Sometimes Liberation Looks Like Sending the Email
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A few years ago, if you had told me that one of the most impactful things I would offer my community was a virtual room where people quietly worked on their own tasks, I probably would have laughed.
After all, we’re taught that transformation comes through grand gestures.
The breakthrough.
The retreat.
The workshop.
The life-changing moment.
And sometimes it does.
But increasingly, I came to believe that liberation is built in much smaller moments.
It’s built when you finally schedule the doctor’s appointment you’ve been putting off.
When you answer the email that has been sitting in your inbox for three weeks.
When you fold the laundry instead of letting it become another source of shame.
When you meal prep because your future self deserves care.
When you complete the application, write the proposal, update the resume, submit the assignment, or start the project that matters to you.
Those moments may seem small.
They aren’t.
They are acts of self-trust.
They are acts of self-respect.
They are evidence that we are building lives rooted in intention rather than survival mode.
The truth is that many of us aren’t struggling because we don’t know what to do.
We’re struggling because doing things alone is hard.
Especially for those of us navigating burnout, trauma, chronic stress, neurodivergence, caregiving responsibilities, disability, grief, activism fatigue, or simply the reality of being human in a world that asks too much and offers too little support.
That is where body doubling comes in.
For those unfamiliar, body doubling is a practice where people work alongside one another while each focusing on their own tasks. There is no pressure to socialize. No expectation that everyone is doing the same thing. Just the gentle accountability that comes from being witnessed in community.
And it works.
Not because someone is forcing you to be productive.
Because community reduces isolation.
Because co-regulation matters.
Because humans were never meant to do everything alone.
Practice Your Praxis
Self
What is one task you’ve been carrying that would make your life easier if it were finally done?
Not the biggest task.
Not the most important task.
Just the next task.
Maybe it’s scheduling an appointment, responding to an email, taking a walk, organizing a drawer, or drinking more water this week.
Ask yourself:
What support would make this feel more accessible?
What would happen if you stopped judging yourself for needing support and started honoring the reality that humans are interdependent?
Home
Look around your living space.
What is one unfinished task that creates stress every time you see it?
Laundry?
A pile of mail?
Meal planning?
Cleaning out a closet?
Making that maintenance call?
Choose one.
Set a timer for 15 minutes and begin.
Not because you have to finish it.
Because progress is often more liberating than perfection.
If possible, invite a family member, friend, partner, or body double to work alongside you.
Work & Community
Consider a task you’ve been avoiding in your work, volunteer efforts, activism, business, or community commitments.
What keeps it stuck?
Is it lack of time?
Lack of clarity?
Fear of getting it wrong?
Trying to do it alone?
Identify one person, group, or community space that could help create accountability and support.
Liberation isn’t about proving you can carry everything by yourself.
It’s about building relationships and systems that make carrying the load more sustainable for everyone.
Because often the barrier isn’t capability.
It’s isolation.
Join Us
Our Monthly Body Double Session meets:
🕥 Every Last Tuesday | 10:30 AM–12:30 PM EST
💻 On Zoom, or in person at the Healing Homestead
Available to paid members of:
📖 Liberation Education Academy
https://desireebstephens.com/academy-membership
🏡 Healing Homestead
https://desireebstephens.com/homestead
📝 Liberation Education Newsletter (Substack)
https://desireebstephens.substack.com/subscribe
💬 The Messy Middle
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1HQ4auHngg/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Bring your task.
We’ll bring the community.
Needing support is not evidence that something is wrong with you.
What I’ve learned about body doubling over the years is that it reveals something much deeper than productivity.
It reveals how disconnected many of us have become from collective care.
We live in a culture that celebrates individual achievement while quietly dismantling the communal structures that once helped people survive. The result is that we often interpret needing support as personal failure.
If I were stronger...
If I were more disciplined...
If I were more organized...
If I were better...
I wouldn’t need help.
But needing support is not evidence that something is wrong with you.
It’s evidence that you’re human.
One of the pillars of supremacy culture is individualism: the belief that success and failure belong solely to the individual. When we internalize that belief, every unfinished task becomes a moral judgment instead of what it actually is: a task.
Body doubling interrupts that narrative.
It reminds us that community is a resource.
That accountability can be compassionate.
That care can look like sitting quietly on Zoom while someone else folds laundry, writes a grant proposal, studies for an exam, or meal preps for the week.
And perhaps most importantly, it reminds us that liberation is not always found in extraordinary moments.
Sometimes liberation looks like finally doing the thing.
Below is the zoom link as we are live at this moment.
