From Self-Care To Self-Delusion? Rise Of Apathy And Fascism

Welcome.

This episode contains sensitive and potentially triggering content,

Including reference to trauma,

PTSD,

Genocide,

War and abuse.

Please listen at your own pace and only if you feel ready.

If you find this material distressing,

Consider pausing and seek support in a trusted resources.

Let's begin.

Welcome to Exile and Rising.

I am Ana Mael.

So,

Let's begin with this.

What if the obsession with self-care is no longer care,

But emotional neglect disguised as self-development?

And what happens when entire society turns inward in the name of self-care and forgets to look what's around?

What's around your city?

What's around your neighborhood?

What's happening in your country?

And I'm saying this as a somatic therapist for PTSD and trauma recovery,

Not as someone who wants you to burn out or abandon yourself.

Self-care is important.

I believe in the body.

I believe in regulation and somatic safety.

But when self-care becomes another excuse to stay ignorant in the face of injustice,

If self-care becomes a tool where you numb yourself and dissociate,

Then you're not able to see what's happening around you because you're using self-care as excuse.

Something is gone terribly wrong,

Especially if we can see the craze about the self-care industry now.

So,

Let's name it,

The overconsumption of healing content,

The endless retreats,

The spiritual bypassing,

The daily rituals that become a static performance has led to a generation of emotional numbed people,

Completely emotional numbed people,

Self-absorbed people,

Nations of narcissists who,

Quote-unquote,

Are spiritual.

So yes,

You can meditate for hours and you can ignore genocide.

You can ignore what's happening in your country.

You can do breathwork every day and still avoid witnessing the start of the tyranny in your own country,

In your city.

You can journal about boundaries and still not intervene when a child or a woman is being abused across the street or taken away from undocumented parents.

So,

When self-focus becomes self-isolation and self-ignorance,

And when emotional numbing is masked as a spiritual practice,

As self-development,

Self-work,

Self-healing,

We are not healing.

We are retreating from moral responsibility,

Okay,

For human responsibility,

And what happens when self-care is reduced to affirmations,

Toxic positivity,

Manifestation boards,

Weakened retreats,

Well,

What happens,

You get a performance,

Right?

You get a curated version of healing,

And what you don't get is a nervous system regulation.

You don't get trauma healing.

You don't get the justice.

You don't get repair.

And most dangerously,

People start bypassing their inner work by consuming more healing content,

And overconsumption becomes a form of emotional avoidance and numbing.

It's almost people are becoming possessed with self-healing,

And that leads to internal fragmentation.

So,

Now we have clients coming to us,

Therapists,

Who are saying,

I've read every trauma book.

I go to every online summit.

I went to every single retreat,

And still something is wrong with me.

Why I'm still not okay?

So now we have a client who is failing,

Who thinks he's failing,

Even on a healing journey.

So,

You're not healing,

You're performing the idea of healing,

Which is pushed to you by self-care industry or influencers or brands who are using your trauma to make their brand,

Which is okay to make money,

Absolutely.

You need to make money.

But when this is not done in the right way,

We are getting to a place of emotional numbing.

And emotional numbing breeds societal apathy.

And apathy is very dangerous because numb individuals create numb societies.

Okay,

So let me repeat.

Numb individuals create numb societies.

And when millions of people are emotionally numb,

What rises is apathy.

It's very similar to a cult.

So,

Not because people are bad,

People want to heal,

But what's happening,

You get so overwhelmed,

Everyone around you is on a self-healing journey.

Everything you need to manifest,

Everything is right frequency.

There is all around us a spiritual bypassing.

We become more numb,

We become more disconnected.

Okay,

In between us,

Here,

Me and me,

Me and someone else.

And when people over-consume and under-integrate,

Their emotional bandwidth narrows.

Okay,

Your capacities to regulate narrows,

And then you become a numb.

And here,

There is this great aura about fantasy healing,

How you're going to be transformed once you do this course,

Or once you do this summit over the weekend,

Right?

But it's not happening,

And then you want to do more and more and more.

So,

Many people on their journey,

They're feeling as they're personal,

They're failing.

But this is systemic result,

Okay,

Because of self-care industry,

Which went in completely wrong,

Wrong way,

Okay,

And spiritual bypassing.

So,

Then you're taught to internalize discomfort as a personal pathology,

Right?

