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In the last year, I’ve focused on cultivating a healthy mental diet. There is a lot of political and spiritual slop online, and I’m not really in the mood for psychosis these days. Making sure I am getting my information from sources that don’t distort my view on reality or cause me to waver towards extremism in a negative direction, is of utmost importance to me. Sometimes it is hard to stay sane when you know fully what is happening, but it is still important to both educate yourself and maintain some sort of mental peace, in my opinion.

When reflecting on my social media usage, I noticed how much of myself I gave away, even in the slightest moment, like interacting in a comment section. These apps are open to anyone, even the most careless and ill-intended individuals. We are often encouraged to give away all of ourselves in these spaces without clear precautions being set around that idea. There are no official rules to social media that protect you from harassment or manipulation, and with so much happening in a specific space at one time, it is easy for such cases to be swept under the rug.

If we think about apps like TikTok that encourage users to upload every second of every day of their lives, including the most intimate ones, or twitter, where many go viral for creating nsfw content in hopes for financial stability and freedom, these apps have created a space where some of the most vulnerable of our class system feel they have to sell their souls in hopes of a promise that is not guaranteed. However, this exchange shows up in simple ways as well, like constantly perceiving your life through a lens of how things will look on your feed. We have become slaves to an algorithm.

I am a part of a generation where the experience was pretty similar for all of us. In early childhood, accessing a computer was seen as a privilege or an extracurricular activity. We had computer classes to learn the basics of typing, and got free time to use websites that hosted kids’ games specifically. By middle school, the internet was vast enough to have virtual online gaming spaces tailored to our specific interests, and eventually, we got on Facebook and Instagram. At this time, these apps were still formatted like analog media. I could wake up on a random Tuesday in 10th grade, open my Instagram, and my feed would be full of other 10th graders from my school posting outfits for the day or views from the bus stop. Same for Facebook, statuses about what drama I missed on the day I was sick or things that are happening that weekend. I would frequent websites like Polyvore and spend an entire class period cultivating outfits, no algorithms, just my ideas being organized how I wanted.

These days, we have Pinterest instead of Polyvore, and we have an algorithm attached to the ideas you have that feeds you more ideas from the void. The thought of sharing what you find interesting with others who feel similarly and can understand the concept is what community is all about at its core. The problem comes when the sense of community is being manipulated to keep you in a cycle of self-judgment or unhealthy amounts of isolation. We have gone from self-expression to being conditioned by algorithms that often times can not keep up with our humanly evolution. Maybe you liked gossip pages yesterday, but there’s no guarantee that you stop seeing them tomorrow simply because you pressed not interested today. There is a constant conditioning that happens, where we are told to be some form of perfect, not in life, but specifically for THAT algorithm, and in turn we are subconsciously conditioned to ignore what doesn’t align with the standard being set by that algorithm. We do have some control over what we see, but after a certain point it is out our control, and actually catered to garner reactions and energy from us, both in positive and negative ways.

There is power in observing yourself first, before you begin to assign roles or intentions to anyone else. We have to question our conditioning. Why do I think that way, and why does this specific thing garner a response from me? We have swiftly shifted to a data-based world, where every question you ask a chatbot and every selfie you upload to put yourself in a safari or above city lights is stored, broken down, analyzed, and repurposed to perpetuate this same cycle against you and others even further. Conscious social media usage requires that we accept ourselves as we are, where we are, right now, today, so that we can create a healthier and more honest version of ourselves outside of an algorithm.

This doesn’t mean everyone should disengage fully from the apps; if anything, I believe the opposite is true. It means that we are all different, and it’s important that we remind ourselves and each other of that. Even within a demographic, there may be similarities, but we are all unique individuals. Social media should be used as a tool, for some a business tool, for others an archive. The goal is to not view social media as currency itself but as your personal form of self-expression, the thing you can use to reminisce whenever you want, to be reminded of times that are gone, people you loved, things that made you belly laugh years from now when you are having one of those days. Don’t let an algorithm change you into a robot, where you make a costume out of someone else’s culture and lose sight of your own authenticity. Honor the person you are at a soul level. No one outside of you can determine who or what that is but you.

The most important part of it all is to keep some parts sacred. There are parts of the algorithm that look to bastardize your ideas, your identity, and even attack your existence, in hopes that you will rush to defense and feed into the negative for someone else’s financial benefit. Remembering who you are means engaging in spaces that remind you of your sacred nature and your inner love. It also means setting the record straight if that’s what you feel called to. But it never means to shrink or accept what isn’t true to you, or to overexert yourself in an interaction that feels like convincing a brick wall to move. You define you, the algorithm can only change that if you let it.

You are a culmination of generations of people falling in love, surviving in hope, and creating together. You are your ancestors’ art. Your pure existence can be revolutionary and transformative. You are also a walking ancestor, and your belief in yourself and what you can do will shape the life your descendants inherit. Circumstances were put in place for them as they have been for us and through media, songs, books, movies, and their own documented experiences through journals, family photo albums, and the stories they share when passing by locations that carved the human they became, we see how they transmuted the energy around them to not just save themselves, but those they loved, and those they would love before they knew them. As a Black American woman, there were generations of my ancestors and the ancestors of my other Black American cousins, who created monumental loving and healing energy from hate and death wishes. To exist at such a height in a society that would actively call for your extermination is a mighty respectable feat. From the way we live day to day, to ancient traditions carried out through community lore, they paved a lane of survival and abundance. This was done using the same things used against them. When they were told they weren’t allowed to read, they not only taught themselves and each other to read, but to write as well. When they were made to conform their hair just to be able to feed their families, later generations made it a staple of rebellion against the system that sought to weaponize it against them. Songs they made would be repackaged and sold to white audiences by white artists, so they made songs about that very issue and more. Kind of hard to steal and sing a song about a white man stealing your music when you are said white man.

