Whether you care about and campaign for human, animal or environmental issues, there are many challenges facing activists. Governments and big businesses collude to try to ensure the latter are allowed to carry out whatever atrocities they deem necessary to turn a profit. New laws under the auspices of saving us from ‘terrorism’ are being used to snare compassionate people who know it’s wrong to torture humans and animals and poison the planet. In this climate of fear and ‘bully-boy’ politics, it’s no wonder some activists experience feelings of stress, depression, trauma or fear.
Psychotherapist and long-time US activist Pattrice Jones has addressed this in her new book, Aftershock, which offers a range of practical advice and tips for activists on how to avoid burnout and maintain a healthy mental state.
“We have to take care of each other,” Jones tells CHERRIE. “We have to really listen to each other and to the people we are trying to organise. We have to make our organisations welcoming and sustaining places because we are doing dangerous work in a dangerous world.”
Keeping our bodies and minds in good working order is, therefore, essential Jones argues. “You will be much better able to bear stress if you are well-fed, well-rested, hydrated, and getting enough fresh air and exercise. Take care of your relationships. Share your thoughts and feelings with other activists and then listen with generosity and empathy when they share theirs. Seize and savour any happiness, however slight, that comes your way. Express and release, rather than ignore and store, your feelings of fear or frustration.
“Recognise your grief and anger as resources that motivate and give energy to your activism. Most importantly, know that you are not alone in your feelings or in the struggle. Even if you're engaged in solo undercover activism, other activists are with you in spirit, wishing you well and ready to catch you if you fall. I'm one of them.
Recognising the connections between causes and working together is key, Jones continues. “Whether the problem you're trying to fix is gay bashing, sex trafficking, vivisection, or water pollution, you'll find some kind of unnatural division or violation at the root. Those divisions cut us off from each other, other animals, the environment, and ourselves. That estrangement allows us to do terrible things to each other, other animals, the environment, and ourselves. Those terrible things tear us further apart in a vicious cycle of separation and violation.
“Two by two, dozen by dozen, hundred by hundred, million by million, we've got to put ourselves and our world back together again. We'll be better able to do that the better able we are to make genuine connections with other activists and to see the connections between what might seem at first to be separate struggles. Do what you can and have faith that others are doing the same.”
Aftershock is published by Lantern Books. Visit www.pattricejones.info for more details.
Whether you care about and campaign for human, animal or environmental issues, there are many challenges facing activists. Governments and big businesses collude to try to ensure the latter are allowed to carry out whatever atrocities they deem necessary to turn a profit. New laws under the auspices of saving us from ‘terrorism’ are being used to snare compassionate people who know it’s wrong to torture humans and animals and poison the planet. In this climate of fear and ‘bully-boy’ politics, it’s no wonder some activists experience feelings of stress, depression, trauma or fear.
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