Month: October 2025

Two signs of progress

| jamiefeinberg

Anyone else getting sick of “adulting”, aka going through the world bearing some of the boring responsibilities of being a human (at least in our current society) when fascists are taking over and cultures and families and people are being destroyed? 

I feel this way a lot, but in addition to pausing to get present and taking time for joy where I can as means to combat inertia/anxiety/despair, I am also trying to stop and celebrate signs of progress when I see them. 

A solo raven perches on top of a birch tree branch (photo by Jamie Feinberg)

One sign of progress, of course, was that more than 7 million (some sources suspect it was closer to 8 million) people turned out, entirely peacefully, for the No Kings rallies across the United States and even in some cities around the world. Scholars much more qualified than me rightly shared criticisms of the effort (which wasn’t really a “protest”, and didn’t have clearly articulated goals and next steps in place, amongst other things), but I think it’s reasonable to rejoice at the show of solidarity and optics of having an event like that – especially after so many right-wing extremists were warning about the “violent” people who’d be participating. While there were a few violent people who tried to dampen the mood, those who turned out to say no to kings did so peacefully. 

If you made it out for No Kings, thank you, and I hope you found it encouraging, made some new friends, and were inspired to take some additional steps to protest the rights and freedoms of your fellow Americans and humans of all sorts. 

Another sign of progress is at a more local level. In Boston, Massachusetts, Fenway Health works to provide affordable and accessible health care, and in a stunning move becoming too common across the US, they recently announced they’d stop offering healthcare for trans youth – in an effort, they said, to protect their ability to serve other people due to the changing regulations. 

Photo of the ocean through the trees with changing leaves by Jamie Feinberg

From Fenway Health’s website: “The Trans Health Program at Fenway Health supports members of trans and gender diverse communities, their families, and the providers who serve them. We provide patient-centered, evidence-based care to ensure trans and gender diverse people are informed and affirmed in their gender and healthcare needs.”

What infuriates me to no end is when healthcare providers like Fenway don’t acknowledge that offering trans healthcare for youth is actually the safest, least invasive way to provide trans healthcare, because youth who know they are trans are saved having to complete puberty and thus require more invasive care down the line (often with less success) when we provide them with the care they need at a younger age. Not to mention the rates of suicide and murder for trans people….I could keep going, but here’s the good news!

Boston and those from around the region who rely on Fenway have decided they aren’t going to take no for an answer. Hundreds have taken to the picket lines, and reportedly some people who’ve come to Fenway for their care (like flu shots) have instead joined the picket line! 

Erin in the Morning reported the following: 

“We are calling on Fenway to find brave and creative solutions to maintain funding while following their mission to provide the same rights to every patient,” said Teddy Walker, a 20-year-old Boston student, reading from a statement penned alongside 21-year-old Berry Andres, their co-organizer for Monday’s action. Both are Fenway patients who started hormone therapy as teens—the very care and demographic being cut off now. So they know intimately how vital this life-saving care is for trans young people.

“This failure of courage does not have to be permanent,” Walker told Erin in the Morning. “We can still be allies in this historic fight together, because we know Fenway Health is not our enemy. The Trump Administration is. But that does not mean we will stand idly by as Fenway does Trump’s work for him by stripping patients of their care.”

Have you seen a sign of progress this past week? I’d love to hear about it. And as always, if you need support in navigating these and other challenges, I’d love to speak with you. Let’s start with a saboteur assessment. 

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Take good care, friends. 

take one step

| jamiefeinberg

Friends, I’ve gotten to experience so much joy, so many awesome things, in the past week. And yet my brain and my body are tired. Day after day, in spite of having a good night’s sleep and waking up before my alarm (I know, boo-hoo, how tough is my life?), I’ve woken up feeling like I’m not rested enough and I’d like to just stay in bed. 

