Six Ways to Thrive in Zombie Times 

Introduction

Making it through each day, especially since the 2024 election, has been unspeakably hard. We–Shilpa and Jodi–decided to write this piece to support ourselves and others with not just surviving these times, but also widening our perspectives, shoring up our personal and collective power, and feeding the mysterious yet essential creative fire.

The systemic forces of oppression at play are not new, per se; and yet, there’s an intensity that the two of us haven’t experienced in our lifetimes before. Perhaps it feels that way to you, too?  We feel a “Zombification” is spreading, which we define as the process of losing connection with one’s humanity, “our unique capacity to feel, reason, evoke emotional responses, or form relationships” (according to Oxford Dictionary).

People lose their humanity when they have been “bitten” by a globalized system. It hijacks our minds and bodies by using misinformation, hate-mongering, and fear-spreading for social control and reproduces disconnection at a terrifying speed and depth. We are experiencing a war with the natural world and with people who retain strong earth-based values: a systematic attack by the nonliving on the living, an inversion of what constitutes life, a degradation of our collective ability to be caring, curious, and helpful. All of this exemplifies and further expands a Zombie consciousness.

The good news is that people have always found a way to resist the oppressive dominator paradigm–through artistic expression, community care, reciprocity, and spiritual connection.  Despite all of the efforts to destroy the web of life, by stripping us of our humanity and erasing our conscious connection with the Earth, Awake humans and our siblings in other species nonetheless find ways to persist, and even thrive.

Protocols for Staying Awake & Alive in Zombie Times

Welcome to Zombie Times–where the forces of disconnection run strong. Fear not, however, for if you feel empathy for anyone, you are Awake, and you can access your unique gifts to help grow beautiful and just ways forward. Let’s co-create Liberation Zones together, and trust we can build a “new normal” rooted in the well-being of all people and our planet. It’s not too late to turn the tide.

#1: Love the World AND Feel Its Pains

Does your heart break each day because that which you love is threatened and/or violated?  Are you moved by acts of compassion, by people offering care and protection to those who are suffering most? Do you long for a world in which well-being, kindness and fairness are the basis of how people interact? Though acknowledging what you feel–in all its depth and expanse–may be excruciating at times, it also means you’re not fully Zombified.

An awareness of the pain, and a longing for healing, means you care about re-balancing the whole. You want to relieve the suffering, and see it transform, instead of blaming someone else for it. You believe in the mutual flourishing of all. Contrary to what Elon Musk and other right-wing pundits assert, when you empathize with those who are suffering, it’s a good thing.

We celebrate that as evidence you are Awake and alive in your vital humanity!

#2: Practice Daily Emotional Hygiene

Zombification is rampant, and any one of us is susceptible to it.  We invite you to regularly assess your state of being: How much is Zombie consciousness infecting you? Do you find yourself glued to devices or spending hours doom-scrolling? Are you engaging in Othering–putting people into categories of “good” and “bad,” “right” and “wrong,” “worthy” and “unworthy?” Are you struggling with numbness, emotional paralysis, disconnection, resignation, or simply feeling lost? Are you mindlessly gnashing your teeth at everyone and everything?

Just as we practice physical hygiene on a daily basis to keep our bodies well, like brushing our teeth and bathing, we also need to practice emotional hygiene to keep our hearts, minds, and spirits well. Build in time at the start and end of every day to attend to yourself in gentle and nourishing ways. Do what you can to pull back from the edge and shield yourself from negative social conditioning. Offer yourself kindness and care.

Shut off devices, and take time to do whatever helps you reset in the wonderfully alive world: take a walk outdoors, meditate, talk with a sweet friend, sing and dance, help a neighbor. The chronic stress of navigating the dangers of Zombieland are real and take a toll, so literally shaking off the day can help inoculate you. We want you to protect yourself from the real threats to your life and well-being. We need you. Your unique contribution to the healing of our world is essential to our collective survival.

#3: Notice Where Your Folks Are At

There’s an old saying, “If you want to know where you’ll be in a year, look around and see who is with you right now.” The people around you offer both a reflection of your present and a guide to your future. So, how are they doing in the face of all this hardship? Are they often saying and doing things that are harmful to themselves and others? Do you notice them acting in ways disconnected from their own humanity?

Because of our brain’s mirror neurons, we emulate and follow the energy around us. If it’s dissociative and inhumane, that part of us also gets activated. Whole environments and institutions can get wrapped up in arrogance, self-righteousness, hate, and othering, all of which makes it harder to return to our humanity. Notice if you might be in a Zombie Zone, where Zombification is rampant, and if so, you need to be extra mindful to not get bitten by it (or become more deeply infected).

It’s important to make a distinction between our messy and imperfect humanity and Zombification. When we are leaning into our humanity, we are able to recognize when we are off, when we make mistakes and hurt others with our words or actions. We feel remorse and aim to be accountable, try our best to repair, and forgive ourselves and each other. When we are Zombified, such humility and grace is not present, neither for others nor ourselves. We stop thinking critically and independently and are swept up by the mob, refusing to listen to any other perspectives on the situation. Grudges become permanent and justify brutally attacking others and dehumanizing them.

#4: Find More Awake People

No matter what happens, don’t try to go it alone. That’s a surefire way to get sucked into a Zombie Zone. Instead, try to find more people who are connected to their aliveness and humanity. Who can you be with in a reciprocal relationship of care, nourishment, and informed collective action? Who inspires you and motivates you? We’re talking about real people you can see, touch, and be with, not influencers on social media or AI bots. We encourage you to interact with those people and build relationships. Find ways to laugh and cry together; share meals and rides, books, and gardening tools; make art and plant trees. Practice the best parts of being human together.

