Activists Discharging Together
I attended the recent Healing from War Workshop in Poland and ended up leading the activists’ group.
I said that our being together was a special and dear opportunity to look at material[1] we don’t often get a chance to look at. I also said the following: We are already activists—we don’t need to be any different to be “real” activists. What we do makes a lot of difference. We hold out hopefulness for other people. We try to be encouraging and positive. We are awesome and cool.[2] We dare to care so much. We also often do more than makes sense and burn out[3] as a result, even with all the sessions we have. We need to learn how to take good care of ourselves and have good lives while being activists. We need places where we can show how helpless and discouraged we often feel, without worrying that others will get confused. We often hold back from showing our fears to others, including other activists, because we don’t want to scare them and because they rarely have good attention to listen to our fears.
We split the time,[4] and everyone looked straight at where they were struggling, taking the group with them. I could notice and feel how much I love activists, how excited I am about us, and how much I respect us and our work. Loving each and every person set the tone and helped people discharge deeply.
With love and appreciation to all past, current, and potential activists,
“Rooi Teve”
[1] “Material” means distress.
[2] “Cool” means great, wonderful.
[3] “Burn out” means become completely exhausted from overwork.
[4] “Split the time” means took equal turns having the group’s attention.