How to cultivate peace amid the chaos
Practical self-care tips for when the world is on fire
Hello, dear reader, and welcome to the first newsletter of 2025! I don’t really subscribe to the Gregorian new year, and much prefer the timeline of the continued winter season & the Lunar calendar. Rooted in the wisdom of nature, these timelines tell us that January is still a time of hibernation & introspection. However, the energy of this Gregorian new year is undeniably different and charged, and I feel called to mark it in this letter.
Over the holidays, I took a three-week trip to Taiwan & the Philippines—my ancestral homelands. I returned Stateside with profound spiritual experiences, new knowledge of the cultures I come from, and a deep sense of peace, contentment, & restoration. I started writing to you about it, but then the fires erupted in LA, jolting me back to the immediate physical world and the fragile systems of domination America suffers from. I have friends in LA who have lost everything, and elderly family who are on the borders of the evacuation zones. Needless to say, the past few days have been rough. As I write this, people in the affected areas are living in an active trauma state, whether they are figuring out next steps after their home has burned down, or staying plugged into the path of the fires to see if they need to evacuate at a moment’s notice.
My heart breaks for the people who have lost their homes, especially for the working class Black & Brown families who have lost generational homes and won’t be able to rebuild; the artists & culture bearers who have lost the entirety of their life’s work & archives; and the indigenous lands & communities that are omitted from media coverage. My heart breaks for the wildlife who have nowhere safe to take refuge, and for the forests who have been scorched to ashes.
A home is an extension of a person’s spirit, and the most tangible form of safety & belonging one can have—and thus, rebuilding LA will not only take a gargantuan financial & structural effort, but also a massive spiritual & energetic one. Every day I am praying for the safety of the land, animals, and people; and envisioning purifying wind spirits that cleanse the toxic air, and generous rainwater that extinguishes the fires.
There are many visible, highly organized mutual aid efforts happening that you can plug into no matter where you are. Please check Instagram to see how you can help, whether it’s donating funds or supplies, volunteering, or reposting calls for aid. This list of verified GoFundMe’s for Black families who have lost their homes in Altadena is a good place to start, as well as @MutualaidLA for helpful information & updated mutual aid efforts.
This has been a silver lining of the LA fires: community has organized quickly and expertly to support those affected. In fact, we are witnessing how community support is SO much faster and more effective than governmental support. If it hasn’t already been made clear: mutual aid & collective care are our paths forward. Start growing your garden, befriending your neighbors, and exchanging services & goods with your community now. My wish for us is that in a few years’ time, we will have built the infrastructure & networks within our communities to sustain one other, and can live independently of American systems of harm that are driving life on Earth to total destruction.
Another silver lining of the LA fires is that more people are connecting the dots. From Palestine to California, the same greed and maniacal thirst for utter domination of land & resources have created unlivable conditions—and I’m not the only one to see it clearly. There are countless posts showing how LA homes burnt to ashes look exactly like Palestinian neighborhoods after an Israeli airstrike (save for lifeless limbs hanging from the rubble). There are also many think-pieces about how the ongoing ecocide in Palestine (among other climate-catastrophe war zones) have undeniably contributed to the apocalyptic windstorms in LA that are supercharging the fires.
We are learning that some insurance companies dropped LA homeowners from their insurance plans before the fires; that a Zionist billionaire couple owns most of LA’s water supply, and that young imprisoned teenage boys—mostly Black, Latino, and Filipino—are being used to fight the fires, earning only $2.20-$5 each day and without regular meals, showers, or rest. We are also learning that settlers wiped out indigenous land stewardship of Turtle Island that wisely kept wildfires at bay, and introduced invasive species, like the highly flammable Eucalyptus tree, to California—exacerbating the climate collapse we are now experiencing. This list of connected dots could go on & on…
My point here is this: more people are waking up to the fact that the systems of harm we live under are intricately & insidiously connected, and that they have never and will never work for us. The discourse and community resilience surrounding the LA fires tells me that we are inching closer towards reaching a critical mass of awakening—meaning, we are one step closer to building a world that actually works for us and the planet.
If you’ve made it this far, I invite you close your eyes, relax your shoulders away from your ears, and take three big, deep belly breaths.
I’ve written about this before, but I believe that America is going through a Tower Moment ("Tower” as in the tarot card). Systems of capitalism & imperialism are crumbling so that we can rebuild systems of community care, abundance, and true nourishment from the ground-up. This means that even though we are living through extremely difficult times, we can take solace in knowing that everything is going according to plan. This also means that things are unfortunately going to get worse before they get better, as the systems have not completely collapsed yet.
So, how do you find peace amid the chaos? How do you return back to center in a world that is literally and figuratively on fire? Here are a few practices that help me:
Take time off work. If you can, take a mental health day or two when you’re in the thick of it. If that’s not possible, try rescheduling a few meetings, or ending your workday a few hours earlier. Any way you can reclaim your time and invest it into your own nourishment & care is powerful.
Take breaks from social media & the news. Set limited times each day where you check in, and/or days where you are unplugged completely.
Spend time in nature. Take a walk outside and feel the sun on your face, or commune with whichever nature spirits are available to you. While you’re with them, you can also ask for their support in helping you process and hold whatever it is you’re feeling.
Process your feelings when necessary, and “distract” yourself when necessary. There are times for feeling your feelings to allow them to move through your body, and there are times to do something fun or entertaining to give yourself a break from the heaviness. Listen to your bodily wisdom to know the distinction.
Spend quality time with loved ones, whether in-person or virtually.
Do activities that nurture & restore you. For me, these include things like taking a hot bath, eating a yummy meal, napping, doing gentle yoga, meditating & breathing, and snuggling with my pets & partner.
When you feel resourced again, return to the situation at hand and contribute in ways that are aligned with your gifts & bandwidth. There are endless ways to contribute to mutual aid efforts—and now is a magnificent time for uncovering your unique role in it all.
Note: These are my tips for people witnessing and/or processing catastrophe, not folks who are actively surviving through it.
So yes, dear reader, 2025 is already batshit—and you’re not alone if you’re feeling like you’ve been thrust into the apocalypse during a season that’s supposed to be about rest. This transition into the Gregorian new year is encouraging us to hone our skills, our discernment, and our commitment to peace & resilience. Chaos is in our future—may we find peace & sweetness within ourselves, again & again & again.
If you need guidance with this critical work, know that I’m here to support you as a coach during these paradigm-shifting times. I’m excited to announce that I’ve added New Paradigm Counsel to my arsenal of coaching topics. Read more about what this means & schedule your free initial call on my website at: katerinajeng.com/coaching.
Thank you for being here, just as you are.
