Eyestorm
AMPLIFYING WOMEN’S VOICES TO CREATE LASTING CHANGE
FEELING OVERWHELMED BY THE GLOBAL CRISES?
Here's what you can do
(and it's not about chaining yourself to Parliament!)
BY MI ELFVERSON | FRSA
Mi is a brand photographer, visibility coach and our EyeStorm Women director. She regularly shares her thoughts on the state of affairs, books, films and ideas around women’s rights and gender equality.
Please know. You’re not alone in feeling pressed to do something.
Every. Single. Day. If you’re on social media, watch the news, read blogs or receive emails, it’s a never-ending avalanche of traumatic images and cries for help.
People are stuck in humanitarian crises everywhere, and women and children are often the sacrifice of war and social conflicts.
Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law monitors over 110 armed conflicts around the world. Every one of them require attention and action from the world. Someone somewhere will always shout that you’re not doing anything. Guilt compounds when we see others taking bold action, while we’re almost paralyzed by the enormity of it all.
This is hard. It’s hard for all of us. Even just as bystanders. And as women, we can feel utterly helpless, because women aren’t the ones starting armed conflicts. We don’t want them, we know they don’t serve anyone, we understand that the consequences will be disastrous. We never asked for war, yet we are the ones taking the heaviest losses – and also – the biggest guilt of doing nothing.
Why don’t you help? Why are you silent? Why is no one listening?
The truth is – we are. We listen every day, we think about it every minute, we feel for everyone, and we want to do something. But we’re exhausted by it all, just trying to understand with our hearts wide open.
You donate a bit of money to UNICEF. To the Red Cross. To Médecins sans Frontièrs. We gift some clothes and Christmas presents in the winter. You may even be serving some soup somewhere, once or twice in January. You try and get involved in some causes, but there are so many. So so many crises.
Social media amplifies it all. We think it selects what we want to see, but it equally selects what we don’t want to see – because we have to click on the devastating news too.
We try to understand. We try to follow and to really decide what – if anything – we can do to help.
We can’t call them.
We can’t feed them all.
Our mind is on overdrive – and then again – you’re accused of doing nothing.
Here’s what we recommend:
- Choose one cause and give it more of your dedicated time, rather than spreading yourself thin. This will give you more focus, you can read up and understand more about this one situation and choose how you can best be of service. Join their email list and attend their information meetings first so you agree with their ethos and practices.
- Helping is not always just about donating money. Perhaps you have a skill; in social media, counselling, telephone experience, shop attendance, baking or building.
- Choose one day; once a week, once a month – even once a year – and gift it to your dedicated cause.
- Be selective of what you watch and read. Where there’s news, it will be angled. Choose one source that you trust and agree with and stick to that. Limit your time doom scrolling on social media. Remember – being informed doesn’t mean being overwhelmed. Quality over quantity applies to your news consumption too.
- Decide what conversations you jump into or stay out of. You don’t always have to know the answer. Everything isn’t black or white – it’s complex and HARD to know. Current online pushiness demands Truth, a Political Stand and that somehow, you just Know. You don’t have to make a decision on what you believe just to please someone in the spur of a heated discussion.
- Understand the scale of things. One loud voice can make a situation seem much bigger than it is. Thousands of people without internet or mobile phones won’t have a voice at all.
- Trust your gut. If something doesn’t feel right, or if someone seems too pushy, there might be a different agenda underneath. Choose wisely who you listen to.
- Step forward and say no if you see or hear someone saying something out of order. We can create change if enough people speak up. Your voice matters more than you think. Sometimes one person speaking up gives others the courage to do the same.
- Take small steps. You don’t have to chain yourself to a fence outside Parliament. Do what’s already aligned with your work or your hobbies and it will be much easier to do more.
- Join a group of women with insights, comfort and inspiration to share!
TRIAL EYESTORM IMPACT CIRCLE HERE:
THE EYESTORM IMPACT CIRCLE
The world doesn’t need you to save everyone. It needs you to show up authentically, consistently, and in a way that doesn’t burn you out. Because sustainable change comes from people who can keep going, not from those who flame out after a month of intense activism.
Together, we can all do something and that will have a ripple effect across the whole world.
This is why we started the EyeStorm Women Impact Circle. Where small acts of support by each one of us, create change and a better future for all of us.
Words by Mi Elfverson, Founder of EyeStorm Women, a community dedicated to empowering women to find their voice and take action for gender equality. Through workshops, events, and the Impact Circle membership, EyeStorm Women supports women to step into their power and create positive change in their communities.