Note: This post is rich with resources and reflection. If you’re feeling saturated, honor that — take what you need, rest when you need to, and come back when you’re ready. 💛

We call it “survival mode” — especially when “normal life” is layered with the  current chaos of our country AND the whirlwind of the holidays. (My heart rate literally just spiked writing that 😱.)

Question: Last year, did you have the intention to “do the holidays differently”… but then found you just didn’t have the capacity for change?

Yeah. Me too. And it’s okay—sort of.

We choose what’s easiest because we kind of have to. We’re just trying to survive.

But here’s the bullshit lie: while we’re doing that, we’re actually dropping deeper into dependency on the very system that’s draining us.

We’re feeding the beast.

The System keeps us inadvertently nurturing corruption, separation, fear, greed, and disenfranchisement — it feeds us whispers that there’s never enough time or money or resources — that we are not enough.

Let me say it again because it feels that important:

That story is the trap.

Because when we believe we’re just “trying to survive,” we keep feeding the system that’s killing us — the one depleting the planet, our bodies, our connection to one another, and the unique gifts we’re meant to bring through.

But there’s another way.

We forget that we already have access to something infinitely more powerful:
real resources, shared community, and the truth that we already are enough.

This is what “reclaiming enoughness” means to me — returning to our power to choose differently. To stop living on autopilot and start making decisions that align with our values, even when it’s uncomfortable or inconvenient.

Instead of continuing with my status quo, I’m making space to focus on what’s calling me next — trusting that less really can be more…

For months now, my intuition has been calling me to create a membership program — a place where women can gather to practice unplugging from the dysfunctional way of life we’re finding ourselves in, reclaiming our power, rediscovering our gifts and bringing them into the world in service of creating a more functional, fun, and loving one for everybody.

And for months, I have been ‘too busy’ to bring this vision to fruition.

But this month, I decided to cut back on some other things I love — to put them on pause, even though it means less income — so that I can honor this intuitive pull and calling.

I am thrilled to share that the beta for this membership kicks off on Tuesday, 11/11 — a powerful moment of new beginnings, unity, deeper partnership with our non-physical support teams, and awakening of collective love. (Comment below or email me if you want to be added to the beta list or invited to the official launch in January! 😘)

I also just ordered (from thriftbooks.com not Amazon!) a copy of Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne, M.Ed. to help me embody this more in my home this year. (Thanks for the book rec, Julie Anne!) (And check out https://www.simplicityparenting.com/ for their free Simplicity Starter kit!)

We’re also participating in an upcoming economic blackout — skipping Black Friday, buying our kids’ gifts secondhand (they don’t know or care!), and reminding ourselves that we have choice (before clicking “add to cart,” I’m asking: Do I really need this? And if so, is there a more values-aligned way to get it?)

This movement is an act of love — a collective pause on consumption and complicity, and a bold statement of what we stand for.

From November 25 through December 2, people around the country are reclaiming power by refusing to continue feeding corporate greed.

It is time for us to remember and assert: we are the economy.

So while many of us, myself included, have played a role in feeding this machine—choosing convenience, ease and affordability over the broader implications, this movement is a message: we are waking up, and we are beginning to choose differently. We have far more power than we’ve believed.

Now that we know better, we are beginning to do better.

When we redirect our dollars and our energy, the systems built on exploitation lose their footing.

And it’s not all-or-nothing. It’s progress, not perfection.

Like yesterday morning — I finally bought socks and underwear from Amazon after weeks of trying to come up with a local or sustainable alternative (this is apparently where I draw the line with thrifting!).

Sometimes, we do what we can — and that’s okay. The point is we keep trying, keep choosing differently where we’re able.

Here are some of my favorite videos explaining this type of resistance:

• @jeremyandrewdavis’s explanation of the Ecomonic Blackout
• @thingsyourmomshoud’vetoldyou’s breakdown of how to turn these choices into lifestyle habits (and why we should bother) 

Visit BlackoutTheSystem.com to learn more.

Here’s how I’m showing up differently in light of the Blackout:
🌿 Lightening my schedule.

Instead of running all my usual programs, I’m shifting offerings to be outside the blackout dates. Yes, it means less income this month — and I’m deeply grateful I have the privilege to make that choice. 

🌀 Redirecting my spending.

