Surfacing from my dense college workload to get caught up on the current political situation used to feel like coming up for air. In the last few months, however, it’s felt a bit more like the opposite- Drowning. Everyday holds an overload of information about distressing and disturbing political actions: Bills set to defund the EPA, the Department of Education, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a second and still horrid immigrant ban, threats on our health care, the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget calling climate change “a waste of money”, outrageous claims from the President about former President Obama wiretapping his office, and around the country, a persistence in hate crimes that target a range of communities: women, transgender citizens, Jewish families, Muslim citizens/ anyone that ‘looks Middle Eastern’... If Trump wanted to sell us on the idea of the “American carnage”, all he had to do was look into the future a few months and watch his own administration help unravel the seams.

But this article isn’t here to harp solely on the ruinous actions and influences of a number of federal actors, as scary and terrible as they are. I want to focus instead on some of the small but essential actions we can take on a regular basis in response to this maelstrom of political chaos and injustice. When you’re going to school for most of the day, or working 9 to 5, it may seem impossible to muster the strength and time to get anything done in terms of resisting hate and promoting goodwill.

That’s why I’m advocating for Ten Minutes of Change. This is a call to take ten or more minutes out of your day in order to do something positively influential for yourself and others. I’m talking to everyone, including those swamped with work. I know it’s especially rough for us to maneuver from focusing on the day-to-day to activism; it’s like straddling the issues of two different worlds. But we’re facing a volatile world of choices, political ramifications, and even simple things you do on your own can make a difference if you utilize your resources.

1. Ten Minutes of Knowledge: Look up current issues that are going on in the country, but really look into them, past the Facebook headlines and political quips. Read the articles themselves, and try to verify what is the truth in the situation and what are the different perspectives or ‘sides’ for the topic. Make use of reputable and verifiable news sources like the BBC and New York Times, rather than just CNN or Huffington Post. This gives you a credible edge for your arguments, and may allow you to see from a neutral standpoint. Look deeper than the blaring headlines to deeper issues taking place. You don’t have to connect dots in the hopes of unraveling some conspiracy (trust me, enough people are already doing that), but there are news you can easily miss by sticking to stories of front-page legislative action and executive drama. Did you know that Congressvoted to allow aerial hunting of bears and wolves near their den and while hibernating?Or that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is going far out of their way to arrest law-abiding and upstanding American residents?

But as I mentioned, we have to focus on more than just the negatives, because for all the vitriol and violence there is out there, kindness and diversity still occurs. Here's a news story about a foster care father who adopts terminally-ill children. Here'san article about how Sesame Street is introducing a puppet with autism, to help other children understand behaviors of those on the spectrum. Lastly is a recent USA Today piece about Pope Francis distinguishing between Islam and extremism and terrorism.

2. Ten Minutes of Understanding: Now, delve deeper than just news stories to look into different groups and communities beyond your own experience. Do so carefully, being sure to actually be attentive to who is producing the content (ideally, someone within the community itself), but also with an open mind to ideas outside your own. If you’re male, go see the movie 'Hidden Figures', look up historical icons of ‘Women’s Month’, and/or follow prominent feminist bloggers. Find a local women’s rights group if there is one in your town. If you’re cisgender/ or cisexual, offer to be a part of a local LGBTQ group as an observing ally and supporter, groups like METRO Health offer volunteer opportunities and information. See if your city has a Pride event or screens movies with LGBTQ actors or themes (avoiding ones that butcher history like the recent ‘Stonewall’ movie).

Try going out of your way to talk to those of different ethnicities and races, not to find a ‘token’ friend, but to develop a connection with different people. Look into local issues affecting non-white communities in your area, like profiling, workplace discrimination, and/or exorbitant arrests and shooting. Find a black advocacy group, look into the ACLU, and be sure to watch the horror movie 'Get Out’, a sharp and sobering take on white microaggressions. Try having a good and substantial conversation with someone outside your political or religious affiliation, even if you don’t discuss politics nor religion. Try going to a church, temple, or mosque service nearby; open yourself up to new and uncomfortable circumstances. And if you’re hailing from liberal, progressive ideologies that reject middle American rust belt towns as inherently racist and unsalvageable, you yourself are missing a point–– try looking into the problems that plague these areas, with a loss of industry, jobs, and population.

