Now let's investigate four ways to explore your resource toy box that many people overlook or don't recognize as valuable:

1. Add more soft things to your life. Take regular naps. Take relaxing baths. Spend three minutes a day stretched out on the floor, listening to your favorite music. … Hug and kiss your family members twice as much as you do now. …
Pause.

Before you read any further, write down at least three soft things not on the above list that you can easily add to your life. …

2. Consider all the people who care about you. We naturally see partners, relatives, and friends as forms of resource. But there are many other people in your life who can help or support you. Don't dismiss them as resources just because you're not close to them. …
Pause.

Before you read any further, write down the names of at least three acquaintances who might serve as resources for you — and how you think they may be able to help.

3. Connect with your elders and ancestors. Each of your ancestors may have wisdom, experience, or information that can guide you. Talk with your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other respected elders about their lives and about the generations that came before them. Ask them to show you old photos and films. Explore your memories of any ancestors who might provide you with insight or support. Even an ancestor you despise may be able to teach you something, by helping you recognize what not to do — and by enabling you to be grateful for having chosen a different path.
Pause.

The paragraph above lists some ways to reach out to your ancestors and elders. But there is much more to your relationship with them. Your ancestors are already communicating with you. Their experience resonates through the family you grew up in and through the ways in which you were raised. Your ancestors taught important lessons — either directly to you or to some of your other relatives. Their DNA is expressed in your own cells. Your body's six intelligences can help you and your ancestors communicate. …

4. Embrace silliness and cuteness. Here is some serious advice: watch videos of cute and goofy animals, cute babies and kids, and pets and their owners doing silly things. Watch silly comedies. Don't think of these as guilty pleasures, but as forms of resource. They can help you relax and settle your body. They can make you laugh, and they can help you relax. These are both worthwhile outcomes.

— Resmaa Menakem in The Quaking of America