Could this be depression? Sure. I’ve had some challenges with it in the past, though it’s been a very long time since that was a major struggle for me. But regardless of any mental games my brain might want to play, my physical body is also bearing the side effects of it all. And while it’s 100% valid to seek medical treatment when you’re feeling more tired than usual, I know that right now, for me, I’m feeling like this is just where I am right now – a medication or a chat with a therapist unfortunately can’t change the systemic issues in our world right now. 

Photo of fall foliage on either side of a paved path by Jamie Feinberg

The world is a lot. I can have an absolutely beautiful day, I can make progress toward my goals, I can spend time with people I love, and I can still find my mind and my body returning to stressful thoughts and situations. 

So for this week, my answer to that is to take one step. 

When it feels daunting to get out of bed and do all the things ahead of me, I tell myself to start with just getting up and feeding the cat. I am open to the possibility that if I’m still exhausted by the time that is done, I can allow myself to get back into bed. 19 times out of 20, after I feed the cat, I will commit to getting dressed, knowing I can take a nap later if I’m still tired. One step at a time. I take one step. 

This can work with bigger projects and goals too. When the project feels daunting, I can make it easier by breaking it down into small steps. And if having the executive functioning skills required to chop a project into more manageable pieces isn’t happening right now, that’s okay. What’s one small, but meaningful, step that I can accomplish today in the direction of my goal? Let’s commit to doing that now. 

I had a beautiful weekend, from leading an ‘80s singalong to teaching voice lessons and music theory, to spending time with friends and phone calls with family. And I had two gorgeous walks in nature. 

I know I am incredibly blessed, and I pause to be present to that multiple times each day. 

And I am tired. 

And I’m aware that the fight may be just beginning. 

So acknowledge what you’re feeling. You may need to do more self-care than you’re used to right now. You may need to lighten up your commitments. And you may need to offer yourself a bit more patience and grace right now. 

What’s one step you can commit to, when all you want to do is procrastinate or zone out? Let’s do that one thing. And if doing it still feels rough, get a coach, call a friend, or ask a higher power or the universe for support. And above all, keep breathing. Observe the inhale of your breath, and the exhale. Stay present to the here and now. Let the rest be set aside for a moment. 

Take good care, friends. 

I have a lot of tools to face the challenges of life. If you’d like to learn some with me, let’s start with a saboteur assessment. 

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We can do hard things

| jamiefeinberg

Hi friends. I am so grateful that this past weekend I had the opportunity to leave Prince Edward Island and visit Nova Scotia. I enjoyed the change of scenery, indulged in some of my favorite foods, and discovered beautiful places to walk and be.

But the thing I am most proud of is that I tried something new to me, something that I knew would be imperfect (very challenging for an Enneagram 1 especially!) and yet something that I knew would be a valuable experience to me regardless. 

I’m a barbershop chorus director, and the event I attended Saturday was a regional day of workshops and barbershop education. To kick off our afternoon, we had the opportunity to perform with Synergy, an outstanding quartet who set the record for the best score in our area at their first competition together. Their members include mentors and coaches of mine (and friends!). 

I’m relatively new to singing in a quartet, and I knew that the opportunity to try to hold my own singing with such an experienced (and fun!) group of performers would be one I shouldn’t miss. I knew I’d kick myself if I did. And while most people participating in the event sang one of four “area songs” that all of us have learned to sing together over the years, we also were given the option to sing one of the songs from Synergy’s repertoire. 

I thought the latter would be more beneficial to me, so I decided to teach myself the tenor part of “Popular”, the song from Wicked. I am familiar with the musical (in fact, I saw Idina Menzel in her last week on Broadway), but I had never seen this arrangement of the song and had never sung the tenor part until a few weeks ago. 

Getting up in front of a conference room full of people can be nerve-wracking in itself, but doing so to sing a song I’d only started learning a few weeks back, with a group of people I’d never performed with before, on a very challenging arrangement no less, was a pretty audacious plan. And yet I knew that if I gave it my all, I’d be extremely proud of myself, regardless of what happened. 

