Mindful Occupation

This booklet was lovingly created by a community of authors, editors, designers, artists and other contributors. Some of this material was remixed from existing sources, while other works were created especially for this booklet. To contact us, please write to info@mindfuloccupation.org. Cover Design: Tatiana Makovkin Layout: Cal Moen and HB Lozito Collaborative Authoring: Aki Imai, […]

Mutual Aid Groups and Listening Spaces (as used by The Icarus Project) Breaking through the walls and making a connection can mean all the difference in the world. Mutual aid and support groups are a way to bring down the walls that isolate us. No one in the group is above anyone else: mutual aid […]

Almost all movements for change have had to deal with issues of power, privilege, patriarchy, internal racism, etc. Though these are the things we are working to change in our larger world (domination, oppression, greed, etc.), we’ve all grown up in these worlds of inequality, so it’s unfortunate, but we often end up a microcosm […]

Trauma (or post-traumatic stress) is the emotional “shock” after a life-threatening, violent event. Anything that makes our body panic and go into a fight/ flight/freeze response can leave us traumatized. The effects may be immediate or take time to surface, and can be felt for the rest of our lives. Being traumatized is a normal […]

On-the-Ground Support Many Occupy sites are establishing a variety of support teams to address the emotional needs of protesters; we deeply respect their (our, your) ongoing openness, compassion, and commitment to dialogue, people, and the Occupy movement. This section offers tips for approaching distress and disturbance on the ground at Occupy through a radical mental […]

What Is Stress? Stress is simply your body’s response to change. Since your environment is constantly changing, you are constantly under some level of stress. Your nervous system is equipped to handle a certain “normal” level of stress. This “normal” level of stress, or the amount of stress that a given person can experience without […]

Form an AFFINITY GROUP—a group of friends to protest with. Swap names, phone numbers, emails, and emergency contacts. Keep together and plan what you’re likely to do if confronted by the police, keeping in mind that some people in your group may be more susceptible to police harassment, brutality, and arrest (e.g., people of color, […]

Protest is physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially, and politically intense. Even moment to moment, it can shift from being exceptionally enriching and energizing to exasperating and exhausting. One of the most effective ways to deal with these desires and disruptions is to establish and sustain a collective, holistic space that nourishes people’s individual needs as important, […]

Connecting Radical Mental Health and Occupy Corporate (In)Justice It’s easy to see connections between radical mental health and the Occupy movement. After all, both movements are challenging the objectification of persons and nature at large. In the radical mental health movement, we raise our voices against the mainstream mental health system in which our complex […]

What Is Radical Mental Health? Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But, stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that dignity. Chimamanda Adiche Radical mental health means conceiving of, and engaging with, […]