Building community is a reliable way to boost resilience

coming together to increase resilience and resistance

Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash

How are you doing? … No, how are you really doing? ;;;

Emotions are running high for all of us this week. The rush of news, while expected, packs a punch when it becomes real. It’s okay to feel angry, scared, dissociated, or otherwise unwell. If it helps to voice something in the comments, please go ahead — just no hate speech or bigotry. It’s important to release these feelings lest they corrode your bodymind from the inside out.

With these feelings released, we can begin to take back control of ourselves (more on this below). Life is a marathon, not a sprint. We may be entering a mountainous leg of our course, but we must also ensure that we can finish the race on our own terms. Here, we need endurance (and resilience) to continue.

While sweeping metaphors may sound nice, they don’t adequately address how to meet this challenge of building resilience. Fortunately, researchers are keen to address this question by centering the experiences of marginalized people. The major theme from studies of resilience across minoritized identities: community-building.

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In our current stage of capitalism, we are told that self-care is the key to resilience. In this model, self-care looks like solitude paired with a mini-spending spree (perhaps even one where you don’t even leave your house). While these components can be useful to buoy your energy levels, they are not sustainable for building real, long-term resilience.

You don't need to "fill your cup first" to seek or be in community

Again, the best way to build resilience is to connect with others, establish community, and strengthen the ties which bind us together. In 2016, researchers at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia analyzed 105 studies of queer resilience on health outcomes. They identified many factors which consistently had strong positive impacts on resilience including social connectedness, access to safe spaces, connections to queer communities, and activism. Each of these activities explicitly require us to be in community with others.

Only in community can we absorb the shockwaves of the news cycle or other minority stressors with relative aplomb. The ties that bind us in community strengthen our ability to push forward. It’s not that we won’t feel the impact, but we will have others to lean on. Further, community spaces breed resistance. Lending ideas and talents to the collective opens new horizons for us to reclaim our power — through public protest and private resistance.

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I’ve seen so many grassroots efforts blossoming in the last few days. If you are working one of these, thank you! We need new venues for togetherness. If you want to promote a community that you are a part of or are starting/considering starting, then please do so in the comments!!

Personally, I will once again plug the qtstackers discord server. This space is for everyone, including queer folx of all identities, allies, and minors! It’s a space for solidarity, joy, and group processing. If you write on Substack (or otherwise create content you want to share), you can also use designated channels to promote your work.

I know life feels bleak right now. In many ways we are powerless. The shock and awe of a top-down societal reorganization may capture our attention, but it is relatively weak. Societies are fundamentally made of people, and there is still time to lead with our humanity, pool our power, and reject authoritarian creep. Small acts of community resistance multiply their impact by eroding the illegitimate power of hatred and enhancing our own lives though resilience and autonomy. Together, we will forge ahead.