Shedding Busywork & Becoming Dangerous in the Luminary Braintrust

Simple strategies and helpful guides for caregivers panicking about the next four years of approaching horrors

Raising Luminaries Luminary Braintrust Caregiver Community January Updates. Choose your adventure. Two friends laughing uproariously about something on a phone while enjoying a coffee chat together. They’re backlit by the sun, and it’s an overall warm and cozy scene of joy. I wonder what they are laughing at, though - looks like something absurd but not alarming. Like an emu trying to walk up an icy hill. It’s fun to watch because they have no arms, so the emus are like, ‘whup whup, oh noooooo!’ as they scrabble over the ice. You should google that with a friend the next time you get coffee together.

Hey friends,

Over in Bumblebee Hollow, we are tidying up in preparation for the Lunar New Year - lots of dusting, tidying, and wrapping up old business before we put the old dragon to bed.

In keeping with the upcoming year of the snake, I’m thinking of ways to work within the restrictions of my time, energy, and creaky human body. How can we coil in and conserve our energy as we face a flurry of attacks in the next four years?

Not the kind of coiling where we shove our heads into a pillow and block out the real world — but the kind of coiling one does when preparing for a neat series of precise and deadly strikes.

I’m grateful to have my friends in the Luminary Braintrust alongside me as we create and share these strategies.

Interested in what we’re up to? Well, I have some fun stuff for you!

Luminary Braintrusssst January Updates Below

• Coiling up with the Accountabili-Buddies

• Strike! How To Be Dangerous

• Shedding busywork: Efficient-erizing the Luminary Braintrust

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Join the Luminary Braintrust

If you’re looking to connect with parents like you who are navigating the challenges of caregiving and advocacy, join the Luminary Braintrust. Members get full access to our member portal and resource library, in addition to sweet perks like our video chat group and Collaboration Laboratory experiments.

Not a member yet? Join us!

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20 Day self-care challenge: accountabili-buddies, featuring very successfully checked checkboxes bursting with flowers and stars. so satisfying!

Accountabili-Buddies: Tiny Tweaks For Big Change

Last month, I started a 10-second habit that led to a breakthrough in resisting late-night binge eating. No longer chomping greasy nachos in a freezing kitchen at 2 am, I’m reading more and getting more sleep, which makes me a more patient parent and helpful accomplice.

Each month, members of the Luminary Braintrust are invited to join me in a 20-day challenge to practice accountability and self-care.

The trick is - we each do the absolute bare minimum - because, honestly, none of us have the spoons for life-changing magic between repairing the faucet, helping kids with homework, and resisting an oligarchy of over-proofed windbags. What 10-second investment can you make to become a better caregiver and advocate in your community?

Whether you need 10 seconds of sunlight or have decided to become your senator’s worst nightmare - let us cheer you on!

The best part is that everyone who joins us for the February Challenge will get a Very Official Certificate of Badassery to impress your friends and confuse your enemies.

Not a member of the Luminary Braintrust? Register here or hit ‘reply’ to share your questions.

“I am amazed by the effect the Accountabili-Buddies have on me, SOOOOO glad I joined!!!!!!”

Christiane H.

Raising Luminaries ‘How To Become Dangerous’ workbook, a Winter Incubator Bonus

Strike! How To Become Dangerous

Seeing as how the current administration relies on us panicking about ICE raids and executive orders, I wanted to share this bonus workbook from the Winter Incubator.

We are relying on you to get your shit together. Here’s how to do that.

Not only does ‘How to Become Dangerous’ vibe well with the trickster energy of our winter Collab Lab, but it’s also an effective exercise for disrupting our typical spiral of fear and overwhelm, redirecting our nervous energy into good trouble.

Enjoy this workbook for free through January before we return it to the Winter Incubator Resource Library.

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luminary braintrust little wins, featuring a half-asleep parent with full sleeve tattoos, surrounded in a victorious wreath of laurels and a trophy for managing to successfully start brushing their teeth.

Coming up next…

Next week, I’ll be back with updates in the February Family Action Toolkit to help you tackle difficult conversations with your kids.

I’ll also share the final report from our Trickster Resistance Lab in February. If you’d like to join the fun, join us in the LBT chat group, where we’re brainstorming ideas and experimenting with malicious compliance and gleeful mayhem.

Like snakes emerging from old skin, we release old patterns, commitments, and habits that keep us from growing.

In more ‘shedding’ experiments, I’ve decided to drop our monthly Luminary Braintrust blog updates and consolidate them into these Ignition Notes updates. Members will still have access to the same shenanigans; I’ll just send you fewer updates about it. Learn more about this change here.

Every step forward is drowned out by new emergencies, which is why it’s vital we acknowledge accomplishments both big and small.

Have you been working to shed busywork and bullshit? Share your successes on the Little Wins bulletin board so we can celebrate with you.