must read - Adela Nieves, Traditional Health Practitioner, Taino (Indigenous Peoples of the Caribbean)

Caring - Volunteering - Always too much work to do - Burnout

Does this sound familiar? Burnout is a vicious cycle.

Naomi Ortiz went through this cycle many times before she realized:

This Is Not Working.

Sustaining Spirit shows how she broke the cycle of burnout and brought balance into her life.

Sustaining Spirit takes us on a poetic and layered journey- Lisa Hoffman, International Human Rights Activist

Naomi provides us with a guide to self-care, sharing her journey and the strategies she's learned from interviewing over 30 social justice activists.

beautifully crafted and exquisitely written - Melanie Morrison, Allies for Change

Here's a taste of this remarkable book:

We live in a world where there is a raging storm swirling around our bodies all of the time. Wind blowing so hard we can't catch our breath.

Do not get blown away in this raging storm.

We need you. You have so many gifts to give.

Y d nde est tu ombligo? Where are you rooted?

How does one grow roots in the midst of this storm, you ask?

Growing our roots is a leap of faith. We must trust ourselves that where our roots wander and how deep they grow is just right.

In knowing where our roots grow, in tending to how and where they spread, we make a commitment to ourselves that we can survive here.

Self-care is a practice of returning. Of remembering. Of noticing.

Be gentle. When living in a way where many truths exist at once, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the possibilities and the complexity. Accept all of who you are because this is the place where you begin, the essential truth of your nature.

You are precious, and it's up to you to carry this preciousness centered in your heart.

I carry mine tenderly, wrapped up in an old piece of cloth my grandmother embroidered with the sun and stars.

Sometimes, remembering I'm precious takes all the courage I have.

Sometimes, it'll take all the courage you have too.

activists from every movement can gain strength from Sustaining Spirit - Alice Wong, Founder, Disability Visibility Project(TM)

Wow. Powerful words. Uplifting. Providing a light during challenging times.

Sustaining Spirit includes wisdom from over 30 leaders representing different communities including:

adrienne maree brown (author of Emergent Strategy)

Erin Blanding (WE Movement)

Cristy Chung (Move to End Violence)

Debra Erenberg (Amnesty International)

Adam Maltby (social worker)

Adi Afek (reproductive justice activist)

Emma Fialka-Feldman (inclusion educator)

Hillary Jorgensen (Colorado Progressive Coalition)

Janice Felka, (author, What Matters: Reflections on Disability, Community and Love)

Jennifer Thomas (Institute for Educational Leadership)

Kellie Haigh (MSW, disability activist)

Kim Borowicz (Independent Living Research Utilization)

Lisa Hoffman (international human rights activist)

Melinda Haus (Justice Moves),

Micah Fialka-Feldman (Through the Same Door)

Rachel Scoggins (artist, educator)

Rahnee Patrick (ADAPT and Access Living, Chicago)

Rich Feldman (James and Grace Lee Boggs Center)

Sarah Triano (disability rights activist)

A guide book for activists and leaders in social justice movements. - Erin Blanding, WE.org

Disability justice and ecojustice rarely are spoken in the same mouthful but are in constant conversation in our world. This mixed-genre manuscript of poetry and lyrical essay doesn't contain just one point of view but encompasses dialectical perspectives which often exist in contradiction to each other. A disabled person is in need of plastic cups and concerned about the overwhelming plastic in our ecosystems. Rituals for Climate Change: A Crip Struggle for Ecojustice expands on and complicates who is seen as an environmentalist and what being in relationship with the land can look like.

This book is an offering to explore the spiritual question of how to witness. It serves as a companion to those also grappling with the difficult and often unanswerable questions posed by climate change in the borderlands. By exploring the ways body, mind, and cultures both clash with and long for ecojustice, Rituals for Climate Change offers an often-overlooked perspective on climate-grief, interdependence, and resilience. Disabled people know how to adapt to a world that is ever changing without considering us.

