Self-Care and Social Justice Work
April 1, 2015If you were to ask my mom or my girlfriend about a time I got something wrong, they’d both most likely say, “Well, according to Quita, she never gets anything wrong.” But even the Princess of Perfection has to admit when she is wrong. My self-care journey is an ongoing process that I’m getting wrong more times than not.
As someone who is doing social justice work, I know that I have to take care of myself in order to be able to keep going. And not to mention, I am surrounded by amazing healers who are always stressing the importance of self-care. Over the past year, I’ve told myself that I’ve been very intentional with my self-care journey, but in reality, I haven’t.
Overworking myself is my biggest motivation for making my self-care a top priority. As a young person who has the opportunity to do paid organizing work in my communities, I find myself constantly wanting to do so many things. However, there are only so many things that I can get done. I can’t bring a capitalistic view of labor to my social justice work. I have to take time for myself to rejuvenate and to make sure my daily work and stressload are manageable.