Joy Athletes Don’t Doomscroll Their Way To Gold

We map a path from overwhelm to ethical action by treating joy as a trainable practice and the nervous system as our guide. We name the moment, metabolize rage into clarity, choose one sustainable lane, and pace for the marathon with somatic tools and information hygiene.

• grounding in the ethos of moving through difficulty to reach durable joy
• regulation, recovery, and return as athletic training for the nervous system
• naming collective grief, fear, and rage without collapsing into it
• capacity, integrity, and the courage to act imperfectly
• reframing rage as boundary data and directing it into action
• sustainable civic steps and choosing one focused lane
• information hygiene and media boundaries to protect health
• somatic practices for discharge and repair: walking, shaking, crying, breath
• support for caregivers to pace for the long road
• three truths on regulation, imperfect action, and values-aligned joy
• journaling prompts to turn feelings into clarity and steps

If you feel called, it would mean so much if you could go ahead and drop us a review, maybe throw us a couple of stars. If there are five of them, even better.

✍️ Journaling Prompts

Choose 1–3. Keep it simple. Keep it honest. Do it imperfectly.

Regulation

1. Where do I feel the current political moment in my body?
2. What signals tell me I’ve consumed enough information today?
3. What reliably brings me back to center?

Rage & Boundaries

1. What am I most angry about right now?
2. What boundary does that anger reveal?
3. If my rage had a wise job, what would it be?

Voice & Integrity

1. Where have I been silent out of fear of getting it wrong?
2. What value feels non-negotiable for me right now?
3. What does integrity (not perfection) look like in my life?

Action & Capacity

1. What is one action I can take sustainably this week?
2. What is one action I can release without guilt?
3. How do I want to pace myself for the long road ahead?

(Remember: This is a marathon, not a sprint.)

Joy as Practice

1. What brings me back to joy after engaging with heavy topics?
2. How do I train my nervous system to recover?
3. What does being an athlete of joy look like this week?

📞 Civic & Outreach Resources

Choose one lane. Bookmark the rest.

Civic Engagement

Find Your Elected Officials

🔗 https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

U.S. Capitol Switchboard

📞 202-224-3121

(Call and ask one clear question. You don’t need the perfect script — just your voice.)

Immigration Support

Immigration Advocates Network

🔗 https://www.immigrationadvocates.org

ACLU – Immigrants’ Rights

🔗 https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights

Survivor-Centered Support

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network)