3. Ten Minutes of Action: If you’re able to go further than the suggestions above, that’s great, because more is needed. At this point, you can look up what you can do for other individuals and groups in your community. Charities are often a good first step, but there’s caution involved, and often just giving money is insufficient, and may even be counterproductive depending on the organization that’s receiving the money. Try using the Charity Navigator website to find the best sources of giving, and look further into the charity group’s message and goal. Often, charities may give relief aid to war-torn or disaster-affected regions of the world like Syria and Haiti without considering long-term consequences or infrastructural support that’s needed.

Besides this danger, you may also decide to help a local activist/advocacy organization or community organization designated towards helping indisposed or disadvantaged citizens. Here too, be careful of good intentions paving the way to misguided actions. Often, as an outsider looking in on a group, you may have ideas and suggestions that are inappropriate, or take away the voices of those in the community themselves. For a cautious guide against this kind of outside interference, read Jordan Flaherty’s ‘No More Heroes: Grassroots Challenges to the Savior Mentality’’.

In the meantime, just go into another community offering respect, understanding, and a lending hand if needed, and in small ways. Ask those people within the community if they need any help, and how you can be a part of it, and be humble enough to stand out of the spotlight. Look up local advocacy groups that work with the community themselves, and not just outside ‘representatives’. And be sure that the organization you’re a part of is and their programs actually helping those it’s involved with. For instance, while the advocacy organization Autism Speaks does help fund research into and awareness of the people on the spectrum, they’ve traditionally approached mental illness as a ‘disease’ to be cured.

Lastly, try to make sure the action you’re engaging in is as intersectional as it reasonably can be. If there’s a protest for women’s rights, there should be open policy for non-caucasian women. The same should apply for any community: Pride rallies involving transgender, queer, and bisexual individuals, and environmental activism involving Native American spokespeople. If such diversity is lacking, speak up for diversity and plurality. Just do so respectfully and with a willingness to listen.

4. Ten Minutes of Kindness: This is a much more personal and yet general goal. Do something good for an individual in your life you care about, or even a total stranger–– Reach out to a dedicated friend to give them support and encouragement, go out of your way to help a street panhandlers with money or by buying them a meal, or make friends with restaurant servers, cleaning crews, and regular joes who make up an essential part of your day-to-day life whether you notice them or not. Basically, offer peace and positivity to those around you. This is both the most accessible and hardest task to fall into, because while it allows the busiest of people an easy opportunity to make a difference, there is so much negativity and loneliness to find these days.

This is all not to say to give flowers to a Neo-Nazi group affiliate nor offer a member of the alt-right an olive branch. They may deserve to speak and express themselves, and you may engage them in discussion, but understand that their fundamental goals typically involve advantaging a majority group over others; that shouldn’t be acceptable. But at the same time, if we hope to go from feelings of being overwhelmed and hopeless to a place of inspiration and determination, we have to accept the many voices talking at once in our country, listen to them, and respond in ways that allow them their dues.

This crosses roads with other ‘Ten Minute’ territories. When you see, for instance, an African American or Muslim American unfairly raged at in a public place, call out the aggressor and help support the victim, providing defense comfort if needed; that’s kindness and action. Send a letter of praise to companies like Kellogg's who have promised to stop funding hate in their advertising.

Ten minutes may feel like a long time to the on-the-go student or day worker, but it’s relatively short when one becomes involved in community action and activism that interests and impassions them. Find a good cause, look into it, and get creative about how you can help. Did you know that there are online video game livestreams that donate money to hospitals? Or that there are haircutting and dressing services for the homeless in different parts of the U.S. to help the indigent find jobs? There is so much out there worth fighting for–– don’t let a lack of time or spirit keep you from such prospects.