I wrote this Full Moon Community Affirmation in the lead up to next week's full moon. I was looking for a full moon affirmation that focused on affirmations we could have collectively but many full moon affirmations online are focused on ourselves as individuals. 
While individual reflection and healing is needed, what is now needed more than ever is collective or community healing. I wrote this based on the various full moon affirmations available. I invite you to share this Full Moon Community Affirmation with loved ones and comment if any resonate or if anything is missing. Happy full moon next week!

Full Moon Community Affirmation
We release what is no longer serving us collectively. 
We release pain, fear and ignorance that perpetuates racism, white supremacy, patriarchy, colonization, capitalism, ableism, transphobia and other kyriarchy systems.
We let go of all thoughts, beliefs, habits, attachments and behaviours tied to these oppressive systems that are not in alignment with our greatest good.
We activate the deep love and compassion that resides within us to work towards liberation and justice for all. 
​We receive the gifts fresh air, clean water, plants, trees, all beings and ecosystems offer and give back in a way that allows them to thrive.
We are open to receiving as well as sharing abundance to promote equity and justice.
We invite in wisdom, knowledge and consciousness so we can act in service for future generations on this planet.
We cultivate and nurture love, healing, empathy and justice. 

I’ve had several bouts of burnout in the past, despite having work that I was passionate about in water and social justice. It was these bouts of burnout and the health conditions I developed that shifted my focus to holistic health.

Holistic nutrition, as well as support from my Naturopathic doctor, helped address my digestive issues. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy helps bring my nervous system from fight-flight-freeze into rest-digest and helps process and release emotions from past experiences and trauma. ThetaHealing helps me learn, release and replace the core beliefs that contribute to burnout. 

To be clear, we need self-care, especially during these times. We need walks in the woods, time outs to have a cup of tea, naps and sleep and all the things that nourish and restore our energy. But we also need to challenge the systems that create and perpetuate burnout and create new ones based in health, regeneration and community.

Read the rest of the article by clicking 'Read more' on the right.

This blog is the first part of a series on activist burnout. This blog gives an overview of activist burnout and how healing is linked to justice and dismantling systems of oppression. The second part will focus on regenerative activism and support needed throughout movement cycles. The third part will examine ways we can integrate community care and collective healing directly into organizing and activism.

I've had several bouts of burnout over the years, despite finding the water and social justice work I have been doing for more than a decade deeply rewarding. I have also seen people I work with, know and care about burn out.

People who experience burnout don't always call it burnout nor do they experience the same symptoms.
Symptoms can include exhaustion, insomnia, anxiety, depression, fatigue, illness, pain, the inability to concentrate, or emotions like despair, grief, anger, resentment, sadness, guilt and shame that intensify or persist over time.

These emotions and states are normal reactions to the state of the world.

Read the rest of the article by clicking 'Read more' on the right.
​
This article first appeared on rabble.ca on October 9, 2020. 

Your heart beats fast. Your muscles are tense. Your stomach is upset. You worry and your thoughts race.
You feel anxious, frustrated and overwhelmed.

These are common signs that our bodies are in stress response, or Fight, Flight or Freeze mode. This state, where our sympathetic nervous system is working to get us out of danger, is only supposed to be short-term. But many of us live in this “crisis” mode most of our waking hours.

Our nervous systems were not built to be in a chronic state of stress and it wreaks havoc on our health.

​This article appeared in the November 2019 issue of Tone Magazine. Click here for the online article at tone.ca.