🔗 https://www.rainn.org

National Women’s Law Center

🔗 https://nwlc.org

Investigative Journalism & Court Records

ProPublica

🔗 https://www.propublica.org

CourtListener

🔗 https://www.courtlistener.com

Transcript

Grounding And Podcast Ethos

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Welcome to the Ode to Joy Podcast, a show where we talk about joy. How do we cultivate it? How do we maintain it? And what are the things that get in the way? I am your host, shamanic practitioner and death duela, Elena Box, coming to you with another very special episode from our season, all about resilience. I hope you enjoy. And today is Friday, February 6th, 26. And I'm coming to you today with another episode that feels super ripe and ready to go and also really raw. So I'm coming to you with a raw, vulnerable, open heart and just checking in with you to notice where you are in this space. And so grounding yourself into the moment. Maybe you have a cup of tea, maybe you're folding laundry, maybe you're on the road. Wherever you find yourself, land yourself here with me, with my voice, and our two hearts, souls, minds connected here together for this open conversation. So I just wanted to root us back into the ethos of the Ode to Joy podcast. Okay, so it has always been that we talk about how we move through difficulty and not around it. It's about how we metabolize grief, rage, fear, and uncertainty. So we can return not to false positivity, but to greater joy. That's my whole life work is how do we orient ourselves back to greater joy? So joy here is not about denial. Joy is a skill. Joy is a practice, and joy is something that we actually train for. So I did an episode about this a little while back, and you can go back and listen to it. Um, this podcast is about becoming athletes of joy, not because life is easy, but because it isn't. Okay, so that's what we're talking about here on this episode and really on the entire podcast. And so I just wanted to land us back into the ethos of the Ode to Joy podcast. And so, as athletes of joy, we are training. So we are training when conditions are hard. So athletes train not only when, you know, conditions are hard, but they also regulate, they recover, and they return. Okay, so they don't wait for perfect circumstances. I don't know about you, but I love to kind of see what's going on behind the scenes with the athletes. And, you know, they have their uh ice baths and they have their compression pants, which look really cool. And I want to definitely try it sometime. And they get their massage therapy and they have actual people who help them guide them through the recovery and the return, and they make it a priority to return back and regulate back to themselves. So I feel that especially in moments like this, our work is to self-regulate, to take responsible action, and to come back to center. So I shared that story a couple episodes back about, you know, being out to sea and being a little bit lost and feeling like you're drowning. And I'm your lifeguard here saying, hey, come back to shore. Come back to shore, my friend. Okay, so we need to be of use to our families, to our communities, our friends, and ourselves. And to remember that always, always, now, this is the thing that I really want to have land here for you is that this is a marathon and it's not a sprint. Huge, huge, huge, huge. We're gonna be coming back to that. Remember, this is a marathon and it's not a sprint. So I just want to say this really clearly before we go any further in this episode. I am not here to tell you what to think or who to vote for. I'm not making accusations or naming guilt. I'm not offering legal advice or breaking news. I'm offering nervous system-informed guidance for staying engaged, ethical, and human in complex political times. This is not a call to outrage, conspiracy, or doom scrolling. This is a conversation about responsible action from a nervous, a regulated nervous system. So a nervous system that is regulated. It's a big one. I know. Here we are. So we're gonna name the moment as we do. At the beginning of every episode, here we are, your friend Elena Box coming to your ear hole, February 6, 2026. And unless you've been living under a rock, and if you have, I mean, congratulations, welcome back, hello. Um, there's a lot of rage, there's a lot of grief, and there's a lot of fear in the collective right now. So the other night I had a couple of my girlfriends over and we were in the sauna, which is just the best place for processing all life um circumstances, everything. And I just had to bring it up to the group and say, hey, can we talk about what's going on right now? I know this is a pretty heavy subject, but hey, can we actually just name it? And it was such a beautiful unfolding and conversation and where we landed really through talking out all of the ins and outs, our fears, our rage, our sadness as mothers, especially, what we landed at was really the importance of having conversations. So that's where I am landing this episode right now, because as I was reflecting on last week's episode and especially what's coming out right now, there's so much finger pointing. There's so much of what happens in these outrage cycles where suddenly everybody's pointing fingers about you're not doing enough and you're not doing enough. And my goodness, I'm pretty sure everyone is doing their best. I'm pretty, pretty, pretty sure. Okay. Unless you're living under a rock, unless you've got your head in the sand, I know that most likely you are doing your best. And that doesn't mean that we can't get better. It doesn't mean that we can't learn new tools and access the courage to show up with more integrity. And at the same time, I really think we're doing our best. And so here's all these fingers being pointed. And I had to kind of point the finger at myself and go, Did I just create?

unknown 6:57

Am I the problem?

