How can you address and prevent burnout and compassion fatigue in your inclusive advocacy and activism work?

Burnout and compassion fatigue are both reality of many employees today, but to keep the bills sorted, they try to manage. To avoid these two factors, - Identify your stressors and prevent them from activating. - Set your boundaries, know when to stop engagements. - Work on yourself, take break, workout, eat well. - Connect to circle of friends that understand your situation and good enough to offer you comfort. - Get a mentor and a counselor to offer you guidance when needed for your mental and physical balance.

In order to address the burnout and compassion fatigue 1 Prioritize self care by following practices such as promoting physical, emotional and mental well being in routine. 2 Set boundaries round time, energy and emotional investment 3 Build support network of colleagues, friends and mentors who understand challenge of advocacy work 4 Take breaks, prioritize well being and ask for help, Practice self compassion 5 Pay attention to sign of stress and burnout such as irritation, fatigue or emotional outburst By focusing on maintaining a healthy work life balance between professional and personal commitments, avoid overcommitting on single cause. Developing resilience by cultivating adaptive coping strategies, maintaining sense of purpose

The key differences between burnout and fatigue are simple: Source of Stress: Burnout stems from general work overload and chronic stress , while compassion fatigue is caused specifically by being exposed to other people's trauma . Focus: Burnout affects a person's overall well-being and motivation for any aspect of life, while compassion fatigue is more centered on feelings of empathy and secondary trauma .

First, I prioritise self-care by setting boundaries and ensuring I take regular breaks to recharge. It’s essential to recognise the signs of burnout early, such as emotional exhaustion and reduced performance, and take proactive steps to address them. I also practice delegation, sharing the workload with others to prevent overwhelm. Engaging in peer support and supervision provides a space to discuss challenges and gain perspective. Continuous learning and reflection help to maintain passion and prevent fatigue. Lastly, celebrating small victories and progress reminds us of the impact of our efforts, keeping motivation and morale high.

To combat burnout and compassion fatigue in inclusive advocacy, recognize early signs like exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced compassion. Prioritize self-care: adequate rest, mindfulness practices, and setting boundaries. Regularly assess personal well-being and seek support networks. Foster inclusivity by valuing diverse perspectives, ensuring equitable participation, and addressing systemic issues collectively. Remember, sustaining your passion requires balancing commitment with self-preservation.

Recognizing burnout and compassion fatigue involves noticing physical (fatigue, insomnia), mental (difficulty concentrating), emotional (irritability, sadness), and behavioral (withdrawal, substance abuse) changes. Symptoms like loss of faith or existential crisis may also occur. If you observe these signs in yourself or others, it's crucial to seek support.

If someone is perceived as 'nice', people tend to look out for them; giving that person grace and sympathy - encouraging them to slow down. However, someone can be kind, good, compassionate AND not perceived as 'nice', which is a bias that happens too often. Those people don't get the same compassion; missing the opportunity for support and deepening the negative impact. For Example: Change management leaders need inclusive team behaviors toward common goals; often the growth and development of people & business. They can be passionate advocates. Burnout & compassion fatigue is possible. Being perceived as 'tough' is possible. Isolation is possible. Although self-awareness is key, support is always needed when it comes to mental health.

Burnout often manifests as chronic fatigue, irritability, decreased satisfaction and effectiveness, and detachment from the cause you once felt passionate about. Compassion fatigue can appear as emotional numbness, excessive sadness or anger in response to others' suffering, and difficulty feeling empathy. Both can lead to a sense of hopelessness and isolation. Acknowledging these signs early is key to addressing them. It’s important to monitor your emotional and physical responses to your work regularly, creating a habit of self-reflection to identify when these feelings start to emerge. This awareness allows you to take proactive steps to manage your well-being and maintain your commitment to your advocacy and activism work effectively.