Naomi Ortiz (they/she) is a poet, writer, and visual artist whose intersectional work focuses on self-care for activists, disability justice, climate action, and relationship with place. They are the author of Sustaining Spirit: Self-Care for Social Justice (Reclamation Press), a nonfiction book that delves into self-care tools and strategies for diverse communities. Their poetry/prose collection, Rituals for Climate Change: A Crip Struggle for Ecojustice (punctum books) explores how climate change impacts connection to place, expands on and complicates who is seen as an environmentalist, and reimagines relationship with the land. Ortiz is a Border Narrative Grant awardee for their multidisciplinary project Complicating Conversations. They are a 2022 Disability Futures Fellow and a Zoeglossia Poetry Fellow whose poems have been nominated for Best of the Internet and listed on Entropy's Best of 2020-2021: Favorite Poems Published Online. Ortiz emphasizes interdependence, inclusion, and spiritual growth in their talks, workshops, poetry, and writing. Ortiz first performed their poetry at the 2004 Inaugural Disability Pride Parade in Chicago and has continued at events across the country. As a Disabled Mestizx living in the Arizona U.S./Mexico borderlands, they are passionate about organizing with the Southern Arizona Community Care Collective/Colectivo de Beinestar Comunitario.

Activists can ask uncomfortable questions when they step back and examine their lives such as: Will burnout destroy me as an effective advocate? and, How can I change the world when I'm too tired to change my socks? We face messy, contradictory intersections where we must regain our balance and somehow take care of ourselves in the midst of struggling for a better world. Sustaining Spirit: Self-Care for Social Justice, Second Edition is a necessary companion during challenging times.

It's a must read... - Adela Nieves, Traditional Health Practitioner, Taino (Indigenous Peoples of the Caribbean)

We must speak out, take action, make a difference-yet can we remain passionate about a cause without being consumed by it? What habits can we cultivate to feel compassion for ourselves as well as others? Why does a willingness to self-nurture evoke such discomfort? Now the distinctive voice of social change activist Naomi Ortiz offers powerful, thoughtful, transformative insight into self-care. They weave personal experiences in class, race, and disability advocacy, into informative advice on dealing with the risks of burnout. Ortiz brings wisdom drawn from a deep connection to the Sonoran Desert to guide us to live more wholehearted lives.

The power of belonging is a catalyst that resonates throughout these stories. Ortiz offers self-care techniques, tips, and tactics for those who would affect the world.

Caring about the world should not burn us out. From interviews with social justice organizers involved in a variety of movements, as well as from their own activist efforts, Ortiz shows how to break the cycle of burnout. Sustaining Spirit shows us how to balance activism with self-care. A gorgeously moving and practical guide, each chapter ends with questions intended to lead the reader to self-awareness and the development of personalized tactics.

This book is recommended for therapists, counselors, social workers, chaplains, educators, and people in related fields, in addition to the activists that it addresses itself to directly. Part guide and part workbook, readers will find support in these pages for their self-care journey.

Activists from every movement can gain strength from Sustaining Spirit. - Alice Wong, Founder, Disability Visibility Project(TM)

Sustaining Spirit includes wisdom from over 30 leader interviewees, representing different organizing efforts, such as (at the time writing):

adrienne maree brown (author of Emergent Strategy)

Cristy Chung (Move to End Violence)

Debra Erenberg (Amnesty International)

Adam Maltby (social worker)

Adi Afek (reproductive justice activist)

Emma Fialka-Feldman (inclusion educator)

Hillary Jorgensen (Colorado Progressive Coalition)

Janice Felka, (author, What Matters: Reflections on Disability, Community and Love)

Jennifer Thomas (Institute for Educational Leadership)

Kellie Haigh (MSW, Disability activist)

Kim Borowicz (Independent Living Research Utilization)

Lisa Hoffman (international human rights activist)

Melinda Haus (Justice Moves)

Micah Fialka-Feldman (Through the Same Door)

Rachel Scoggins (artist, educator)

Rahnee Patrick (ADAPT and Access Living, Chicago)

Rich Feldman (James and Grace Lee Boggs Center)

Sarah Triano (Disability rights activist)

A guide book for activists and leaders in social justice movements. - Erin Blanding, WE.org