Capacity, Integrity, And Doing Your Best

Mothers, Ancestry, And Fierce Protection

Freeze, Fury, And Nervous System Responses

Regulation As Preparation Not Bypass

Politically Unhomed And Finding Voice

From Silence To Imperfect Action

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Where I put out an episode where for myself, I had to land back into how can I regulate myself as I'm going through this. Now, I don't know about you, though for me, a lot of what's coming up right now is especially confronting. If any part of you is being touched on really deep layers of trauma about what's coming out, it's so important to first regulate and then take action. And it might take you a while to regulate, and it might mean that you take really small steps. And so I think it's so important, especially now with all of the finger pointing, is knowing for yourself what your capacity is. And so I do stand by what I shared. I share and I try to share from a place of integrity of what feels useful and what feels like something that I can offer. And we're all learning. We're all learning how to show up in a time that we've never experienced before. A lot of what's coming out now is unprecedented in many ways. And I freaking hate that word, you know, but a lot of what's coming out is eye-opening. And so, you know, for some who are feeling this rage, the grief, the fear, all of that right now. For some, it's especially ripe about Epstein, about power and protection. And then for others, what feels really activating is about immigration and it's ICE and it's family separation. And that is a very real fear that I want to name. And I also just want to name, hey, here I am speaking to you, coming to your ear holes, doing the best I can as a white woman with a lot of privilege. I just have to name that out loud. I know that. And again, here I am doing my best to hopefully add words that are helpful and useful. And so please, please, please know that I'm doing my best. So another layer of this really in naming this moment is that for so many women and mothers, myself particularly, my group of women, my group of mothers, it's super layered. It's it's actually really personal and it's political and it's ancestral because as women, I know, at least for myself, that when I hear about what's going on and what has happened, it strikes me to the core of my heart in a way that there's this fierce, my really inner, inner power animal coming out that just wants to protect, protect all of the babies, all of the women, all of, you know, it's like this grandmother elder self coming out with this fierceness and this ability to actually name what's going on here. And so she's coming out and she's fierce, and the claws are out. And she just got a fresh manicure that I've already ruined. Uh so listen, if you're feeling frozen, you might feel frozen, especially with what's coming out, a lot of the details of which, which I will, I will not name here, are really tough to metabolize. So you might feel frozen. You might be feeling hyper-vigilant. I know for me, especially if I get onto the Doom Scroll and all the information is coming to me, uh, there is this sense of, oh my gosh, and I have to do something and I have to fix it. And gosh, again, this is a marathon. It's not a sprint. And the other thing is you might feel really furious and you also might feel completely shut down. Okay. So these are nervous system responses, once again, to a perceived threat, not a personal failure. We talked about this last week about the doom scrolling. It's a nervous system response to a perceived threat. So we want to talk about regulation as preparation. So we're calling it back again to last week. So if you didn't, if you didn't listen, we're gonna just talk a little bit about it again here. So last week we talked about self-regulation. This is not avoidance, it's not a bypass. It's groundwork. Regulation is not passivity, it's preparation. Now I know so much is coming out now, uh, again with the pointing of the fingers, which I find super ick, uh attacking light workers, myself included, you know, for saying, gosh, you just gotta do your breath work and that's all you gotta do. And that's not what I'm saying here. I'm saying that a dysregulated body reacts, a regulated body response. Reaction, that really fast, like that, it burns energy. Response directs it. So here we are talking about how can we hone the power of that fierce, you know, inner ancestral, elder, power animal self, and know that we have to train as an athlete of joy to know how we can be in that direct access to joy of a regulated self. And when the moment arises that that fierceness needs to come out, we can. So we're gonna talk about how since 2020, we're gonna we're gonna name the year, remember back six years ago now. 2020, a lot of us have felt really politically unhomed. So I shared that I used to work in politics and I left uh for many reasons. And I think especially in 2020, so many of us found ourselves really homeless politically. And neutrality, at least for me, has felt like safety because I have been so scared to ruffle feathers in either direction. I don't identify. I posted a meme today about it's a sign of a woman at a protest saying, I'm not a Democrat, I'm not a Republican, I'm awake, which is really how I'm feeling right now, is that again, like you don't have to be a political expert or analyst to know that what's happening right now is wrong. And so neutrality often feels like silence. And silence doesn't stop harm. It often protects the systems that are already really powerful. So that doesn't require this right now, it doesn't require performative outrage. It requires discernment, it requires voice. And so I'm here saying to you, Elena, your friend, coming to you into your ear holes here February 6th. I