• In reading about the boycott, I realized many small businesses depend on Black Friday for a big chunk of their year — so passing them up in the boycott would most likely hurt those we are advocating for.
• I’ve been using ShopBIPOC.com to find small, BIPOC-owned businesses near me. In my zip code I found a Jamaican-owned food truck, a neighborhood grocery store just down the street, and a few more gems I can support instead of Amazon or Safeway.

🥫 Contributing locally.

• As we shop for our holiday meals, I’m adding a few extra items to the cart for food banks or porch pantries.
• These great resources have come through my text thread in the past few days:
•     Support Denver Public Schools families and students by donating to the DPS Foundation’s Food Security Fund
•     Subscribing to Ridwell, which will collect both your non-perishable food items for donation, as well as hard-to-recycle items
•     And if you need help securing food, visit https://denvergov.org/Community/Support/Food/Food-Assistance

🌎 Remembering our global neighbors.

• Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti hard — and I’ve heard next to nothing about relief efforts in the news. Studies show that global news outlets often give far less attention to disasters in predominantly Black and brown countries, focusing instead on places they see as more “like” their main audiences — which means crises in places like Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba often go under-reported. (Source: Khawaja et al., 2025 – Media, Disasters & the Global South)
  Here’s what it’s like there right now: “In my 20 years of reporting and covering a lot of natural disasters, I haven’t seen anything like this.” — Brent McDonald, NYT
  • Ways to make a difference:
    • Jamaica Red Cross
    • Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency
    • Direct Relief
• And our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, Gaza and other war-torn places around the world are heading into winter with extremely limited resources to keep themselves and their families warm and fed. Sudan doesn’t have winter like these other places, but they can obviously use extra prayers and resources right now, too.
• I often contribute to the International Rescue Committee and Amnesty International — and when I find myself appreciating what I have, I send a prayer for all living beings to have what they need too.
• It’s unrealistic to try to aid in all these global crises, and a mentor of mine always used to say, “A confused mind says ‘no.'” Don’t try to do everything — maybe just pick one cause that tugs at your heart and make a small contribution. Build from there. And if a donation isn’t possible at this time, that’s okay — post the video linked above on your social channels to spread awareness or just take a moment to acknowledge the situation in your own heart and send some loving intentions to those affected.

My family, while not wealthy, has the privilege to take time off during the blackout. We can buy gifts for our kids another time. We can choose where our dollars go.

Not everyone has that privilege — and that’s part of what this is about.

Privilege isn’t something to feel guilty about. It’s something to acknowledge, and then leverage — in service to dismantling the system while supporting those most harmed by it.

Even if you can’t skip work or avoid the big‐box stores entirely, you can still funnel your energy toward something more life-giving — local businesses, mutual aid, or simply acts of kindness in your own neighborhood.

The system runs on our comfort.

It depends on us staying too busy, too distracted, and too exhausted to change.

But we can wake up from that stupor — together.

The real lie of “survival mode” is that it keeps us just functional enough to keep the machine running.

We think we’re surviving, but in truth, we’re starving — disconnected from one another, from nature, from our own aliveness.

This system keeps us in a kind of trance.

But the moment we begin to wake up, to slow down, to question, to choose differently — we begin to remember what’s real.

We are enough.
We have enough.
There is enough — if it’s shared.

• Shop small + local when possible — make new friends at your local shops!
• Support BIPOC-owned businesses.
• Give to food banks and mutual aid projects.
• Make or mend something by hand (If you keep meaning to but not getting around to it — make it fun. Attend a Community Mending Circle, or start your own!)
• Rest.
• Sing.
• Gather in community.

This isn’t about wishing for a new system — it’s about embodying one, moment by moment, choice by choice.

Even at the price of some discomfort or inconvenience, we can start choosing differently — together.

Because that’s how the old world crumbles — and how a new one takes root.

With love + revolutionary rest,
Clarissa ❤️‍🔥

I know this post is a lot.

There’s so much happening in the world right now, and it’s easy to feel stretched thin trying to care about everything that matters. It’s real — “caregiver fatigue” is a thing, and collective compassion fatigue is, too.

So if all you have capacity for this week is tending to your nervous system — taking a walk, sleeping an extra hour, turning off the news, or letting yourself not do anything new — please honor that.

Sometimes the most productive, revolutionary, world-healing thing we can do is rest.

(That could be its own blog post, honestly. Maybe it will be. 😉 But for now, trust yourself to know when to lean in, and when to step back. Both are acts of love.)