Welcome to edition 4 of what is still the first publication of its kind in the world! We have grown in readership, distribution and participation and are steadily becoming a truly global collaborative platform…all made possible by the collective YOU! HELLO READER As we wind down in 2023, with 11 months in the rear-view mirror, it does not escape me how tired we are as a sector. I find myself keenly anticipating a moment in which things quieten down sufficiently for us to breathe, rest and rejuvenate and I, for one, am really frustrated with the feeling of always running on empty. I sometimes joke that I’m running on grace because I’ve run out of fuel, but it is truer than I honestly want to admit. This has brought me to thinking about self-care. It’s a notion that we scatter around like confetti – a quick one liner to temporarily brighten up the inner space, but then within minutes it’s blown away by the winds of circumstance. Earlier this year MWI published the summary findings of a national research project on healing and GBV. Within those findings a devastating insight emerged – almost half of those who work in the GBV Response Sector are themselves GBV survivors. Obviously more research must be done, but if this suggestive finding is remotely accurate, then we have some harsh realities to face up to as a sector. The most prominent of which is that working-trauma adjacent as many of us do, is constantly retraumatising. We are working to help others who are frequently mirrors to us, and perhaps not fully finding an opportunity to do our own healing which, of course, is the real definition of self-care. As a sector in general, we have given ourselves permission to engage only the surface of self- care such as bubble-baths and a glass of wine or a spa day. Yet truly caring for yourself is so much more and so much deeper that the fleeting surface acts we have become accustomed to.
CEO'S carried too much for too long. Maybe it’s time to hear and answer the call for kindness, mercy and gentleness. The December break may be a good time to start practicing. Take good care of your-self. You are entirely deserving. I also commit to listening to my body, which has very sternly told me that 8 hours of sleep is non-negotiable, and dairy is not my friend. I know its hard for you to put yourself first. I know there are beneficiaries, participants, staff and family that you prioritise above yourself, and I am not asking you to shift that at all. But perhaps, your body has been through enough; your mind has I suggest, perhaps controversially, that for many of us our wounding is very deep, having caused such profound rifts and fractures between our minds and our bodies, that we are only vaguely aware of what we really need to thrive. We may have longing for those things, but don’t feel capable of calling them into being. As an example, I long for a full week or two by myself in the mountains, to breathe and commune with God and nature, but feel unable to give myself permission to do that. Yet I know it’s exactly what I need. My commitment to my own self – care as of right now, is to get back into hiking, even if it’s a day trip. To sing aloud more often, and not only in the shower. To laugh and play with my children until there’s grass stuck in my hair and mud behind my ears.
SPOTLIGHT
CEO: Mental Wellness Initiative Collective Action Magazine
November 2023 | Collective Action Magazine
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