When I have had a heavy emotional day at work, I come home and immediately hop in the shower to “wash it off”.
One of the aspects that helps with advocating at work is separating work from home. It’s done in a different location. I am wearing office clothes. I am speaking with people who don’t live with me.
We can take that concept and those features and apply it to help out other people who need to advocate.
For some people, advocating can feel so outside their comfort zones that they don’t think they can do it. But hey… put on a costume “office attire” or work someone else, and it suddenly isn’t as personal anymore.
Sometimes, to step into the role, having a ritual can help. We can go to a second-hand store, buy a blazer, and when we write our emails, put on our “office” attire.
We can light a candle when we do our emails or policy research, and when we are done, blow it out. The work is over.
Have a shower. Just as professional athletes visualize their goals, we can visualize that the words that stuck to us during that meeting are being washed off. I always shower in the morning, so for me to shower at another time in the day, it feels like I am starting a new day.
What are some rituals or symbols you can incorporate into the advocacy that give you the mental break that it’s done and you can think about other things now?
When advocacy is intense, it is easy to just have it ruminate in your head over and over. Replaying meetings. Re-reading emails. But you need to give your brain a break and have a balanced life to bring some gratitude and joy in your life and in your relationships with other people.
So, just like how I can leave the office and it’s done.
I don’t need to shower anymore when I come home from work, but if I ever have a hard day, I know I have a plan and an option to reset myself. I know what I need and what works. That confidence of knowing that I can cope helps to build my perseverance and my capacity.
How can people who are advocating for personal reasons use symbols or rituals to separate their advocacy time from their life? How can you?
The smallest things that you do will build up over time. It can be the little things that make a big difference over time.
