The Commons Social Change Library’s well-being theme includes a wide range of materials, including articles, videos, and podcasts. These highlights in the collection include strategies that focus on personal strategies (‘self-care’), but also organizational, collective and mobility strategies (including ‘community care’).
In the rush to tackle social injustice, environmental degradation and many other pressing issues, our own health and well-being can be brought back. We hope that following the strategies explored in these resources can help you stay healthy and decent as you work to change the world.
You can access each resource by clicking on the title. See much more in the section Wellness on common.
We consider ourselves activists
Activist wisdom came from a survey of nearly 200 people on how we could sustain ourselves as activists. This is a good list of practical techniques and quotes from those who were there.
Deal with the three biggest challenges of self-care
These videos demonstrate skills in dealing with common self-care issues: limited time; Have a bad conscience; and actually does not work to feed or sustain ourselves. A useful model for understanding and avoiding activist burns from the Transitions Towns movement. Includes a downloadable spreadsheet with reflection questions.
Social organizers (and other change agents) have good tools that increase the likelihood of achieving healthy goals. This article will adjust your organization’s intelligence as well as your health and well-being. Enormous events happen, and depending on our degree of privilege, daily stressors can be constant. Spending time developing resources that support health, performance, affection, and feelings of goodness is incredibly rewarding. This guide covers trauma activity; any signs and symptoms that may indicate trauma; what you can do for yourself; how to support a friend what you can do as a group; birth control; and issues related to Maori activism and police abuse.
In the face of the climate crisis, it is a natural response to experiencing fear, sadness and many other emotions. This collection of resources focuses on the emotional and psychological effects of climate change and coping strategies. Your body, your mind and your spirit, like those around you, have basic needs in this climate crisis. A sense of security is needed for calm, tranquility and soil. You need to feel motivated, competent, inclusive and productive. The need for connectivity and device. Follow your thoughts, cultivate useful resources, and see how it can support your commitment to climate change. – Psychology for a safe climate
Find up and down social movements
We tend to talk about activist exhaustion as an individual experience – but Bill Moyer’s plan of action, the framework for understanding social movements, the factors that influence the perception of failure, the movement of insight and the hope of movement.
There may be periods of intense activity where new members rush to join the cause and the kinetic energy swelling. But these extraordinary times are often followed by long, declining periods as the number of activists declines. During these breaks, those who have tasted euphoria at the top will feel depressed and pessimistic. Ups and downs of social movements can be difficult to explain by the weather.