Recognizing burnout and compassion fatigue is crucial. Watch for physical signs like fatigue and headaches, along with emotional symptoms like irritability and sadness. Seeking support early is key. Remember, addressing these issues isn't a sign of weakness, but strength. Take breaks when needed, prioritize self-care, and set boundaries to prevent burnout. Engage in activities that recharge your energy, whether it's spending time in nature or practicing mindfulness. Surround yourself with a supportive community that understands the challenges of advocacy work. Regularly check in with yourself and others, offering a listening ear and empathy. By prioritizing our well-being, we can sustain our advocacy efforts for the long term.

Everyone has a limit. Even those with seemingly limitless energy. Try to spread the love. Delegate tasks across the team to ensure any one team member doesn't get overloaded.

This requires tons of self-awareness. Know your limits, and have actionable boundaries with others and the information you ingest. Prioritize self-care, delegate when needed, and take breaks. Listening and adapting are key to preventing burnout. Stay connected to your purpose but remain flexible in your approach.

How I cope with Burnout and compassion fatigue 1 - Sleep 8 hours a day 2 - Keep myself hydrated through the day 3 - Speak to other advocates about challenges &successes 4 - speak about my challenges 5 - Take a break every 45 minutes -stretch, refreshments etc 6 - It helps me to deal with loose ends

I'd love to see advocacy communities begin to embrace approaches that center community care and accountability to establishing and supporting each others boundaries and rest. Self care is important, but can frequently send the message that there is no role for community as we seek rest and restoration.

Hi, I’m Pete. I’ve dealt with burnout and compassion fatigue, especially from “masking” my autism. Masking is when we hide our natural behaviors to fit in, which is exhausting. Over time, this can lead to severe burnout. Constantly masking drains your energy and leaves you feeling overwhelmed. To manage this, embrace your true self and practice self-compassion. Find supportive environments where you can be yourself. Connect with others who understand your experiences and seek professional help if needed. Limit masking where you can, and prioritize your mental health. It’s okay to take breaks and put your well-being first. Balancing authenticity with societal expectations is crucial to reducing burnout.

One thing I’ve found when it comes to burnout and compassion fatigue is that challenging negative thoughts by changing my language and practice mindfulness always help restore me. Revisiting my language around equity expansion (versus inclusion) and the importance of being available in this space helps restore my compassion. Remembering that it’s not all about me, but about the opportunity to impact change for others even when they’re not aware of the specific systemic barriers being addressed, restores my commitment. Mindfulness exercises help me identify where in my body I’m feeling the impact from fatigue and anxiety from this journey, and attend to my mental health and clarity. That self care keeps me grounded.

To prevent burnout and compassion fatigue, it’s important to be clear about what you can control and what’s outside of your control. Sometimes that means thinking creatively about how you might solve a problem or breaking up the solution into phases, as you move towards ideal state.

- Early Recognition: Identify early signs like chronic exhaustion, cynicism, reduced satisfaction, and detachment. - Prioritize Self-Care. Create Support Networks: Establish support systems within and outside your advocacy circles. - Manage Workload - Continuous Learning Inclusivity in Practice: Ensure equitable participation and value diverse perspectives within your team or organization. Reflection and Adaptation: Regularly assess strategies for inclusivity and wellness, adapting them to meet evolving needs and challenges.

Self-awareness is crucial to preventing or treating burnout. We need to be aware of our signs of burnout, but we also need to practice self-care and self-compassion every day. Our self-care efforts should be proportional to the level of stress we are experiencing. The more we're experiencing stress, the more we need to be taking care of ourselves. Self-compassion is important to be kind and understanding about our stress--not to beat ourselves up over it.

If the desire in the work of EDAI is to foster inclusivity in our advocacy and activism work, then some of the things we can do include continuous education; amplifying the voices of marginalized communities/groups; collaborating with diverse groups from the inception of work related to EDAI; center intersectionality - humans are not one dimensional and as such our understanding has to be multi-faceted; name, challenge and speak up/out about privilege and bias and seek opportunities to continuously reflect and adapt. Including some of the above concepts is a great step in creating more inclusive and equitable workplaces/spaces where all individuals have the opportunity to thrive.