
Now, I’m doing much the same thing. Being from Missouri, I can’t assume solidarity with the people around me. I have to be more careful, more intentional, and online spaces, for all their flaws, are helping me to do just that.
-Heather Gehlert
Strategic Communication Director
Hold on to hope
I have always been a glass half-full person. I think maybe you have to be in our field. There are a few things that help me deal with the heaviness of the world. I love watching TV shows and movies and often escape into something fun like ”The Devil Wears Prada” or engaging crime shows like “Slow Horses.” My morning runs clear my head and energize me, my faith gets me through tough times, and my work at BMSG gives me a sense of purpose in advancing health equity.
-Hina Mahmood
Media Researcher
Balance survival and progress
There are two separate ways that I’m getting through the moment that we’re in. One response to the ongoing crush of information about a wave of actions designed to hurt people is rooted in my years of working with people with substance used disorder. At the moment, our government is on a bender: an almost mindless phase of chaos, of reaction, of violence and indiscriminate harm. The only way you get through being around somebody who’s on a bender is to figure out ways to mitigate harm and risk, and you try to get through it. Part of that survival strategy is being aware of the compromises you’re making, the sacrifices you’re making between what you do in the moment to survive, and the long-term realities of what happens when the bender is over. I think about that a lot — the survival metaphor of getting through life with a government that is essentially on a bender of causing harm.
The other thing that is really getting me through is the idea of action, of doing what I can when I can with what I can. I feel most able to navigate the world around me when I’m doing things for other people in a professional or personal capacity. I have to keep reminding myself this is how we’re going to get through this, right? We’re going to get through this by taking care of each other even when, especially when, it’s hard to do that. By being of support to the people we love, who love us, who need us, who we need. By holding onto each other as we get through this to whatever’s on the other side, whatever comes next.
-Pamela Mejia
Associate Program Director and Director of Research
Give yourself permission to miss a story
Oftentimes in meetings, I find that clients are looking for a new way to deal with the political climate, but that’s what is great about our work: We are already fighting the good fight. When we slow down and recognize that just because the landscape looks different, it doesn’t mean our overall strategy changes, I find that clients and I tend to feel more at ease.
With the constant news cycle of updates, things have felt overwhelming, so personally, I have turned to starting my day with the Calm app or walking the dog and slowly easing myself into the news cycle. Giving myself permission to miss a story has helped me stay grounded.
-Rosaura Wordsworth
Head of Media Advocacy and Communications
Let yourself feel joy — when you can
Navigating the current moment has been feeling utterly dystopian.
My neighborhood feels mostly the same on my morning walks. I still go to yoga class, breathe to the music, and chat with folks around me afterward. When I come home and begin my workday, though, nothing is the same.
Monitoring the news across public health issue areas tests my nervous system. Each headline deserves the time and space to process, mourn, and strategize a response to. But there isn’t time. The next headline is already here.
During the first week of this administration, I couldn’t look away. Long after I’d sent out BMSG’s daily newsletter, I was still scanning articles, anxiously grabbing my phone at every notification.
In the following weeks, I’ve been trying desperately to cling to the joy of normalcy — and to joy itself. For me, self-care is yoga, boxing, and routines, but it’s also dancing with people I love late into the night. It’s scream-singing Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift in a crowded room and laughing and taking an extra moment to admire the city lights.
The work I do at BMSG — and in my community — is resistance. So is dancing.
-Lunden Mason
Communication Assistant
How are you managing this moment? We’d love to hear any wisdom you’re willing to share! Please connect with us on Facebook or LinkedIn.