We know that the last three years have been difficult for many of us in the world. In our society many were already struggling with feeling lonely, anxious or stressed, and the pandemic has made things worse.
For those of us in social change, the stress is heightened because we already deal with people’s pain in our work – whether it’s through fighting an eviction or a deportation, helping work through a political campaign or people’s traumas, or being a first responder to a crisis. This was true even before the pandemic.
When we feel stressed, we use whatever tools are available to deal and cope. But sometimes, many of us realize that we need more personal tools if we’re going to deal with so much pain, and that we also need tools in our groups or organizations.
Sometimes in that journey we need a refresher, and other times we need a whole new set of tools and practices so we can be more resilient in the face of isolation, stress, anxiety, trauma, etc.
At Ayni, for some years now and alongside many others, we have been thinking about creating more tools for people to do just that. This is what our Mending the Heart Cohort is for. It is tailored for people who are doing social change work, whether you’re just starting or have many years of experience, so you can get a framework (an understanding or perspective) on emotional resiliency that is based on psychotherapy, neuroscience, Indigenous wisdom, and community work. That can honor all of these perspectives and addresses both individual and group resiliency. Where we can also learn simple, key practices that you can do regularly to build resiliency for yourself and for a group.
