Every year, as December closes, I reflect. It’s not formal—just a look back at the highlights and lowlights to guide the year ahead. But this year it hit differently. Harder. Heartbreakingly.
It started in spring with the swirl of tension and “othering” in our political sphere, fueling what I call “collective dysregulation.” I saw it everywhere: in the news, conversations, even in myself.
By summer, personal loss deepened my ache, and by November, the weight of democracy’s struggles felt crushing.
My energy had become unsettled, my mood off kilter and damped down. I struggled to stay focused on work, then baffled, I grappled to find the right words to describe my inner experience.
Heartbreak is the closest word I have for it.
Parker Palmer reminds us, “everything human is driven by the invisible power of the heart.” Activism, then, isn’t about politics. It’s about hearts driven by love for others, the planet, and justice. It’s about taking action for what we care most about amidst the competing tensions in our lives.
For me, activism means fostering skillfulness to engage with one another—debating, collaborating, solving problems—without denigrating or dismissing.
“Reduce the heart to feelings,” Palmer says, “and you get politics as emotional manipulation. Restore the heart to its rightful role…and it gives us a place of power to rebuild democracy from the inside out.”
It’s from that point of shared heartbreak that we can build a bridge of mutual understanding, cooperation, and craft our future together.
Which leads me to another question, the question of power.
Power
I’ve been thinking a lot about power—what it is, what it isn’t, and how to use it deftly going forward.
I find in my own life that leveraging the tension inherent in power is not simply a mental process but an energetic, relational and spiritual one.
Having one’s heartbroken can either destroy us or crack us open.
So, what do we do with heartbreak? We let it break us open instead of apart.
How? By exercising our hearts through conscious engagement with suffering, our capacity for both joy and sorrow grows. That’s the heart we need—for ourselves, for democracy, for humanity.
As we enter 2025, I’ll be exploring how our heart’s concerns – and inevitable heartbreak – shape our energy and vitality, and ultimately our choices for action in these monthly missives.
And . . . the necessity of turning and facing the realities at hand and working with them to embody what it means to take a stand for what we care about by stretching to become skillful at working with conflict, close to home and in our public spaces by exercising our power.
I hope you’ll join me. Together, we’ll build bridges and make 2025 our best year yet.
Here’s your first question: What will you do with your heartbreak? Let’s connect at DrChris@q4-consulting.com.
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ABOUT THE CREATOR OF The Leadership Pause
I’m Dr. Chris Johnson, I coach changemakers and leaders with practical tools to pause, feel, and zero in on their old strategies to renew their energy, extend compassion, make clear decisions, and create real change by using their power skills. Learn more at: Q4-Consulting.com
I publish The Leadership Pause newsletter bi-weekly on LinkedIn. If you’re not already subscribed, click the Subscribe button to follow me too!
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