We had the honor of participating in panel discussions at the Global Ties U.S. National Conference. Our Program Manager, Sila Avcil was part of the breakout session, Shielding Against Burnout: Self Care, Staff Care, and Team Resilience. This session brought together programmers and supervisors from the Global Ties U.S. network to share strategies and best practices in self-care and staff-care, particularly as we return to in-person work. Our network members have adapted, pivoted, and shown constant resilience as the way we do our work has evolved fundamentally.
From the network, Dr. Young Hoang represented the U.S. State Department’s as an official mental health professional, Sila Avcil represented leadership from Community-based members, and Julia Diez d’Aux represented leadership from National Program Agencies. Our partner at World Denver, Shannon Payne, facilitated the discussion.
From this panel discussion, we learned that:
- Stress is inevitable, therefore it is time to normalize stress and allow ourselves to relax, charge, and stop neglecting our personal needs
- The things that create barriers for self care are self-guilting and not having realistic expectations of ourselves.
- Tips from Dr. Young Hoang are to breathe intentionally, practice gratitude, and to befriend our reality, as peace comes from acceptance.
It is important to take care of ourselves, even when we want to be there for others. This is because we cannot truly care for others, care for our jobs, or care for our families if we do not love ourselves first.
We must provide enough love for ourselves to provide sufficient love for others.