Co-authored by Anusha Kumar, PhD, and Amy Vigliotti, PhD

Today's political climate can feel more volatile and dangerous than it felt in recent times. Research demonstrates how sociopolitical violence against marginalized populations (e.g., immigrants, Black individuals, trans people) negatively impacts mental illnesses (i.e., depression, anxiety, PTSD) (Wang & Narcisse, 2025; Williams, Osman & Hyon, 2023; Grinshteyn, Whaley & Couture, 2022).

Despite this challenge, we must find a means to live our ordinary lives under extraordinary conditions. Many of us navigate multiple roles (e.g., caregiver, parent, immigrant, professional, partner), each demanding its own form of care.

But how exactly does “care” show up in our daily lives, and how does it work in “uncaring” environments that may threaten our physical and psychic bodies?

1. Care as Affect Holding

Emotions are affective cues that inform us about ourselves in relation to our environment and, at times, communicate to us before we know an internal conversation has begun. In relation to care, emotions may signal to us that our environment is too demanding and we have needs (psychic or physical) that must be attended to. During times of instability, feelings of anger, numbness, guilt, shame, and fatigue can be protective (Heilman, 2022); our task becomes not suppression, but to understand what the affect is in response to and honor its purpose. In these instances, care may mean finding community in others who share similar emotional experiences. Care can involve becoming an observer of our internal world, while holding the external conditions shaping it.

2. Care as Imperfect Action

Care can look like scrolling the news,........

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