have been so quiet. And something that the moms, my mom's after the sauna, when we were taking a break in the snow the other day, what we were talking about was so many of us, in order to just literally protect ourselves, have been quiet. And I've been quiet. I haven't said a peep. And that time is has passed. The time for passivity is over. We're drawing a line in the sand and we're saying the time for passivity is over. And it's not because we have all the answers. I definitely don't have all the answers. I don't have all the data. I'm not here, you know, being able to recite everything and every reason why I believe the way that I do. And there are certain things that I can look at and go, yep, that's that's definitely wrong. So, so we remember that inaction is also a choice. And I understand that for actual survival, so many of us have been in inaction, myself included. You know, I've been in that. Let's just just keep going, just keep going. And I just want to name something, which is that doing something imperfectly is more honest than doing nothing perfectly. And that's such a good line. We're gonna say it again. Doing something imperfectly is more honest than doing nothing perfectly. And I've been doing a whole lot of nothing, perfectly, not even perfectly, but the Virgo inside is like, come on, you were doing great. You were doing nothing. And I just want to name it. Right now, we are allowed to get it wrong. We are allowed to learn in public, we are allowed to change our minds. Again, doing something imperfectly is more honest than doing nothing perfectly. And I feel so many of us, myself included, have been frozen, super scared to say something because we don't want to get it wrong. And so I just want to name it that integrity is not never making a mistake. Integrity is staying in relationship with your values when you do. So it's that gut check when you go to reshare something on social media, when you want to share around an article or something like this, is checking back in with yourself. Does this feel right for me? Does this feel truth, truth cord? Does this feel in alignment with my values to share and to spread and to to really amplify my own opinion and heart? Um, again, we're allowed to get it wrong. We're doing our best. I can guarantee most likely, and some of you are gonna say, but it's not enough. And gosh, there are so many, so many reels and things that I'm seeing out on Instagram, just pointing fingers and saying, and you didn't say enough, and you didn't use your platform. If you're hearing this, I'm just offering any way that you are going to share how you feel in whatever way that is. If you're seeing what's happening right now and going, yep, sounds about, yep, this was exactly actually I voted for this, and this is exactly what I thought. Um, and I'm really happy about it. You know what? Share your voice. I support you. I do. I support free speech. That's what it comes down to. It I really do support people being able to speak up for what they feel is right and for what they feel is wrong. So I also really want to reframe rage. We talked about this a bit last week. I have a whole chapter in my book all about rage. Uh, you can check it out. It's called Grieve Outside the Box, and the chapter is called Kick Up A Rumpus. And I just want to let you know that rage is not your enemy. Rage is information. Rage reveals where a boundary has been crossed. So we're gonna pause right here because my baby woke up. And we're back. It took a while to get her back down for her nap. Remember, I am a mom. I am doing this literally while she is napping. And such a great lesson when it comes to rage is guess what? You can't put a baby down to sleep if you are enveloped in rage. It just doesn't work. We have to metabolize our rage. So we're coming back in. I was just in full-blown baby cuddles. And here we are. We are moving on with our lives and continuing to have to chop wood and carry water when it feels like the whole world is burning down around us. So we can't constantly live in that place of rage. We have to, again, we're metabolizing it because we remember that unmetabolized rage becomes destruction, inward or outward. Metabolized rage becomes clarity, protection, and action. So our work here is not to suppress the rage, our work is to give it a job. Just like Sesha Malan says, when it comes to dogs, we gotta give the rage a job. Dogs need jobs, so do rage. So does our rage. We're a little cuckoo right now. Oh my goodness, my friend. So listen, we're gonna give our rage a job. And so we are going to be getting into action. So action here is our place of devotion. We're not hiding our heads in the sand. We are remembering this is a marathon, it's not a sprint. So we're gonna make it super actionable in a way that is sustainable. So we're gonna start with civic action, which is call one representative, leave one voicemail, ask one clear question. And remember, you don't need the perfect script. You just need your voice. And now listen, I'm a phone call girly. I love when people call me. I know it's not everybody's cup of tea. And I know, especially now that we don't have landlines, people are really scared to pick up the phone and do a cold call. I live for the cold calls. So if this feels uncomfortable for you, just remember we, it doesn't need to be perfect. You just need to speak up and say something super simple. So we're gonna have a lot of references and uh tools for you in the show notes. So remember, it's all actionable, it's all super simple. And remember that we need to also practice information hygiene. Okay, so we're not gonna be sharing screenshots without sources. We need to make sure that whatever we're sharing is primary reporting. So also remembering to practice your information hygiene, which means unfollow