Hey Joe,
I appreciated your last post about stress and feeling discouraged. You talked about self-care and nourishment. That all sounds good, but I don’t have time at this moment for that. I wish I did. What do you recommend?
Too busy
Hey Too busy,
I’m glad to hear you appreciated the last post. And yes, I get it that time is limited for self-care and committing to authentic connection with others. But imagine investing a small percentage of time into your physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual wellbeing that you put into your devices! When you see only one bar on your phone, you know exactly what to do without hesitation. Panic may set in if your battery power percentage is in the single digits. Why shouldn’t the human body get the same treatment?
I have this discussion with many of my clients and in all my trainings. Self-care doesn’t have to include a gym membership, pedicures, massages or 45-minute yoga routines (although those are great once in a while if you can afford it, and if it’s your thing). Five minutes here and there can go a long way!
Take a few deep breaths before a meeting. Shake your body after a meeting. Listen to a song that opens your heart when you are feeling overwhelmed. Ask a friend you trust if they have five minutes for a quick call just to connect. Text a heart emoji to a friend who you know is going through a rough time. Do a crossword puzzle. Get a plant. Take a walk with a friend or with a work colleague. Many of these small things throughout the day has a powerful cumulative effect.
What’s your ways to nourish yourself, Too busy? One of my favorite self-care rituals is going to an actual movie theatre during the day when I have time, big bag of popcorn, hardly anyone in the theatre. The further away from reality the movie is, the better. I know that’s more than five minutes, but I reserve the time because I know the beneficial effects go a long way for me. Do what you know works for you!
I would like to share with you one of the exercises included in my upcoming book which will be launched in January, Fierce Civility: Transforming our Global Culture from Polarization to Lasting Peace. I developed this practice when I was working with wounded combat veterans living with extreme PTSD. It helped them to come into a deeper state of presence, grounding, and inner balance. When we rejuvenate and tap into internal powers, we have a better chance to manage the volatile whirlwind around us and better evaluate our level of safety in any given moment:- Sit or stand with your spine straight but not rigid; jaw, shoulders and belly relaxed.
- Focus on your core – a spot in your lower belly, approximately three finger-widths below your navel, one third of the way into your body from the front. This is your center of personal power, gut wisdom, presence, awareness and deeper listening.
- From your center, become aware of your feet (and perhaps your lower body if you are sitting) on the ground. Feel the stability of the ground, allowing your nervous system to register that you are held and connected. Let yourself be held.
- From your center, become aware of the middle of your chest, or your heart center. This is where you access the power of the heart – compassion, courage, connection, to name a few.
- With this awareness of your feet on the ground, your core and your heart, take a slow deep breath in through your nose, hold the breath for a moment, and then let the breath spill out of your mouth with no effort.
- Do this at least 3 times: in through your nose very slowly, releasing through your mouth, maintaining connection with your feet on the ground, your core and your heart.
- Notice how this effects your heart rate, the depth of your breath, your inner state and connection with yourself, your surroundings and others.
Regular practice of this exercise will help to form new habits of resilience and rejuvenation. This means that you will instantly do this practice without having to think about it. You may hear yourself saying in stressful moments, “Feet on the ground, focus in my center and heart, take deep breaths.” And if there was ever a time when this was needed, it’s now!
These are a few suggestions, Too busy. There are so many resources out there to support you in finding the two or three self-care things that would work for you. Remember, five minutes of simple practices throughout the day goes a long way.
Don’t overthink it,
Joe
Learn more about Joe Weston and his work here. Make sure to c heck out Joe’s bestselling book Fierce Civility: Transforming our Global Culture from Polarization to Lasting Peace, published March 2023.
To Ask Joe, please submit questions to: AskJoe@Fulcrum.us.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.