You probably already know some of these Awake people, so maybe it’s about increasing the amount of time you share with them. You can also do some scouting around and find more folks. Check out your local art scenes, your libraries, your community organizations, your farmers’ markets. It’s amazing who will appear when you start looking for them and opening up to them.  A great tool for making these connections is Appreciative Inquiry Interviews. Just remember that investing yourself in the connections and relationships is vital for healing the Zombie Consciousness. As you find more Awake folks and deepen together, y’all will form the basis of a Liberation Zone. (More on that below.) 

#5: Create Firm Boundaries Where Necessary

There are many who have been ‘bitten’, whose disconnection has exponentially grown, and so they struggle to fully access their ability to think critically and feel compassion. Each of us has to decide how much or how little to engage with their Zombification at any given moment, lest they take us down with them. Do not risk or sacrifice yourself with some savior complex; we don’t need to be martyrs in this moment. If people are committed to their Zombification, we can counter by being committed to our wholehearted Aliveness.

Of course, no one is beyond the pale, and there are some wonderful organizations trying to support folks aiming to get out of Zombie Zones. They, and some of us, may serve as “scouts” in these times, able to enter those places to check out surprising or emergent opportunities, without getting fully sucked in. Look at how George W. Bush and Marjorie Taylor Greene have been speaking up for immigrants and victims of sexual violence. That feels hopeful and can be celebrated, without assuming that they are fully free from other aspects of Zombification. Those infections run deep, y’all! Because healing is a progression, we can acknowledge these shifts without inviting them to join our community groups just yet.

In protecting yourself from Zombification, you may need to create firm boundaries from folks deep in Zombie Zones that you cannot do anything about at this time. If you’re not careful and clear, they will suck all of your energy out and leave you depleted. Boundaries can look like saying, “I care for you, and I realize we can’t have a productive conversation right now,” or “I need to take care of myself so I am stepping away right now, and I hope you will find ways to care for yourself, too”, or “I trust that in the future we will find a better way to approach each other with better results for both of us, and for now, I think it’s best we pause on these interactions.” All of these ways affirm the underlying dignity of the other person and also prevent you from venturing deeper into Zombie Zones with them.  

It is also worth saying that all of us have been “bitten,” to some degree or another, by the Zombie consciousness and may dip into it periodically. At the same time, there might be moments where more Zombified people are able to reconnect with their authentic humanity and engage in generative conflict. Holding that seed in our hearts is important. Sometimes, less than a firm boundary, we need discernment: Is this the time and place to engage? Am I and the other person equipped to be transformational with our conflict? Can we be honest about our own perspectives and also fully listen to each other? That can really only happen if we’re each connected to our own humanity. If the answers are no, then a boundary will be helpful for now.  It can always be revisited and removed at a later time if the conditions change.

#6: Co-Create Liberation Zones

Let’s build the world we want to see. Instead of trying to fix or eliminate Zombies, co-create spaces that are beacons of hope where life-affirming, inclusive community is being practiced regularly. These spaces serve as lighthouses for other people to find you, and for you to find others who are doing the same. We can’t only play defense in these times. We also need to move towards and live into the vision of the world we want to see and build a little bit of it together, every day, with other Awake folks.

For us, Liberation Zones are different from the safe havens often depicted in zombie fiction.  Those are usually isolated, heavily militarized, vulnerable to human conflict, and usually subject to infiltration by a rogue zombie element. Instead, we are talking about spaces that exist near or, even sometimes within, Zombie Zones. They are where we are practicing ways of being, organizing, relating, and sharing that support the mutual flourishing of the whole web of life.  

The concept of Liberations Zones originated with the Black Power movement of the 1960s and has been redefined and shaped by various subsequent social movements such as Occupy and Free Palestine campus-based resistance. In this iteration of Liberation Zones, we can feed ourselves through regenerative agriculture and find right livelihoods through the cooperative economy. We can nourish our inner worlds through meditation, movement, story-telling, art-making. We can activate our revolutionary joy in service of our values. We already see so many activities happening like this all around us, in collective land trusts and urban gardens, in alternative schools and community gatherings, in participatory democracy and mutual aid networks. Weaving these efforts together not only strengthens them, it heals the alienation and loneliness in which the Zombie consciousness thrives.

Liberation Zones are not utopian fairylands (though fairies are welcome there!). Instead, they are actual test kitchens where people are experimenting with new systems and innovating cultural forms, where liberatory modalities are being birthed and practiced. As places of Awakeness and Aliveness, they also reframe the concept of “woke.” They are ever-growing and dynamic, not fixed- or end-states, nor places for judging or policing oneself or others by an arbitrary scale of understanding social issues and structures. Instead they are places to reclaim and honor the incredible gains from all liberatory social movements. They offer us opportunities to see ourselves and each other more clearly; to support each other in our learning and unlearning; to become more curious about co-creating ways of life that honor all.

Our Invitation

We invite you to connect the dots and these diverse dimensions. Let’s come to each other, into relationships, at real times, in real places, with real humans, and with real trees and other Earth beings. Sometimes it seems silly to have to say such things, and yet, we know we need reminders. The forces of disassociation and disconnection are so vast and strong; the Zombies are always at the door. So we are so grateful for Alive friends and family who call us into connection with our own bodies and with other bodies in this living world. They re-member us, stitching us back into our full humanity. It’s never too late to slow the spread of the Zombification. We can follow these Protocols and make more. Let’s be Awake together!