accounts that are hijacking your nervous system. It's one thing to stay informed and it's another thing to be bombarded constantly by things and people who are making you feel again, none of this is cozy comfy. None of this is comfortable. But remembering that it's our responsibility to stay informed, but remember that being informed should not come at a cost to your health. So we're not bypassing, we're just remembering how can I be informed without perhaps tuning into these uh accounts that are going to be really, really hijacking to the nervous system in a way that is not useful, I think. That's when it really comes down to like the doom scrolling and all of this, is that's where those quick, really reactions of rage come out. So remember, it's a marathon, it's not a sprint. So another thing that we can do is support. Uh so again, all everything is in the show notes. We can support survivor-centered organizations, we can support immigration legal aid, we can donate, we can amplify, or we can volunteer. Pick your lane, one lane is enough. Stay in it. Once you find your lane, just stay in it. Keep it super simple. And then lastly, we want to make sure that we are doing our somatic regulation. This is crucial. Remember, you are an athlete of joy, my friend. So we've got to stay regulated. What are some really simple ways that we can stay regulated? Take yourself for a walk. Don't overcomplicate it. Maybe it's a 15-minute walk, maybe it's a walk around the block. My next fave place, next fave thing to do is shake. Shake, shake, shake the body. Maybe you turn on a piece of music that makes you feel really like, woohoo, yeah, let's shake it out, shake it out. You know, there's that great song by Florence and the Machine, Shake It Out. Just shake it out. And guess what? If that leads to crying, cry it out. I'm a big fan of sometimes, even if you don't even know what it is that you're even crying about, but you know that you just need to cry, I say it's uh it's also something that I suggest in my book, which we all are perhaps familiar with laughter yoga, which we love also. If you ever need uh check them out on YouTube, you can always find some little practices. But another thing that I really like to do is just cry yoga, which is sometimes even find a safe space, find a place where you can do this, perhaps even just begin with a little whimper, like allow the body to release crying in a way that really opens up a gateway and a portal because sometimes it can be tough to really allow things to flow. So, lastly, the regulation aspect of it, after you do all these practices, come back to the breath, come back to really slow, deep belly breathing. Remember your body must stay online if you want to stay useful. This is huge. We are at Athletes of joy. So finally, I want to speak to the mothers and the householders. So that's me. I literally had to pause recording for a good, I don't know, 20 minutes to go and lay with the baby. And every single time I tried to get up, she would wake up and go, ma, she wants to just hold my ears when she sleeps, which is the coziest thing. So listen, if you're raising children, if you are caring for elders, if your life is feeling already really full, your capacity matters. Burnout helps no one. So choosing one action that I have listed here. And again, if I'm not your person to receive these uh actionable items from, there are plenty of other resources out there. But remembering that one action is enough and rest, regulation is part of the work. You are an athlete of joy. So the rest and regulation is part of the work. So we're gonna close it out. And I just want to remind you that we are choosing joy without bypass. Joy is not denial, joy is the felt sense that my actions align with my values, even when the world is heavy. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Choose one thing, rest, and stay human. We are going to list a couple of my favorite things, which we have the three Elena Truths, and then we have some journaling prompts. And I've got a good, hefty list of journaling prompts for you this week. But first we're gonna start with the three Elena Truths. Helena Truth number one. Regulation is not silence, it's the foundation of ethical action. Helena Truth number two. Doing something imperfectly is more honest than doing nothing perfectly. Let go, let go of that insist. Helena Truth number three. Joy is not the absence of grief or rage. It's alignment with your values. Okay? So I really hope that this is landing for you. And if it's not, please let me know. Please write me a note. Send me an email. Please maybe give me a call. Let me know how this is landing for you. And now we want to give you a couple journaling prompts for the week. Remember, we're choosing one to three, no pressure. Keep it simple, keep it actionable. First, we're gonna start out with some regulation. Number one, where do I feel the current political moment in my body? You may have done this one, Risa. Number two, what signals tell me I've consumed enough information today? Tune into your body. Notice how you feel. What signals is your body letting you know? You've had enough. Number three, what reliably brings me back to center? For me lately, it's been a really nice cup of herbal tea. I love my herbal tea. Somehow maybe I'm becoming a little British, but suddenly I'm like, yes, and all is right with the world when I have my cup of tea. Next, we're coming to rage and boundaries. Number four, what am I most angry about right now? This might be like a stream of consciousness. Just get your pen on the paper. You might even be like rage scribbling. Get out your, you know, Crayolas, get out your colored pencils. Let us know. Let yourself know. Let your journal know. Number five, what boundary does that does that anger reveal? Mmm.

