note: 9 Small Tweaks to Bring Into Your Life in 2025
Small tweaks to add to your daily life that could bring big shifts to society.
Say howdy to “Small Tweaks, Big Shift” — What’s one small tweak we can bring into our lives that could bring a big shift to our society and culture? This is an invitation to usher these actions into your life in 2025 as suggested by The Antidote’s 2024 interviewees:
Implement “Body’s Choice” — Renee Bracey Sherman: “I think it was on the podcast Call Your Girlfriend where Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman talked about “Body’s Choice” — I find myself choosing that a lot. I will literally stand in the middle of a room, pause for a second, and ask my body what do you want to do? Especially if I'm in this moment of I should do this, I should do this. I'm like “shoulding” myself a lot, just “shoulding” all over myself. Really taking this pause and say, “Okay. What does my body want to do?” I’m gonna go to yoga. I'm gonna go to bed. I am actually gonna write that to-do list. I'm gonna just go play my Nintendo. Letting my body tell me what I want to do and also not apologize for it because that is something I'm still working on. That's a constant practice that I have of what does it look like to rest so that when there is a crisis, or I have to move a lot and travel a lot and do a lot of the things in a day, that I feel okay. For me, it's the “body's choice” and it's really shifted how I show up in my days and how I try to be good to myself, to my mind, and my body.”
“Be slow in being reactionary, and be quick to listen and read.” — Jaimee Swift: “So much of social media is about this microwaveable access to information and going back and forth. No, listen to other people's perspectives. Learn from other people who have different political socializations and worldviews as your own. Read and learn more about politics and our world from a marginalized person's perspective — but also I would say the majority because I shouldn't say ‘marginalized’ anymore because Black people and people of color are the majority of the world. Learn about our perspectives and history. Black Women Radicals has tons of free reading lists, free teach-ins, and free events about Black feminist politics across time, space, and place on the African continent and the African diaspora.”
“Do something that makes you happy every day.” — Dionna Dorsey: “I really believe that details matter, and the one detail that we often forget is to do something to make sure you are happy every day. If you could do one little thing to be happy, you show up differently in the world.”
“Just start.” — Dionna Dorsey: “One of the tiniest things we can do is to just start. Whatever it is that it's in your heart, in your mind, in your soul, in your body, there’s something — whether it’s you want to start shopping at this new grocery store or you want to put these clothes in the donation bin — whatever it is, even if you just do it for 30 seconds or one minute a day, you just have to start. Just starting is the one thing that we as humans most often fail at which leads a lot of people to have very unfulfilled lives.”
“Assume good intentions.” — Charlotte Clymer: “Not to be controversial but try to assume good intentions. I know it’s hard. Not all of our experiences as marginalized people are going to be similar. There is a very common experience of being in the public square and someone is rude or we perceive rudeness, and we automatically think (for very good reason) that it could be an attack on who we are as a person. If someone is rude to me in a grocery store, is it because they're being transphobic? Is it because they're being sexist? Is it because they're being misogynistic? It may not be that way. They may just be an ass or they may just have a brain lapse and forget their manners. I think it's good to assume good intentions and understand that everyone is going through struggles. I’m not saying don’t stand up for yourself. I'm not saying don't fight back. I'm not saying don't interrogate a moment with good intention. I am saying that it's not necessarily about how people are intending to go after us — it could just be that they're having a bad day. Everyone has bad days. If we recognize more often that all of us have bad days, we would avoid more conflicts and have far more resolutions in their place.”
Build personal investment with others early — Tyrhee Moore: “It doesn't require you to do it all. Whenever you feel very passionate or driven by something, look around and call on some of the other people to really take action with you in those very early moments — there’s just nothing like feeling a personal investment in something that you brought up as a community.”
Carve space to have tough conversations à la “Red vs. Blue” — Michael Farber: “I don't think everyone should do what I’m about to say, but I have a text chain with a few friends and we jokingly call it “red versus blue,” because we are technically both red (Republicans) and blue (Democrats) on the chain. We kind of go at it. We have some ground rules, but we really allow space. We don’t come away agreeing at all, but I do think being able to have tough conversations with people in your life - instead of running away from them - is really important. You don’t have to do it in a place that drives you wild, but I think everyone should have more purplish friends.”
Schedule tech-free days to sit with ourselves sans interruptions — Paola Mendoza: “I have yet to do it but I want to and have told myself to have one tech free day a week and have that day be my creative day where I only do creative things — no social media, no texting, no emails. I think that would open me and others up to the possibility of just being with oneself, to imagine, create, and not be distracted by the things that distract us. It’s easier to be in the world when things are dinging at us — we don’t sit with ourselves.”
“Ask more questions, and admit that you don’t know. It’s okay.” — Ash-Lee Henderson
*Sources: Nintendo’s Gameboy Pocket ad, 1996; Indya Moore reading the autobiography of Assata Shakur in the bathtub, source unknown; Jane Fonda at the Women's March on January 21, 2017, Harper’s Bazaar; fortune cookie insert, source unknown; three colorful trashbags, Nacho Alegre for Apartamento Magazine; group of people with their heads together, source unknown; hands holding, source unknown; fish tank made out of an old Macintosh classic desktop computer, Apple Geeks
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