When we feel overwhelmed, to remain in our power we must remember our choices.

This week, my colleague and friend Sonny Kennedy and I have been talking about, reading about, and experiencing the purpose and effects of information overload.

We are seeing that, when faced with tactics designed to overwhelm us, we can become disoriented and dysregulated. We might start to check out. When our attention is fragmented, we can find ourselves feeling isolated in our despair.

But we know that oppression thrives when we are passive, disengaged, and disconnected.

And we believe that practicing focus is an act of defiance, one of several ways we can resist.

When we find ourselves flooded with information, we must remember our choices. What follows are a few ways we can strive to stay focused.

OUR FOCUS IS DEFIANCE

Press "pause." Pace reactions. This is a marathon, not a sprint. ASK: How can I pause before reacting to new policies and events? How can I discern between urgency and importance?*
Build collective awareness. We can't track everything. Follow 2-3 key issues you deeply care about. Check 2-3 reliable news sources, for a set period of time. Talk to people who track different issues, so you can share the cognitive load. Network intelligence beats individual overload.*
Utilize experts. Find trusted analysts who synthesize information. Look for those who include context and explain patterns, not just events.*
Be mindful of what you are sharing. Resist spreading or instigating panic and despair without necessity. We can choose community instead of chaos.
Reflect and connect. If the actions we can take do not seem clear or possible yet, remain curious. ASK: Who are my people? Who can I build with? Who is already working on what I care about? How can I support them?
Allow people to have their own experience. None of us are weak for feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes we want to tell everybody else how to feel. Instead, we can respond in our own way and respect that others might process differently.
Learn from the past. We can study the history of resistance and solidarity to remind us of what is possible. People have emerged from intense oppression and there are ‘wins’ and important lessons.
Recognize your power. When we are feeling overwhelmed, we might desire to withdraw from hope altogether. But we have power. ASK: What resources, voice, visibility, choices and safety do I have? What can I do with these, instead of focusing on what’s out of my control?

This resource is a remix. A few suggestions draw a post with advice from sociologist Jennifer Walter. Then we added some Freedom Lifted flavor, framing the act of focusing in a wider understanding of power and resistance as a whole.