| “You aren’t required to set yourself on fire to keep others warm.” That was just one of the pieces of wisdom shared by our incredibly thoughtful and insightful group during our August Fridays Together conversation. I was blown away again and again by the group’s calm, gentle support of one another and sharing of themselves. Our topic was how to recognize and address compassion fatigue in ourselves, which is always tricky. We talked about the exhaustion. Oh, the exhaustion. The I-can’t-get-up-from-the-couch-even-to-go-to-bed exhaustion. FT-ers shared this great article on surge capacity and this one on languishing, as well as this video on the grief we feel due to continued uncertainty, to help us understand why it’s so darn hard these days even to do small things. It helps, doesn’t it? Knowing that we’re not alone in feeling this way? Some other things that help: Making a self-care routine. Finding small moments of reset. (This book has some good ideas.) Boundary setting. We talked quite a lot about boundary setting. One wise FT-er said, “If someone is depleting me, that’s not their responsibility, it’s mine. It’s my job to manage my own energy in such a way that I am able to show up in the way that I want to, in every interaction.” (I told you there were wise people on this call.) Our next conversation is Friday, September 10 at noon Eastern/11am Central/10am Mountain/9am Pacific. The sign in information is below–put it in your calendar now! You can download the iCal notice here, or the Google calendar notice here. Hope to see you there! Kate Topic: Fridays Together Time: Sep 10, 2021 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84797950238?pwd=QnNyRk0zSkY0czY4T21raXI5bWhUQT09 Meeting ID: 847 9795 0238 Passcode: 789 One tap mobile +13017158592,,84797950238#,,,,*789# US (Washington DC) +13126266799,,84797950238#,,,,*789# US (Chicago) Dial by your location +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 929 436 2866 US (New York) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) Meeting ID: 847 9795 0238 Passcode: 789 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kicm2KQTx Not sure what this is about? Fridays Together is a free monthly facilitated conversation about how we’re taking care of ourselves as we’re taking care of those around us. We meet on the second Friday of the month at noon Eastern, for one hour. I choose a theme for the conversation and introduce the topic, then we open up for discussion. You can learn more and sign up here. |
Fridays Together: How to Recognize and Address Compassion Fatigue
