How I Stay Grounded in a Time That Wants Us to Break

My three keys to mental, emotional, and spiritual stability during these trying times

This isn’t my typical article.

I usually write about human rights violations, climate justice, corporate abuse, fascism, genocide, and the systems that grind people down while demanding our silence. But over the past few months, I’ve been getting an increasing number of texts, emails, and messages from friends and readers asking a different kind of question:

“Are you okay?” “How are you holding up?” “How do you stay sane doing this work?”

I want to pause and say this clearly: I’m deeply touched by how much you care. That means more to me than I can adequately put into words. This community—built around justice, accountability, and truth—has also become a community of genuine concern and humanity. I’m grateful for that.

So consider this a brief detour. Not away from justice, but toward sustainability. Because none of this work matters if we burn ourselves out, detach from our bodies, or lose our sense of grounding. The systems we’re fighting thrive on exhaustion and despair. Staying well is not indulgence—it’s resistance. Let’s Address This.

Building Sustainable Justice

Here are three things that work for me. They’re not magic. They’re not cures. But they are practices that help me maintain balance, clarity, and endurance in a world that often feels designed to overwhelm us.

1. Move Your Body—Consistently and Intentionally

I’m currently training for a marathon.

In 2025 alone, I ran three half marathons and rekindled a love of running that I’ve had for years. Running gives me something advocacy cannot always offer: forward motion that is measurable, finite, and mine.

This isn’t about running specifically. It’s about movement. Walking. Swimming. Biking. Strength training. Anything that keeps your heart moving four to five times a week.

We carry stress physically. Trauma, anger, grief, and fear don’t just live in our minds—they settle into our muscles, our breathing, our posture. Movement is one of the most reliable ways to process what words alone cannot. Exercise is one means of fighting depression. When your body moves, your brain releases dopamine to make you feel better. Scientists actually call it the hope molecule.

You don’t need to train for a race. You don’t need special gear. You just need to commit to moving your body regularly and honoring it as part of your mental health—not separate from it.

2. Create Daily Space to Disconnect and Reflect

As a Muslim, I pray five times a day.

Each prayer takes only about 10-15 minutes, but it requires full separation from the world. No phone. No notifications. No scrolling. No reacting. Just intentional pause, reflection, and grounding. That alone amounts to roughly an hour a day where I step out of the noise entirely.

If you don’t pray, meditate. If you don’t meditate, isolate. And I mean that in the healthiest possible way. Find time every day to be alone without stimulation. No beeps. No lights. No alerts. No performance. Sit. Breathe. Reflect. Let your nervous system reset. This world profits from our constant attention and agitation.

Reclaiming quiet is a radical act.

3. Be Deliberate About Technology—Not Just Content

For as much as I’m online, I’m equally intentional about not being online.

No phones in the bathroom. No checking social media if I wake up in the middle of the night. No doom-scrolling as a default response to stress.

I also use tools that actively discourage overuse. One example is Noble Mobile, which I’ve switched to because it aligns with the behavior I want—not addiction, but intention. It’s $50 a month for unlimited service, no hidden fees. More importantly, it pays you to use your phone less. For every gigabyte you use under 20GB, you get a dollar back—up to $20 a month, or $240 a year.

That means if you’re not glued to your phone, you’re rewarded for it. Your annual phone bill drops to around $360 (from the current national average of $1000), and your screen time drops with it. If you take 30 seconds to switch to Noble Mobile at the link below, you’ll even get your first month of service for only $10.

I’m mentioning this because I use it—and I see the difference. Technology should serve your life, not consume it. Tools that nudge us back toward presence matter more than we realize. Noble Mobile is a worthwhile tool to save a little bit of money, a lot of time, and a sustainable strategy to help detoxify your screen time.

Source: @joinnoblemobile on Instagram

In Closing

I use all three of these practices together. None of them work in isolation. But collectively, they help me stay balanced in work that is emotionally heavy, politically fraught, and morally urgent. Of course, this is on top of having the amazing support of my wife Ayesha, the love of my hilarious children, and good friends I can call up when I need to. But I share the above three examples because they are wholly within me, and fully in my control. And they make a difference to my physical, mental, moral, and spiritual health.

And it also saves me a few bucks, which, in this economy, is a much needed win.

We are living through exhausting times. Caring deeply is costly. Fighting injustice takes a toll. But sustaining ourselves—mentally, physically, spiritually—is how we ensure that the work continues. Thank you for caring enough to ask how I’m doing.

I hope something here helps you, too.