unknown 26:02

Mmm.

Reframing Rage Into Boundaries

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Mm-hmm. Number six, if my rage had a wise job, what would it be? Just like a dog, give it a job. Rage needs a job. Voice and integrity is the next section. I told you it's a hefty list of journaling prompts. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Number seven, where have I been silent out of fear of getting it wrong? I'm pointing the finger at me here. I'm gonna be really journaling on this one. Ooh, it's juicy. Number eight, what value feels non-negotiable for me right now? Huge. Number nine, what does integrity not perfection look like in my life? Huge, huge, huge. Action and capacity is the next section. You can literally write a like a whole book just from the journaling prompts, action and capacity. Number 10. What is one action I can take sustainably this week? Remember, we have some resources in the so in the show notes if you're kind of like, what do I do? Number 11. What is one action I can release without guilt? Number 12. How do I want to pace myself for the long road ahead? Remembering this is a marathon, not a sprint. Finally, we come to joy as practice. Remember, you are an athlete of joy, my friend. Number 13. What brings me back to joy after engaging with heavy topics? Ooh, yep, yep, yep. For me, I know my like foolproof way to come back to joy. I love watching those like prank videos. There's really good ones that come out of Montreal that are, they're not even really using any language. It's just really funny pranks that are super PG. I love it. If I just need a quick fix, bring me back to joy. Use the tools. You got them. What tools do you have to bring yourself back to joy after engaging with heavy topics? Number 14. How do I train my nervous system to recover? Remember, you're an athlete of joy. What is your ice bath? Maybe it's an ice bath. Number 15, what does being an athlete of joy look like this week? Keep it simple. Bring it down to just this week. What does being an athlete of joy look like this week? Huge. So remember, take it easy. Maybe you do one or three. Maybe one to three of these journaling props. Don't overthink it, my friend. Remember, do it imperfectly. And finally, I'm just going to name all of the resources that we have in the show notes so that you can hear them here. And then maybe you say, yep, that sounds like something that I can do. And you check out the show notes. Okay. So resources. You can pick one, bookmark the rest, right? So for civic engagement, find your representatives. You can go to usa.gov slash elected officials. Or keep it super simple, make a phone call, cold calls. Why not? Call the US Capitol switchboard. Keep it old school. They are reachable at 202-224-3121. Again, that's 202-224-3121 for immigration support. We have the Immigration Advocates Network. They are at immigrationadvocates.org. We have the ACLU Immigrants Rights. They are at aclu.com.org slash issues slash immigrants dash rights. Again, this is all in the show notes. Don't overcomplicate it. Then we have survivor-centered support, also super important. Rain, R-A-I-N-N, they are at rain-n.org. Then we have the National Women's Law Center, which is at nwlc.org. Then of course we have some investigative journalism and court records, which is super important, especially if you are doing your own research and you know, research, checking it out. Okay. Don't take anybody else, any of these talking heads. You don't have to take them for what they're saying. Actually, do some research. Okay. So we have propublica.org. Then we have court listener, which is at courtlistener.com. So I know a lot of information. This is basically, I don't want to say it's new to me, but it's like I'm, oh, I'm going through another awkward, gosh, uh, puberty here where maybe you're like me and you're like, gosh, I've been silent for a really long time and now I gotta get involved over here. And and yeah, yeah. And maybe it's maybe you're feeling a little guilty too, because you're kind of like, should have been doing this for a while.

unknown 30:27

It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

It's okay. It's okay. We may have just been having to survive. If you're like me and you're now like, okay, it's time. The passivity time, it's over. Keep it simple. Choose one thing. Okay. We're gonna close it out with a little blessing. I would love for you to stay regulated, stay engaged, stay human. Choose one thing. I love you so much. We are in this messy, messy time of being human together. And what a joy it is to be doing it with you, doing it wrong sometimes, and learning. Because that's what we're here to do. We're not here to do it perfectly. We are constantly learning and getting better every day. I am sending you so much love. And please let me know how this landed for you. I'll talk to you again very soon. This has been another episode of the Ode to Joy podcast. It is my sincere joy to bring you these episodes every week. And listen, if you feel called, it would mean so much. If you could go ahead and, you know, drop us a review, maybe throw us a couple of stars. If there are five of them, even better. And just sending you so much love. I'll talk to you again very soon.