Compassion Fatigue

Plenty of creatives have been talking for months about the palpable anxiety permeating creative circles since the last presidential election. There's a constant stream of new, worse news, and those involved in activism have hardly had a break. Compassion fatigue has long since set in hardcore, and even those who know they need a break are stuck feeling like they can't take one.

It sucks. It really, really sucks.

I know plenty of writers who say they haven't had a solid period of creativity in months because they're just so goddamn exhausted from daily life on top of social justice stress. I'm honestly right there with them. I am a queer, transgender, disabled person, and it's hard to feel free to be creative and playful when you've got to have an eye over your shoulder so damn often.

I'm not here to present an easy answer with a soundbite title. I can't. If I could figure that out, I'd be much better off and way less stressed. But what I am here to do is say this:

You aren't alone. You aren't. There are so many people dealing with the same thing, who understand how it feels.

The way I've been coping is to keep reminding myself that no one person is responsible for the fight. It's a collective effort, and I am allowed to take a step back to take care of myself when I need to. Others will still be there, doing what I can't handle just now.

It may mean taking a week away from Twitter and replacing Twitter Time with reading a fun book. It may mean limiting the time I spend in activism circles. It may mean standing up and saying, "this is important, but I can't right now," and enforcing that boundary even when I feel guilty about it.

But it's a needed thing. We're all facing burnout, which is exactly what the enemies out there want. They want us to run ourselves into the ground and stop fighting.

Taking a break when you need it is not giving up. Taking a break is taking care of yourself, so you can renew yourself and come back at it later with renewed spirit. But more than that, you don't exist to fight these battles. They're important and necessary, but you are not solely responsible for fighting the world's ills. You are allowed to have a life outside of that, and should.

Taking a step back is not letting the rest of us down. Taking a step back is how you have a well-rounded life that keeps your soul from dying the slow death of compassion fatigue.

So, please. Take a step back when you need it. Breathe. The fight's still going to be there when you come back, and you can't fight at all if you've run yourself into the ground.

Until next time,
Jenn.

What You Can Do Is Enough

I was going to write a post about villains today. Then I realized I already wrote that post and had forgotten about it, and got frustrated because, well'p, there went my idea for the weekly post. And then I got even more frustrated when I realized that I would, yet again, be going without a Monday blog post like I always promise I'm going to do and yet never actually get to.

And then I just kind of fell into a loop of being annoyed at myself for never being able to do all the things I want to do.

Which, as a disabled person, is a loop I'm all too familiar with. And it sucks.

So here we are, 10:58 PM on a Monday night, and I'm here to tell you some things that none of us get told nearly often enough:

The things you can do are enough. You don't have to do more than you are capable of. You don't have to be productive. You don't have to be constantly at work. "Do your best" does not mean "force yourself beyond your own capabilities."

It's okay to get frustrated with yourself. It's okay to get upset at the world we live in for pushing the idea that if you're not being productive, you're doing something wrong. Because it's all bullshit, y'all--we live in a world that tries to enforce arbitrary ideas on what's "normal" and "acceptable" and "admirable."

You don't have to run yourself into the ground because society tells you it's the Done Thing.

It's okay to half-ass things. It's okay to leave them un-done. It's okay to know and respect your own limits and boundaries and needs.

What you can do is good enough.

I'm going to go play Sims now. Take it easy.

'Til next time,
Jenn.