Rather than to recognize what's collective grief,

What's tyranny,

Look what's happening in the US,

What's exile,

What's censorship,

What's betrayal of country,

Right?

What's betrayal inside the family?

Okay,

So when emotional numbing becomes widespread,

Our society begins to lose empathic reflex,

And it stops seeing the suffering of others.

So,

This is very,

Very dangerous,

People.

Again,

The best example is United States now,

Okay?

And apathy,

Apathy can look like you're looking,

Scrolling down,

You're seeing what's happening,

The war zones,

Genocide,

But you're just whispering affirmation,

Or you just scroll down,

You don't want to even stop,

You don't want to even witness.

People stop,

Skip human responsibility,

Because there's no human responsibility.

Boundaries are sacred.

So,

A person can collapse next to you on the street,

And this is what happened in Canada,

In Toronto,

A couple of years ago,

Canadians,

If you can help me to retrieve that link,

A woman collapsed in the parking lot,

Five men,

They took the cell phone,

And they start recording,

And this is not the freeze and numbness,

This was five people,

They took their cell phone,

They decide,

I will press record button,

And they were recording a woman in deep distress without calling 9-1-1 and helping her.

True story,

Okay?

Maybe they were protecting their aura,

Okay,

When you hear someone speak in truth,

And you just look away or leave because it's too much discomfort in your body,

Right?

You can't handle it,

Their capacities are so narrowed,

Okay,

Or if you witness a neighbor's being deported,

And you go to do another self-care ritual to avoid feeling the grief,

Or betrayal,

Okay,

So apathy becomes default,

And apathy is not neutral,

It's very,

Very dangerous,

It's very dangerous,

Because it's the fertile ground in which tyranny grows,

Okay?

This is what your leaders,

Not good leaders,

Okay,

This is what they want,

They want numb people around you,

Okay?

They want people who are almost in a state of being in a cult,

And while you're still thinking,

You're still thinking you're doing something nice for yourself,

You're on your spiritual path,

You're on your self-healing journey and development,

Actually,

No,

You are not,

You're on your journey of self-delusion and self-denial,

And then you're making this perfect soil for detectorship,

For someone who will come above you and start with the tyranny,

Okay?

So apathy makes room for tyranny,

Okay?

And fascism does not begin with guns,

It does not begin with guns,

It begins with disinterest,

It begins with people saying,

It's not my business,

It begins with spiritual influencers telling you to stay in your own frequency,

Or someone who would say,

Not my monkeys,

Not my circus,

Okay?

And by the time the surveillance begins,

The bans are signed,

The silence is normalized,

It's too late,

Because we were too busy healing to notice the harm,

Too busy with our self-care to practice collective care as well,

So we need to do both,

Collective care is missing,

So self-care becomes a new religion,

It becomes a new cult,

Okay?

Too busy with our self-care to practice collective care,

So self-care has become the new religion,

And the price of that religion is our humanity,

And this is not a good religion,

This is not a good church,

So I'm not saying don't do self-care,

But don't do self-care as your way of avoiding responsibility as a human,

Okay?

Because society is marked by emotional disengagement,

Silence and ignorance,

And overemphasis on individual well-being becomes ripe for authoritarian regime,

Okay?

And tyranny doesn't rise only through the violence,

It rises through the mass distractions,

Okay?

So first,

Spiritual bypassing,

Cult of self-care,

Then you will see on the,

Just watch the TV shows,

Okay?

It will be mass production of TV novellas,

TV shows,

Romance,

Gambling will be a rise of gambling,

So there is a massive numbing out,

And this is a state of,

It is a state of,

It's a cult mindset,

And tyranny thrives when good people are numbed,

So think about also who is feeding that self-care industry and why,

That obsession with self,

So you don't open your eyes and look around what's happening,

And who is benefiting from that,

So you don't speak truth to power,

So you don't stand up for what is right,

For what is just,

What needs to be done.

You don't get played.

Look,

United States,

Oh my god,

Democracy,

There is not any democracy,

Isn't that scary?

There is the age group of people between 35 and 65 in their prime years,

Where are those people?

