Burning Bright, Not Burning Out

You can’t pour from an empty cup.

Developing an effective, empowering and impactful leadership practice requires prioritizing deep rest and recovery. Before our communities can be well, we, ourselves, must model that wellness.

While gathering on Tamaya land in Bernalillo, New Mexico, the WKKF Community Leadership Network with the Center for Creative Leadership fellows were asked to reflect upon their self-care practices and how they can ensure they are burning brightly, not burning out.

We sat down with Social Impact Champion Sonya Lara of New Mexico, Self-Expression Advocate Ericka Thompson of Michigan, Movement Strategist Alison McCrary of New Orleans, and Mindful Healer Jessica Reed of Mississippi to discuss self-care and its implications on effective leadership.

How do you build energy as a leader?

Sonya: My values energize me. When I see challenges or barriers facing those I love, a sense of responsibility rises up in me. One of the first activities we did as fellows during the Battle Creek gathering was the Myers Briggs Assessment. It’s been so helpful to discover my own unique leadership style, and understand the specific things that energize me as an individual, that might differ from those with a different style.

Ericka: I am really energized by authenticity and the honoring of ourselves as individuals. So often, people have great intentions but if they are neglecting themselves, their missions fall short because they did not honor the community that starts in their own heart. Oftentimes, we’re burdened or scared by how major self-care can seem, but it really can be something as simple as a heart rub or a deep breath.

Alison: Personally, I struggle with the term “self-care.” If my community doesn’t have care, then I don’t want it. We should be constantly working together to ensure we all have a base level of care and humanity.

For energy, I have been actively decolonizing my life and living more in the traditional, Indigenous ways of my people – outside of capitalism, which teaches us that we should constantly work to accumulate wealth. My energy comes from caring for my community and attending to my relationships with the plants, land, animals and people around me.

Jessica: It’s essential that I’m able to take care of myself so I can do the type of work that I do. I work with a lot of people who have experienced trauma and, without rest, I would definitely be burnt out from compassion fatigue.

To energize myself, I celebrate all wins, big and small. I have a really strong gratitude practice that I do every morning and evening. I start my days with intention and prayer, which carries me through even the toughest days.

Why is self-care important for leaders?

Ericka: Leadership requires clarity. With clarity, we have the ability to take an intentional and holistic approach to shifting our communities.

There is a lot of value in self-care, but it really involves building communion and community within your own heart, mind, body and spirit. That’s not something you can learn in a book, it’s a lived practice.

Alison: For me, it’s less about self-care and more about culture. I want to create a culture of community care. That can look like prayer, engaging in ceremony or different spiritual practices.

I have worked on Louisiana’s death row for 20 years as a spiritual advisor. As you can imagine, it requires a high level of care for the people on death row, for their families, for the victim’s family members and even for the guards. These collective community care practices are often the only way to prepare for death, especially death by our government.

What are some misconceptions about self-care?

Jessica: I often challenge myself and the people around me to think differently. If you don’t have money, what does self-care look like? While everyone doesn’t have access to basic self-care needs, like eating, sleeping and housing, it doesn’t diminish the other ways that care can be implemented.

Sonya: There is a misunderstanding that self-care should be done on an island somewhere in isolation. But really, the first step of self-care is admitting you need help. Not just going through the motions that seem “aesthetic,” but actually digging deep into the root causes. We all rely on each other and need each other to survive. No notion of self-care can escape this fact.

As we have all said, it goes back to community and prioritizing what makes us all well as a culture. It hits at the heart of this entire program, “It’s not about me, it’s not about you, it’s about the children and what makes them well.”