Shared path
For over a year, I have been conducting consultations to support activists as part of the Burnout Aid project which aims to help prevent burnout. These meetings are extremely touching and enriching for me, bringing a new perspective and leading to conclusions about both the mechanisms of burnout and ways to protect oneself against it. I invite you to reflect together on how you can take care of yourself to act effectively, sustainably, and from the heart.
One life
I am amazed at how easily activists can separate their professional life from their personal life. Some of them discuss their personal lives only during therapy and their professional lives only during coaching. Do you also tend to do so?
Such a distinction can turn out very beneficial for you if it helps you regenerate and take care of your relationships, e.g. family bonds, when you choose not to talk about work at home to be there for your loved ones.
However, it is impossible to completely separate these two spheres because you are still the same person, with your own habits and predispositions that reach far back in your past. Relational patterns taken from the family home tend to repeat themselves throughout life – including at work – often in harmful and exhausting ways.
For this reason, if any professional relationship particularly bothers you, you can ask yourself if you can recall a similar pattern from your past. When you notice that certain situations recur, it is worth discussing them with a psychologist, psychotherapist, or coach – this will help you understand your own reactions and find alternative ways of acting.
Your self-awareness is the first step toward change. It will help you make choices that serve you better wherever you are.
Awareness of your needs
Let's start with the basics. Why do you think I ask the people I work with about their habits related to basic physiological functions? Well, it turns out that activists are often so absorbed in their work that they literally tune out their bodies' needs, such as sleep, nutrition, and even bathroom breaks. They are constantly on high alert, eat on the go, and hold off going to the toilet until the end of a meeting, sometimes even for an entire day. For the others, eating and drinking are just another tasks on their long to-do lists – they eat regularly and drink two liters of water a day, but they do it mechanically, disconnected from their needs and the signals from their bodies. Both groups usually realize their needs only during the therapy session, after they pause and take a few deep breaths. They become aware that their feet are cold. They begin to feel tension in the body, hunger, and sometimes even pain. Does it sound familiar to you?
Do you know why breathing is so important? It is the gateway to our physical sensations and emotions. When your breath is shallow (or when you hold your breath), this gateway closes. Then, what happens in the heart, abdomen, and pelvis does not reach the head, and thus your consciousness.
Shallow breathing and holding your breath are very valuable in emergencies because they help you survive and cope with extreme situations. There is no room to worry about hunger or rest when a bear attacks you in the forest. However, when this condition persists for a long time, it can lead to serious health consequences such as burnout, anxiety-depressive states, autoimmune diseases, or sleep problems.
The signals from your body are like a language through which it communicates with you. They are a sign that something essential needs our attention. If you skip them, unmet needs do not disappear. Instead, they accumulate and, over time, lead to overload or even exhaustion.
Breathing is a way to regain contact with your body. When you stop for a moment and take a few calm and deep breaths, you may notice that your stomach is tense, your jaws are clenched, perhaps tears will appear in your eyes. These are the places where your emotions leave their mark. First, you need to recognize them and consider them important. Only then can you explore the needs behind them, such as proximity and acceptance. It is essential to notice and accept your emotions and needs in order to take care of yourself.
If you are working beyond your limits, try to find out why. Perhaps you are trying to escape: from conflicts at home, from a critical voice telling you that you are not doing enough, or from difficult experiences from your past. Such a costly defense mechanism, while protecting you from suffering, gradually takes away your health. When you realize this, it is worth reaching out to a psychotherapist or a coach for support to find another way.
Changing your approach to work
Perfectionism, an excessive need for control, or a sense of omnipotence can all contribute to burnout. Some people are convinced that they cannot allow themselves to take a vacation. They are afraid that the organization will not survive without them. They also do not want to delegate tasks, believing that no one else can do them right.
Activists often strive for the ideal they have imagined, paying a disproportionate price in the form of frustration and no free time. Although they do not ask for help, they still feel hurt when they do not receive it. Over time, they become overwhelmed with their responsibilities and lose their desire to work.
The key to regaining balance is letting go – accepting that something can already be good enough, even if it is not perfect. If you are aware of your perfectionism, you can choose: either you spend another four hours polishing the project or you admit that it is so perfectly imperfect or you admit that it is so perfectly imperfect that you can leave it and go meet your friends. You can also choose to delegate the task to someone else. For sure, they will do it differently, but that does not mean they will do it wrong. It is up to you whether you prioritize yourself and your well-being or sacrifice it for work.
The people I work with are often shocked when I tell them that it is unlikely that their organization will not survive without them. You may have the feeling that everything will collapse without you, too. My experience and knowledge tell me that even in a crisis, teams find a way to cope. They often discover new ways of acting, learn to cooperate better, share responsibility, and thus become more resilient and independent. Someone who lets go of excessive control gains space for rest and regeneration as well as a fresh perspective on their situation.
Setting boundaries
When reflecting on perfectionism, we cannot overlook setting boundaries. Sometimes activists complain that they receive emails at 10 p.m. or phone calls from work when they are on vacation. They feel frustrated, hurt, and experience a sense of injustice. You may have similar experiences. In such situations, anger is completely natural because it signals that one of your boundaries has been crossed. However, what you do next with this anger is a different matter. Will you stay silent, waiting for someone to figure out that they have done something unacceptable to you? Or will you act as if nothing happened for the sake of good relationships in the team? By denying your anger and agreeing to things that harm or hurt you, you take away your right to be valued and noticed. When you communicate your boundaries clearly and directly, you show those around you what is okay with you and what is not. Instead of waiting for others to take the initiative, you take responsibility into your own hands.
Reaching out for support
It saddens me to hear the stories of those who carry out crisis interventions or support people experiencing displacement and war trauma, while having no access to professional supervision. I have the impression that giving your all to others and forgetting about yourself is very common in our environment. In such a situation, there is a risk of secondary trauma – a phenomenon which occurs in those who work in helping professions when they do not receive sufficient support themselves. It results in emotional, psychological, and social burden arising from close contact with people experiencing trauma. On a plane, we put on our own oxygen mask before we start helping others – and there is a reason for that. Supervision allows you to vent your emotions, look at the situation from a different angle, and, above all, provides support and reduces the feeling of isolation in the face of suffering.
Support networks
Strong support networks help you stay balanced, give you energy, and remind you that we are not alone in challenging moments. Take care of relationships with people who can support you in both your personal and professional life. Create support groups within the activist community and make use of them – sharing experiences and looking for solutions together minimizes the risk of burnout. If this is not enough, reach out for professional support from a coach, psychologist, psychotherapist, or psychiatrist.
A job like any other
What else can you do to take care of yourself in the activist world? Following the path of being aware of your own needs and making choices, you can ask yourself what other profession or place you could work in.
Simply being aware that working in your current organization is not your only option brings relief and strengthens your sense of self-determination. However, sometimes this is not sufficient and the best solution is to change to a job that creates a more supportive environment or better meets your needs.
Summary
Awareness of your needs, breathing, rest, and support from others are essential for burnout prevention. Perfectionism and a lack of boundaries drain your energy, so it is worth learning to let go and ask for help. Taking care of yourself in activism is not selfishness; it is a must to be able to act effectively.
