When it comes to giving advice on self-care, I think I do a great job but when it comes to me putting it into practice, I get a B+. Not bad but not impressive either considering how important self-care is for anybody. Haha!

As a human rights activist, I find that self-care is easy to overlook. This is because activists tend to be selfless people who are geared more towards helping others than themselves. Activists tend to be ardent readers and very engaged in community work.

During the first year of my blog’s creation, I blogged every week. As time went on, I then changed the pattern to every two weeks. Now that I work with the Red Cross as a Case Worker for the wildfires recovery operation in Fort McMurray, Canada, I blog every 3 weeks. Essentially, the intervals at which I blog, changed with time in order for me to incorporate adequate free time to my usually busy schedule. These days, if I read an article on war/poverty/hate that hurts and nearly provokes me to tears, I may share it on social media but I may not expatiate on it except with a family member who can comfort me in the process. Self-care is important, friends.

During the times when I blogged every week, I found myself to be more furious about issues that I wrote about. I found myself also putting a lot of pressure on me, to write on a certain issue at a particular time of the month, rather than postpone. I still get furious at issues of social injustice going on around the world, however, I have learnt that for me, sometimes rushing to write on those issues, makes me very tense and worked up in the writing process. I learnt that I can channel my immediate anger through tweets, Facebook posts or by sharing news articles on an issue. Nothing is too little indeed. Positive awareness-making is positive awareness-making.

For activists, self-care is so important. There is need to create a balance in such a way that you still are compassionate but are able to grieve without constantly diminishing your strength and increasing your stress levels. For example, people who work in disaster management/recovery like myself are very often given training on self-care. You will face trauma in the field of your work, so there should be an action plan to balance the trauma with self-care.

A self-care plan will look different for different people. You can have a family member or buddy who you can discuss social injustice issues with. You can have a sort of review club that meets at intervals and during these meetings, you can discuss your worries as an activist and be heard, comforted and supported by others. And, on social media, do not always engage with trolls who are bent on shaming you for caring and for doing what is right.

While I gave myself a B+ on self-care, I have come a long way in handling my emotions as a human rights activist and in balancing my engagements with community work – in such a way that I give myself opportunity to breathe from the trauma that often comes with being a social justice advocate. This in no way means that I have stopped to care. I will never stop caring.

Self-care is important, friends. Make your own self-care plan. If there are any human rights activists reading this, do you have a self-care plan that you implement, to balance the work that you do? If yes, please do share your plan in the Comments section, if you want to. 🙂

Love,
Chiamaka