🌿 tech_care[3]: find ways to energize yourself
on working out, supporting free clinics, and building for global healthy equity
Welcome to Tech Care, where we explore what it means to build tech that cares, so that we can take care — of ourselves, our communities, and the world around us. You can find past issues here, and join us here:
🌸 musings in full bloom today:
Finding workouts you love & dancing your heart out
🌱 some newly planted ideas:
supporting local free clinics
exploring the intersection of blockchain x global health equity
Hi friends,
I’ve been musing a lot lately about what energizes vs. what drains me throughout the day.
I never thought I’d be this person, but I realized that it’s during my 8AM workouts that I feel the most energized. Even if I can barely open my eyes when my alarm goes off at 7:45AM, and I spend the next five minutes bumbling around in my bathroom, the minute that I hit my mat and start class, I feel instantly better and more energized than ever.
Part of it is because I love the workouts that I’m doing — now primarily dance cardio and/or barre — and genuinely look forward to them every morning. Part of it is because I usually turn my mirror around, so my focus is completely on how I feel during my workout (energy + strength) vs. how I look (shape).
But most of all, it’s because in the mornings that I get to workout, I create space to be intentional about prioritizing “health & fitness” not in my appearance, but in the energy that fuels and empowers me.
So for today, I’d love to dive in and explore: what does it mean to energize as self-care, community care, & structural care? But before we do, I’d love to check-in with you:
🍵 Conversations of Care: Energize
Every week, we’ll use this section to explore what it means to practice self, community, and structural care, and if/how technology plays a role.
🌱 → newly planted ideas
🌿 → budding thoughts
🌸 → musings in full bloom
💡 → problem space / product ideation
tech x energize x self-care
🌸 [Try] Finding a workout you love. The best workouts are the ones that you can do consistently. It took me years of grinding through HIIT workouts and treadmill runs to realize that just because they were the “best” workouts in terms of calorie burn, it didn’t mean they were the best workouts for me. So nowadays, I optimize for workouts that I love and can do consistently — here are some of my faves:
🌿 [Try] Sweat with Susie. My incredible friend Susie is an NSCA certified personal trainer, and all-around badass workout buddy. Her instagram is full of incredible workouts that you can try out, and for more longform workouts, she sends out the Sunday Sweat (a free, weekly 45-min workout plan) which you can sign up for here!
🌸 [Try] Dance your heart out. I’ve been obsessed with dance-inspired workouts lately — from Dance Cardio workout videos via MYLEE Dance on YouTube (based out of Seoul, South Korea) to virtual barre classes at Shaktibarre (based out of NYC). These are the workouts that I love the most, and have me feeling the most energized.
P.S. I just made my “hot girl summer - dance workout” playlist public — you’re welcome :)
🌿 [Listen] Move more, but for the right reasons. I loved this episode from The Happiness Lab podcast (surprise) on reimagining what it means to move your body with joy. Too often, we are motivated to exercise out of a desire to change the way we look, instead of how we feel. I loved hearing from the incredible Jessamyn Stanley, on how she overcame this restrictive mentality, and came to love & embrace her current yoga practice.
tech x energize x community care
🌱 [Try] More miles, more $$. I recently came across the Charity Miles app, which encourages you to move more — from running to biking to dancing. For every mile you move, you help earn money for your chosen charity from the app’s corporate sponsorship pool. I love the idea of supporting movements by moving your body, and would love to see this concept extended beyond charities and to mutual aid networks. If you have any thoughts/ideas here, hit reply and let me know!
🌱 [Read/Learn] Support local free clinics. To energize as community care is to support free clinics — especially as we slowly emerge from a global pandemic. I recently had a really lovely chat with my friend Laura (who is also a kind soul in the Tech Care community!) around the mission of the Berkeley free clinic (support them via donations here), and wanted to share a snippet of their Principles of Unity:
“We believe health care is a right, not a privilege.
We maintain that health care should be available at a level and quality sufficient to meet the basic needs of everyone regardless of race, sex, age, or income level.
We view health as encompassing the total well-being of a person including physical, emotional, and environmental needs.
We are strongly opposed to health care delivery as a profit-making industry.
The existing health care institutions monopolize the means of production of health care (knowledge, equipment, hospitals, personnel), and use them for profit of private doctors, the drug and hospital supply industry, and professional and corporate interests; they pursue profit-making at the expense and detriment of the people they claim to serve.”
tech x energize x structural care
🌱 [Read] Blockchain and Universal Health Coverage. To energize as structural care is to have comprehensive universal healthcare. As such, when I recently came across this paper on how blockchain & crytpo could “usher in an era of global health equity and universal health coverage”, I was intrigued. At a high-level, the paper proposes the following:
“Ways in which this potential disruption of traditional global health funding mechanisms could occur:
Universal access to financing through direct transactions without third parties
Novel new multilateral financing mechanisms
Increased security and reduced fraud and corruption
The opportunity for open markets for healthcare data that drive discovery and innovation.”
🌱 [Read] Understanding the impact of race in medicine. To envision next systems that support comprehensive universal healthcare, whether that be via blockchain or not, is to also recognize the harms perpetuated by the current system. For those looking to read more about this, check out this google doc with readings on race, medicine, & more.
For a more visual walkthrough of some of the books mentioned on the above reading list, check out this thread!
🎁 Care.pkg
Inspired by the concept of the Gift Economy, the goal here is to support and amplify anything you’re working on, thinking about, or want to share along the lines of tech x care.
If you want to be featured in next week’s issue, reply to this email and let me know!
🏃🏻♀️ [ICYMI] Sign up for the Sunday Sweat, c/o Susie. Susie is an amazing friend, personal trainer, and badass workout buddy (and a kind soul in the Tech Care community!) who is creating the “Sunday Sweat” — a free, 45-min workout plan delivered to your inbox every Sunday. You can sign up for it here!
👩🏻💻 Tech Care, Tech Action
To take care is to also take action — creating space for mutual aid
If you have more mutual aid funds + networks to add, hit reply and let me know or directly comment them on the thread via Twitter!
If you donate to any of the below mutual aid funds, hit reply and let me know and I’ll make sure I do what I can to support you too ❤️
💌 Take care,
Michelle