When we speak of generations losing the recipes, it comes from conditioning that disconnects us from our authentic selves. When you are taught that the people you come from were physically weak and spiritually wicked, you are being set up to act as a sheep in the game. A lot of the time, history is rewritten and revised to make a victor out of the perpetrator. The problem becomes when we don’t research on our own and take their word for it. We are currently fighting an administration that wants to hide these media sources from newer generations. This is a power play because they know they haven’t borne witness themselves and that most are too distracted to have these conversations with their living ancestors. Most K-12 education in the United States heavily redacts the stories of people of color and their experiences in this country. At the same time that I was learning this version of American history and black history, I was heavily watching YouTube videos about the Jim Crow era, and watching speeches from black activists in the 60s and 70s. I would not have done this had I not been allowed to read To Kill A mockingbird in the 6th grade. My language arts teacher at the time assigned us the book, and we did a breakdown of each chapter every week. I know that, without her having introduced us to that book, I may not have started reading different books, researching for myself, and questioning what I was learning in real time.

Joy and happiness is rebellious to these systems. During times of distress, you will find people together in community, sharing food and making songs. Creating with each other and for each other. Those who partake in the arts are doing a service to their ancestors’ hard work, just as the person boots on the ground is as well. These systems seek to suck the joy out of you and condition you to work as a cog within them. If you pay attention to the things that are demonized in today’s society, they are the very things that free people. It is important that you create things, even if you feel they suck. See judgement as the system at play, praying you dim your light. It is more important now to create with such urgency that you scare away any agent of destruction from your lineage. Some of us exist as a result of that, and so it may seem like second nature to navigate these times. Knowing the truth behind things like capitalism and celebrity culture gives you automatic advantages. When creating, do it from a pure space. Do not run from the ugly parts or sugarcoat your experiences. think of everything you do as a guide being left for your great-grandchildren in that way.

Protecting your spirit and mind is the one true way to defeat an enemy; to know yourself and your power makes you limitless. It also makes propaganda indigestible, and your family line immune to history and method revision. I find that context is very important when looking into historical media. These are people we champion because of what they conquered and how they prevailed, in our eyes, so beautifully. That being said, they are still just people. They made mistakes and had emotions like anyone else. They just did it under a given circumstance. When we are transmuting our own energy, to reference their human emotions while simultaneously giving them their due flowers, will best guide us on how to handle our now. These cycles are spiritual and have perpetuated through time; the characters and locations, and other factors at play are the only differences. When I say you are limitless, I mean that you have coded in your DNA access to both the positive and negative. Some people are asking for the negative, and it doesn’t make you negative, but real. Your positive still stands because energy is a constant.

As these cycles go, it is so important right now for everyone to prepare for major change. During major change, one of the greatest valuables you have to keep track of is yourself. With everything happening at once and in such a capricious manner, it’s important to stay grounded. Our ancestors successfully survived similar times in many different ways, we need to look back into our true history and research. Accessing their media before these things are destroyed or banned in some way. We can access their expressed thoughts and experiences through things like music, movies, etc now. At the same time, we have to research our own lineages and ask questions about what we can.

While doing this research, we can find methods most suitable for the restructuring necessary for us all at this time. If you are not prepared to be a first or pioneer of some sort, it is important to assess what it is you truly believe so that your energy can be spent on things that will better and heal your lineage, however that may look for you.

I’ve found that a lot of spiritual activity takes place in the subconscious. These activities are fueled by beliefs, be it yours or someone else’s. This is a fact that can make understanding it for yourself a bit tricky, but there are simple methods to make it clear what is best for your own process. I simply don’t and have never existed in a reality where any other being can have any control over me or my choices/outcomes. A deep self-knowing fuels everything I do. To know yourself is to be aware of others and how you all correlate. I get to have fun, kind of trolling reality for lack of a better term. I do practice my own craft, but it’s personal for me.

During the surge of coverage in Gaza that took place in 2024, I was less focused on doing things to keep myself spiritually attuned to society. I was put in a position where I had to re-evaluate my morals and also the role I would play while these things were happening, and the spiritual realm was quite active at the same time around me. I was receiving a lot of messages before and after things got crazy, some I shared with the public, and some I kept to myself. I quickly learned that I would lose sight of not only myself and my path but my overall goal if I were too caught up in my feelings. Emotion without strategy and consistency is wasted energy.

I was put in a space where being myself while also advocating and fighting the system felt like some kind of sin. I now understand the balance of being my whole self, the woman I am, and being a version of her that stands for her beliefs. To circle back, belief is a spiritual thing. I create a space intentionally in my subconscious that allows me to do my work that maintains my spiritual health, and makes room for me to share it with those I believe need it most right now.

Creating balance is important, but so is awareness. When my emotions happen, I can assess them for what they are. Emotion triggered by the human experience can not only fuel any requests you send to the spiritual realm, but they also help you to take data and analyze what it is that you previously cultivated spiritually. Energy is a constant, that’s not just spiritual, that’s science. Harness the energy within you, and spend it wisely. There are some powers and people who want it right now, and there are movements and people who actually deserve it. Including you.