They Can Make Our Lives Miserable, But They Are Never Going To Break Us, 6

Based on my own life experience, this is what it could take to make ourselves resilient against the powerful:

1. Spirituality.  This would be the most important and most essential characteristic needed for positive, successful and creative resistance.  I am not thinking specifically about religion, though as a Christian I will be drawing particularly from my experience.  I am not going to recommend the popular nonsense of New Age or what I call Buddha Babble.  Nothing at all against Buddhism or Buddhists by the way.  That said, concepts of mindfulness, meditation and yoga have been so bastardized and co-opted as items of popular narcissism and consumerism that they do not qualify as authentic spirituality.  What I recommend is a daily spiritual discipline that comes from a personal experience of conversion and enlightenment.  If the spirituality is authentic then it will flow beyond your own personal needs and gratification.  It will be a spirituality of love, truth and justice that embraces and includes others: other people, including the stranger on the street, other creatures, the environment.  It will be an active work of love that simultaneously includes yourself and the other, and that lifts you and raises you out of and beyond yourself, raising up others with you.  Hopefully you might luck into a supportive community of fellow travellers.

2. Self Care.  This includes the common sense stuff: good diet, good sleep habits, exercise and recreation, creativity, rest, and maintaining healthy relationships with family and friends.  If they have already been making your life particularly miserable with a chronically low income, it could be very difficult to secure a good diet.  This has happened to me.  To cope, I have bought mainly in bulk, lived without meat (still vegetarian) and made everything from scratch, from bread to cookies, to meatless stews and soups.  You might even find that you don't need the food bank if you try it this way.  It is also important to stay in close contact with those who can help you with your health needs, especially if there are already underlying conditions, be they mental or physical.

3. Education:  Read, listen, think, explore.  Get thee to the library, or to the book stores. Try to avoid pop culture, except to critique but maintain a healthy distance.  Stay aware of the issues that matter to you the most and try to maintain correspondence with thinkers, writers and journalists whose work you particularly admire.  Learn and study things that are not issue-related: art, culture, history, science, math, psychology, philosophy and more.  Learn and become fluent in a second or third language.  If you are able to, travel every year to the country or countries where the language is spoken, to gain fluency and to learn the culture, to know and love the people who speak the language.  Stay away from social media as much as you can as that is usually a bottomless sinkhole.

4. Educate.  Write a blog, stay in contact with like-minded people, join or form conversation and reading circles.  Inspire, challenge and learn from each other.

5. Love the earth.  Get out in nature, learn about  and learn from the rich diversity of life in your region, get out in the forest, the wilderness whenever you can.  Start a garden, organic, of course.  If you are able to travel try to focus on natural and wilderness areas.  Notice the birds, the insects, mammals.  Learn to love and respect them.  Get outside in all kinds of weather.  Try to walk long distances, every day if you are able.

6. Keep the bastards accountable, be they politicians, journalists, or whatever.  Use email, make phone calls.  Start and circulate petitions.  Hold their feet to the fire.  Be willing to make friends with some of them, but never compromise on your values.

7. Cultivate a sense of humour.  Learn to laugh at yourself, to see your place in the universe, small but not insignificant.  Take delight in others, in small joys and small pleasures.  Enjoy beauty, art, music, literature, good theatre and cinema.  Sing freely and loudly if you can get away with it.  Remember that we are all one big complex organism, we are all interconnected and we are all interdependent, each one on the other.  No one is unimportant in this amazing web of life.  Do everything you can to reduce your carbon footprint.  Treat strangers and friends equally with kindness, respect and consideration.  Live the life of love.

8. And live with the belief that you have already won!