I'll be honest and share with you that in the beginning, I didn't make all of these connections. I started thinking I wanted to help women replenish themselves. For almost seven years up until 2011 was the Director of an International Non-Governmental Organisation (INGO) and I got burned out doing all the things. I didn't know how to take care of myself, and eventually left my job to take … [Read more...] about What do I mean by Wellbeing? And why do I connect it to Impact and Collective Care?
Resisting the commoditisation of self-care & building our capacity for collective care
I see some of what is happening, in particular online, around ‘self-care’ as a commodification and the development of a kind of ‘self-care’ industry that sells us stuff so that we can meet a need that the ‘do-it-all’ culture around us is creating. To me this is a capitalistic notion of self-care in which we buy something to fill a gap. In this model looking after ourselves is yet another thing we … [Read more...] about Resisting the commoditisation of self-care & building our capacity for collective care
Thousands of passionate people and a few ‘bad eggs’?
The recent story about Oxfam’s handling of abuse that happened in Chad and Haiti feels like the #MeToo moment for the charity sector which we knew would come. We knew it would come because we know these kinds of abuse are everywhere. We (as a sector) are neither uniquely flawed nor, uniquely infallible. It’s right and proper that there is scrutiny of what charities get up to and how they … [Read more...] about Thousands of passionate people and a few ‘bad eggs’?
Dear Exhausted Woman, who wants to change the world. It’s OK to rest.
Take your shoes off, sit down and make yourself comfortable. Switch off your phone (yep!), the notifications, the updates, the noise. I want to share some things with you To whisper these things in your ear Like the wind So they'll be with you Next time and every time you need to hear them First of all I want to honour your busyness, I want to honour all the ways in which you have been … [Read more...] about Dear Exhausted Woman, who wants to change the world. It’s OK to rest.
A Recipe for Radical Resilience
#1 Your capacity for resilience (meaning the extent to which you are filled up & supported) is a gift to others. A gift. You can’t be the change that you want to see unless you cultivate your own resilience through the habit of replenishing yourself and dedication to respecting your own needs as well as those of others. #2 Creating change isn’t something that, in the long term. we can just … [Read more...] about A Recipe for Radical Resilience