Challenges: Despair and burnout, and they're interrelated: One feeds the other. The greatest offering an activist can make is a positive vision, painting a picture of a new world and shepherding us there. But when we let despair and negativity overwhelm us, that's not possible. A positive vision helps people do the work in a more balanced way. Activism is not a balanced lifestyle - it never has been - but it can be livable. I have an ax to grind on this because the way that many people do activism is such that you can only do it in your 20s and 30s, when you have fewer responsibilities, so that means you grow no healthy elders. Reinventing activism from a place of love means being able to have an activist culture in which you can do this as a lifelong practice.
Practices: The only thing I truly do every day - and I teach people this - is a meditation in the shower, because I know I'll be there every day. I also do several spiritual retreats each year, sing in a weekly community choir, do yoga, and dance. I tell people to do whatever spiritual practices they can do and try to bring this into their work and into their lives. We do a little meditation before our staff meetings
here.
Karen is the executive director of the Holyhock Leadership Institute which has a mission to reinvent social change activism so that it is deeply informed by spiritual traditions. She has also worked for Greenpeace.
Yes, if you shower mindfully rather than in a stupor, it becomes a meditation. And both dance and yoga are meditative practices. Get creative! Make meditation an integral part of your everyday life no matter what you do for a living.
If you are observing Christmas tonight, may it be a truly joyful and blessed occasion for you. Peace on earth, good will to all people!
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