Overcoming Burnout

Journal Questions

• What have your experiences of chronic illness been in your life? 
• If you haven't experienced chronic illness, how aware are you of the experiences of your loved ones or comrades struggling with chronic illness? 
• What has been your experience interacting with health professionals of different kinds? 
• What support would you value right now but money has been a barrier? 
• What nutritional deficiencies have you been aware of experiencing? Or do you suspect?
• What nutritional changes would you like to make in your life?

Links and resources from this episode

• Overcoming Burnout Ebook
• Solidarity Apothecary Newsletter 
• Frontline Herbalism Podcast
• Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress Course

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by Amani | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Journal Questions

• Do you have any patterns of hyperactivity, workaholism or over responsibility for others in your life? 
• What ways have you experienced powerlessness and how do they still affect you? 
• Were you brought up believing you had power? (For example to impact society) Or that you were powerless? 
• How has organising given you a sense of power? 
• What experiences as an organiser have made you feel diminishing power? E.g. state repression 
• What makes you feel more power-full? 
• How can you build power without dominating others? What does that look like politically?

Links and resources from this episode

• Overcoming Burnout Ebook
• Solidarity Apothecary Newsletter 
• Frontline Herbalism Podcast
• Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress Course

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by Amani | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Journal Questions

• If you've been engaged in prisoner support, how has it felt? 
• If you haven't, how have other caring responsibilities felt for you?
• How has it felt to support someone in dangerous situations? 
• Who do you know that is supporting other folks? E.g. How can you show love and care to the supporters? 
• How do you cope with feelings of powerlessness?

Links and resources from this episode

• Overcoming Burnout Ebook
• Solidarity Apothecary Newsletter 
• Frontline Herbalism Podcast
• Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress Course

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by Amani | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Journal Questions

• How much does your self esteem or self worth draw on how effective you are as an organiser? 
• What kind of “work ethic” was revered in your childhood? What levels of activity did you see in people around you? 
• What is your relationship to time in general? 
• What is your relationship to productivity? 
• How does your burnout journey relate to productivity and the ability to get stuff done? Rather than how you feel?

Links and resources from this episode

• Overcoming Burnout Ebook
• Solidarity Apothecary Newsletter 
• Frontline Herbalism Podcast
• Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress Course

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by Amani | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Journal Questions

• When has organising felt extractive or exploitative to you? 
• When has organising felt draining? What dynamics are at play when it does? 
• What particular dynamics drain you the most? 
• When has organising felt most nourishing and regenerative to you? 
• What have been some of your favourite memories as an organiser? 
• When have you felt a sense of trust, belonging and solidarity? 
• What new skills have you learned through organising? 
• What experiences have been brought into your life through organising? 
• How does organising make you feel alive?

Links and resources from this episode

• Overcoming Burnout Ebook
• Solidarity Apothecary Newsletter 
• Frontline Herbalism Podcast
• Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress Course

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by Amani | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Journal Questions

• What role has class played in your life? (Not just past tense) 
• How have childhood experiences of class shaped you? 
• In what ways have you seen poverty fetishised in movement spaces? 
• How have you seen people with class privilege dominate movement spaces? 
• How can you leverage your privilege to support others?

Links and resources from this episode

• Overcoming Burnout Ebook
• Solidarity Apothecary Newsletter 
• Frontline Herbalism Podcast
• Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress Course

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by Amani | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Journal Questions

• What do you wish you had done differently in recent years?
• What would you have liked to have done differently in terms of taking care of yourself? 
• What would you have liked to have done differently in terms of organising? 
• How prioritised or de-prioritised are relationships in your life?

Links and resources from this episode

• Overcoming Burnout Ebook
• Solidarity Apothecary Newsletter 
• Frontline Herbalism Podcast
• Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress Course

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by Amani | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Journal Questions

• What losses have you experienced as an organiser? How do you feel about them? 
• Which of your losses are the most painful or incomplete? 
• How do you talk about or work with grief in your collectives? 
• If you've experienced repression, how has it/does it feel?
• How do you honour fallen comrades?

Links and resources from this episode

• Overcoming Burnout Ebook
• Solidarity Apothecary Newsletter 
• Frontline Herbalism Podcast
• Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress Course

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by Amani | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Journal Questions

• How does patriarchy make you tired? How do these dynamics show up in your life? 
• Do you ever feel taken for granted by comrades? 
• How is the division of labour in your groups? 
• If you are a cis man, how do you relate to the women and femmes in your collectives? 
• How much emotional labour are you doing in your collectives? 
• What drains you or makes you tired in your organising? 
• What changes could address some of these issues?

Links and resources from this episode

• Overcoming Burnout Ebook
• Solidarity Apothecary Newsletter 
• Frontline Herbalism Podcast
• Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress Course

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by Amani | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Journal Questions

• How do you underplay stress in your life? 
• What macho responses have you heard in movement spaces in response to potentially traumatic events or experiences? 
• How do you minimise what you've been through? 
• Do you compare yourself to others who are suffering or experiencing oppression in different ways? 
• Where does stress show up in your body? What are it's signals that it's under stress? What are your “fault lines”? 
• Which situations that you've been through a hundred times before are now feeling increasingly difficult?

Links and resources from this episode

• Overcoming Burnout Ebook
• Solidarity Apothecary Newsletter 
• Frontline Herbalism Podcast
• Herbalism, PTSD and Traumatic Stress Course

Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by Amani | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.