3 Actions Humanitarians Can Take to Move From Surviving to Thriving
During my twenty years of humanitarian service I experienced everything from burnout and compassion fatigue to vicarious trauma and moral injury — and this doesn’t even include what was happening outside of work. I operated almost exclusively in survival mode, my nervous system in a perpetual state of fight or flight. Even though I knew this way of living was terrible for my health and was negatively impacting my work, years of being taught to “suck it up” and “just push through” kept me stuck in a cycle of service before self for many years.
Stress is inherent to humanitarian work, but operating in survival mode isn’t a strategy or sustainable over the long term — the consequences will eventually catch up to you. My quest to find a better way led me to 3 actions that moved me from surviving to thriving:
1. Embodying Mindful Awareness
Most of us operate on autopilot. Mindful awareness helps us notice when our stress response is activated and then tap into self-compassion to determine what self-care choices will best support us in a given situation, as well as which boundaries we need to set — and more importantly enforce. Bringing focus to our emotions and their corresponding body sensations allows us to address root issues rather than what floats on the surface. This is important because if you can’t see it you can’t heal it.
2. Setting Clear Boundaries
Most of us weren’t taught the benefits of boundaries as children, and now as humanitarians, honoring our limits through boundary setting can feel rude, aggressive, or selfish. But boundaries aren’t any of these things; they’re gifts of clarity that help us create accountability over our time and energy. They allow us to feel safe and respected both physically and emotionally. They are shields that protect us from burnout, exhaustion, and illness and allow us to flourish and thrive.
3. Redefining Self-Care
I changed my own views about self-care after I got sick while working in India. As I started learning more about what makes us flourish and thrive as humans, I found that self-care is really about resetting our nervous system. As human beings, our survival reactions are only meant to kick in for short periods of time to protect us from imminent harm. But since survival mode is typically our default way of operating, we have to intentionally activate the part of our nervous system that allows us to access the 6 areas of well-being that contribute to human flourishing.
My experiences have taught me that it is possible to work in service of others and be healthy, happy, connected, and joyful — the two situations aren’t mutually exclusive.
