On…Holidays
How do we holiday well as climate activists?
The beginning of Autumn (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) might seem like an odd time to write a post about holidays, but I recently returned from my first holiday in a year and a half and had thoughts I really wanted to share.
Holidays played an integral part of my self-care when I was running Hope for the Future. I would always return from them full of fresh ideas and renewed enthusiasm for the work.
I am sure I could not have kept going for as long as I did without them, but conversely it was taking the holidays that enabled me to realise I was burning out and needed to make a change because it showed me the contrast between how I felt at work compared to holidays.
Over the six years at Hope for the Future, my holidays rarely failed to connect me with the parts of myself that I often had to put to the side; the parts of myself that needed complete headspace to let my mind wonder, that needed some good long lie ins, that needed to bask in nature and remember why I do the work that I do. During holidays these parts of myself would fill up their cup, renewing my creativity and resilience.
It’s difficult to put my finger on it exactly, but when I come back from holidays, I think and see the world differently. I read the same awful global headlines, for example, but my emotional response is that of rising to the challenge, rather than that of despair. This is the wonderful power of self-care.
Having left my laptop behind, turned all notifications off on my phone, and spent two glorious weeks camping, swimming, sea kayaking, walking and sailing across various places in the UK. I was reminded of my ‘holiday formula’, and why it works so well for me.
I originally shared these thoughts in a series of weekly coach posts (you can subscribe to these here); but they are condensed here also for everyone to read.
Planning your holiday to ensure it is restorative
Decide on the form of your holiday/s – lots of little holidays spread across the year, or perhaps a much longer time away for a complete break from it all? (This might vary from year to year and will depend on how much annual leave you have available).
My Golden Rule – do all you can to ensure that work does not encroach on your holiday – turn your out of office on, remove work related apps from your phone, switch off social media notifications.
Consider your workload when planning your holiday; any events ahead that you might need recuperation time afterwards, for example.
Speak to colleagues and find out their holiday plans and how this might impact on workloads.
Find a ‘holiday buddy’ - a suitable work colleague who is really on board with the need for total rest, and ask them to help ‘safeguard’ your holiday by having them ‘filter’ everything whilst you’re away – remember to return the favour when they go on holiday.
Whenever possible give yourself easier work days either side of your holiday (ban non-essential meetings in these days)
Connect with nature – As I wrote in my post On… Nature a couple of months ago, nature has tremendous healing capacities both physically and emotionally. Planning a holiday which connects you with nature (such as camping, walking or swimming) can be especially renewing; and helpful for those of us on a budget.
Dealing with emotions which may surface whilst on holiday
For many of us, our activism is motivated by so much more than simply wanting life on earth to survive beyond the next few decades. It’s about our deep love of this beautiful planet.
This alone can make holiday planning tricky… in being so connected to the planet, it is not surprising that we would want to see as much of it as possible! But of course, this often comes with a carbon cost which can leave us wrestling with hefty moral decisions that rather take away from the chill holiday vibes.
Holidaying as someone who cares about the planet can also be the time when the feelings we have been too busy to feel come to the surface – the grief for all the variety and beauty and weirdness and joy of all life on this earth.
And, if we’ve not experienced that much before, it can feel like a lot to handle. As if it has come out of the blue or maybe that there is something wrong with us.
So here are a few tips for navigating the difficult emotions that can surface when on holiday…
Hold your holiday expectations lightly - It’s easy to feel a pressure for our holidays to be a certain way, and that can make it even harder when plans go wrong. That’s why I try to swap my expectations with one or two holiday intentions that are likely to be possible even if plans change. Something like, ‘to listen to my needs’, ‘to connect with my fellow holidayer/s’, ‘to take a break from screens.’
Trust the holiday process - learn to trust that things surface because they need to surface, and perhaps because instinctively some part of us knows we have the space to listen. These moments are vital in learning how to listen to ourselves, our needs, and our experiences, and to tend to them. Even if it’s not convenient or we ‘miss out’ on something we had planned to do. If we don’t have permission to show this kind of self-care to ourselves when on holiday, when can we?
Give yourself a climate break - If you do climate activism as a day job, it forms a big part of your spare time, or you are someone who never really stops reading and thinking about all the things not going well in the world at the moment, then make sure you give yourself a break from taking in more climate information. Holidays are not the time to catch up on all the climate reading you wish you’d had time to read before, for example! But if you really want to still engage, try visiting some of the many pockets of hope springing up all over…
Search out pockets of hope
Holidays can be an excellent time to renew our hope for the world! We can plan to see and do things that give us glimpses into the little shoots of planetary regeneration that are springing up all over the world.
These can also be especially renewing if we spend our days facing into all the destruction that is also going on in the world.
So, to finish this post on holidaying well as a climate activist, I would like to share with you one little ray of hope that I visited whilst on my holiday… I went looking for beavers in Devon; one of the very few places in the whole of the UK that has beavers in the wild.
The beavers were originally found here after they escaped captivity and plans were made to exterminate them. It soon became clear, however, that their incredible water management skills could benefit the whole community. Flooding risks were reduced, fish started to flourish, and water pollution dropped, so the beavers were allowed to stay and enjoy protections.
Now there are at least 8 beaver pairs and they are part of research that will support the reintroduction of beavers as part of the UK's climate adaptation strategy.
Although we didn't see any of these beavers, we saw plenty of evidence of their work building dams, and witnessed the flourishing ecosystem now thriving around these wonderful creatures who have been gone from the UK for over 400 years!
It was such a wonderful thing to see something in nature moving in the right direction, and gave me the resilience boost I needed as I embarked on taking a look at the latest IPPC report on climate change.
About Me I’m Jo, formerly the founder Director of national climate change charity, Hope for the Future. I am currently researching eco-anxiety and how we can build emotional resilience in our response to the climate emergency.
Welcome to Climate.Emergence- a place to emotionally process what on earth is happening to us and our planet.