Occupied with meditation,

Fluffing feathers,

Smudging sage,

And then if there is someone who would say,

Hey,

Let's do something,

Maybe the partner will come in and say,

Don't ruin my frequency,

Your energy is just not okay with me,

Let's just sign up for another retreat,

So there is this mass of people in the prime years,

Numb,

Numb,

Okay,

Numb,

It's so scary,

So look at this,

The more we have spiritual bypassing,

The more we have self-care,

Obsession,

The more apathy we have,

The more numb society we have here,

Which is excellent field,

Like you want to numb out those people in their prime years,

Why not?

So,

Those,

Even less than one percenters,

Can do what they want to do,

Tyranny.

You think North Korea is bad?

Or Cuba?

I don't know,

I feel sorry for many people,

For all people in the United States,

What the heck,

Wake up,

Okay,

Wake up,

Okay,

Because if you confuse spiritual neutrality with moral integrity,

It's,

I mean,

It's not okay,

You're not spiritual,

If you are losing the sense of,

If you're losing the sense of what's right,

What's wrong,

Okay,

Okay,

And you cannot reclaim your nervous system while abandoning your neighbor,

You cannot heal a trauma while abandoning your brother,

Your sister,

Your community,

Self-care without social awareness is emotional neglect,

And as a human,

You're failing,

It's awful,

And there is nothing spiritual about this,

And there is nothing healing about this,

Okay,

So numbing leads to apathy,

Apathy leads to self-delusion and ignorance,

Ignorance,

Your ignorance,

Now enables the system of control,

Perfect,

Because no one is noticing,

No one is questioning,

No one is speaking out,

Maybe two percent,

Five percent,

And tyranny rises when citizens,

You,

Prioritize personal peace over public justice,

Over moral bravery,

And real healing is not always pretty,

It's messy,

It's relational,

It's embodied,

And it's deeply political,

It needs to be just,

Because it's relational,

And the self-care industry is not healing you,

It's numbing you,

Okay,

So numbing is not peace,

Silence and ignorance is not safety,

It's going back to the trauma,

And staying in trauma,

Okay,

Don't get played,

Don't get played,

So this is not a call to abandon your healing,

Or to abandon your proper self-care,

Okay,

Yes to the proper self-care,

Not to the ignorance and obsession with self-care,

While someone next to you is dying,

So this is a call to restore the balance,

And healing is not complete,

Unless it leads you back to the humanity,

To community,

To doing what is just,

To standing up,

Even if your voice shakes,

This is not easy,

I would rather be only with my clients,

But what's my responsibility,

So there is a time when you need to step up,

Even it's not easy,

Your chemistry is changing,

Like you need to be exposed,

But you need to tell the truth to follow,

You need to wake up people who are around you,

I mean it's very clear,

Okay,

So everyone who is just observing,

Observing,

Stop observing,

Okay,

You have a voice,

You have intelligence,

You have eyes,

Get educated,

Just don't get played,

Don't numb out,

Don't numb out,

Speak,

Even your nervous system trembles,

Stand with the ones who are being erased,

Who are being exiled,

This podcast is exiled and rising,

Don't let anyone exile you again,

Okay,

Self-care in a healthy way,

And solidarity,

Kinship,

This is how we heal,

Okay,

This is how we regulate,

So we can rise,

And this is what I teach in my practice,

And this is truly what I believe as someone who has survived a genocide,

Exile,

War,

Refugees for so many years,

I was stateless,

Undocumented,

And healing that forgets justice is not complete healing,

It's not,

And justice is not revenge,

It's relational repair,

It means speaking your truth,

It's having that moral clarity,

Knowing,

Okay,

This is what is right,

And something is clearly off here,

And calling up on the bullshit,

And you see the bullshit,

So healing that forgets justice in a healthy sense,

Justice is not healing,

It's comfort on top of,

It's comfort on top of ignorance,

And you were not born just to be comfortable,

You were born to be awake,

To be alive,

To know your boundaries,

And when you see injustice,

To call,

To call upon people who are not doing the right things,

To be accountable and responsible citizen,

Okay,

So let's not lose our humanity in the name of quote-unquote healing and spiritual journey,

No,

That's fantasy healing,

Okay,

Okay,

So please share this episode with someone who needs a reminder that true healing brings us closer to humanity,

Not away from it,

Okay,

We heal when we heal in between and in relational field,

Okay,

Okay,

Share this episode,

And let's keep conversation rooted in justice,

Responsibility,

And care that includes,

Not excludes each other,

Okay,

I'm Anna Myle,

This is Excelent Rising,

And as always,

Much care.