This year was intense. Just when borders were reopening after a long and trying global pandemic, the war in Ukraine hit us all unexpected. We were plunged into more crises to battle with — growing food shortage, energy crisis, environmental collapse… How many of us have been trying to catch our breaths as we entered an endemic, yet found ourselves with no time to recover?
To all of you who are supporting communities on the ground throughout such challenging times, I hope you can find time to rest and not feel guilty about it. You deserve a break.
We live in a system that expects us all to be hard workers in the name of progress. Before a project closes, we find ourselves pressured to start applying for another funding and then plunge ourselves into another project dealing with equally heavy topics — sexual violence, displacement, war… We need a break. These topics are heavy, complex and traumatic. Being a facilitator who holds space for our communities to process these issues does not remove us from our own lived experiences. Many of us have had to juggle with the traumas of the world while dealing with our own daily struggles. What if we start thinking of going slow, healing and recuperating as vital contribution to social progress? What if we stop looking at progress in terms of metrics but in how we commit to becoming thriving individuals able and eager to extend care to the people around us?
What happens if we change our language and funding away from problems to how individuals and communities could thrive? E.g. Instead of “project with sexual abuse victims”, we opt for “project for thriving women”. Language matters. If we embed more positive and affirmative language in our work, we start embodying it. We need to create a culture of hope, not doom. Negative affirmations remind us of the overwhelming issues we have yet to solve but positive affirmations light us to where we want to be.
This holiday season, take some time to reflect and reconnect with your body and soul. What do you need more of? What do you need less of? If you stripped your work to its bare essence, what is the minimum that you need to do to keep it going?
My word for the new year is ‘slow’. What would yours be?