I knew it was an opportunity to show my chorus, and others from my area, what it looks like when we step outside of our comfort zone. To show how fun it can be to try something new. To show that it’s okay to risk failure, to make mistakes, and to commit wholeheartedly to what we know will end up being an imperfect effort, in spite of our best attempts. 

So for all those reasons, and for the fact that singing barbershop is FUN, I got up there. And while it was indeed imperfect, I have heard nothing but praise and excitement from the people who watched me perform over the weekend. And when I listened back to my performance, I was grateful that it sounded pretty good. I’m grateful I can look past the imperfections and just enjoy the memory of the special experience and my efforts. I went for it, and I am still pretty happy with my whirlwind of a performance. 

The wonderful author and inspiration that is Glennon Doyle often talks about how we can do hard things on her podcast, and she’s even written a book called We Can Do Hard Things. It’s a phrase that my chorus’ current coach reminds us of periodically, and it’s a mantra her chorus has embraced as their own. 

Sometimes hard things are things that we choose to do, for our own betterment, or to enjoy the journey and the challenge. Sometimes hard things are foisted upon us, and all we can hope for is that we can ride the waves and make it to the other side. 

Can you congratulate yourself for a “hard thing” you’ve gotten through, chosen or not? I’d love to hear your story. 

Standing up to fascism can be hard. Using our privilege can be hard. Choosing how to prioritize our energy and our efforts when life is already challenging enough and then the world feels like that much more is a tricky balancing act. 

But we can do hard things, friends. 

And if you’d like some more tools to help you in tackling the challenges of life, I have a lot of tools that can help you to do that work and tune in. Let’s start with a saboteur assessment. 

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The antidote for anxiety is presence

| jamiefeinberg

Friends, there is so much this week. As I write this, we’re facing a possible shutdown, which feels especially precarious for our transgender and non-binary friends right now. Whatever the situation is as you’re reading this, I’m sure you can name off at least a half dozen other causes for concern. I called my reps this morning, and I’m sure I will continue to in the days to come. 

I’m going to focus though, today, on remembering that the antidote for anxiety is presence. When I’m catching myself in thought spirals about what might happen and what we might need to do about it and how awful this or that could be and what about this, the way out is for me to be fully present to where I am right now. 

This is an absolutely gorgeous time of year on PEI. This past week, I got to spend many days exploring our beautiful province with my mom and my aunt, both up visiting from the United States. Together, we got to smell the flowers and the ocean, listen to the sound of the waves, share lots of hugs, eat lots of tasty meals, and admire all of the beauty here. We even enjoyed happy hour at the Grotto, on a floating dock on the harbor, having a bite and a drink while we admired/were stunned by the three huge cruise ships in port in front of us. 

Whether we were singing together at the singalong I led on Friday night or driving across PEI, with plenty of stops for ice cream and flowers, we were practicing presence. 

Vacation days are a luxury we don’t all have. But can you notice the flowers? Can you observe and enjoy the sensation of your breath moving in and out? 

I hope you can find some time to be present when the world feels like too much. 

If that feels impossible, I have a lot of tools that can help you to do that work and tune in. Let’s start with a saboteur assessment. 

And in the meantime? Enjoy some pretty photos from our adventures this past week. Thanks so much for coming, Mom and Aunt Gail! It was so lovely to have you here. 

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[Photo descriptions: two stunning blue flowers on a bush at our visit to PEI Preserve Co.’s gardens, Ross, me, my mom, and my Aunt Gail at dinner at the Island Resto, me talking and leading a speakeasy singalong amongst gorgeous antique furnishings, 3 delicious flavors from Holman’s Ice Cream, a loaded baked potato with a side of their homemade chips (apparently at the Potato Museum, we do potato as a side with our potato!), me and my mom posing at the stunning Dunes Gallery, more photos of oranges and pinks at the Dunes, my mom and my aunt pose in the garden, the work of art that was my lunch at their restaurant]