Let’s Talk About The Heart Of Our Work

Let’s talk about sustainable activism, the heart of how we can live through these times without letting them hollow us out.

Sustainable activism—real, enduring, soul-aligned engagement—isn’t about giving until we’re empty. It’s about learning to give from a place of rootedness, renewal, and connection. It is a regenerative practice.

❂ What Is Regenerative Practice?

Regeneration means more than just “recovery” or “self-care.” It’s a living system idea.

In nature, regenerative systems restore what they use, create conditions for more life, and adapt without burning out. Think of a forest: everything that dies becomes soil. Everything that gives also receives.

In the context of activism or advocacy, regeneration means:

• Not using yourself up to fight injustice.

• Not working despite your pain, but working with your humanity intact.

• Letting your actions be expressions of what you love, not just reactions to what you fear.

✺ Giving From Aliveness vs. Giving From Despair

Here’s the shift:

Giving from despair	Giving from aliveness
Driven by urgency, panic, guilt	Rooted in values, love, and clarity
Exhaustion is normal, even expected	Energy flows in cycles—rest is part of the work
Progress never feels like enough	Small, meaningful acts are honored
You forget yourself in the cause	You include yourself in the circle of care
Work feels like bleeding	Work feels like a form of belonging

When you give from despair, burnout is inevitable.

When you give from aliveness, you become a living example of the world you’re trying to build.

✦ Regenerative Practices in Real Life

These aren’t luxuries. These are the roots that allow your work to be sustainable, meaningful, and even healing.

Here are some regenerative practices, adapted for someone like you:

✦ 1. Cycles, Not Constant Output

Nature works in seasons. So can you.

• What if your activism had fallow periods—intentional rest or reflection seasons?

• Can you build a rhythm where your energy expands and contracts without guilt?

“You are not a machine. You are a living being. Machines burn out. Living beings adapt.”

✦ 2. Grief as Fertile Ground

Don’t sidestep grief. Compost it.

• Journal or speak aloud what you’re mourning.

• Let it be sacred, not just sad. Maybe even beautiful.

• Ritualize it—burn it, bury it, share it.

Grief is not a weakness to overcome. It’s a resource that shows you where your heart is.

✦ 3. Joy and Beauty as Activism

Joy isn’t frivolous. It’s fuel.

• Spend time in awe-inducing places (even if it’s one tree).

• Seek art, music, stories that nourish you.

• Let joy be your protest: “Even now, I will not go numb.”

✦ 4. Belonging Over Burnout

Don’t do it alone.

• Join (or create) a small, like-minded pod of mutual support.

• Let relationships be central—not just logistics and goals.

• Ask for help. Offer help. That’s regenerative exchange.

✦ 5. Do Less, But Deeper

Instead of endless tasks:

• Focus on right relationship—with place, people, self.

• Do work that feels aligned with your own spirit, not just the most urgent.

You don’t need to save the world. You can live into it differently, and that is enough.

✧ Regenerative Questions to Ask Yourself

Let these be gentle, recurring companions—not checkboxes:

• What am I doing that depletes me?

• What am I doing that nourishes me?

• Where am I trying to fix the world without feeling it?

• Where am I numbing instead of tending?

• What small act today could help me feel more alive, more whole?

You don’t owe your suffering to the movement.

You do owe it to yourself—and the Earth—to remain whole enough to love what’s left.

Final Thought

Sustainable activism doesn’t mean working forever.

It means showing up fully, truthfully, and in a way that doesn’t strip you of your joy, your health, or your relationships.

You are not just a witness to the planet’s pain.

You are also a part of the planet trying to heal.

And healing isn’t linear. It’s relational. It’s slow. And it needs people like you—still here, still breathing, still capable of feeling everything and somehow choosing to love anyway.