Hello Dear Human!
I'm writing to you from my snowy home town Legnica (South-West of Poland) and this month I had two thoughts that I want to share with you because they were chasing me so much. But first of all let me wish you a Happy New 2019, it's still young and fresh, let it bring you good gifts!

Good News! I'll be in Wrocław (Poland) doing a free workshop about burnout for activists on February 11th at 4:30-7:30 pm. This time it will be in Polish. Write me an e-mail if you want to participate. More information here: https://www.annakuliberda.com/warsztaty

ps. from now on I will be sending my newsletters twice a month! When signing up, you agreed to get it once a month. I would understand if you think two times a month is too much, and then just hit "unsubscribe" link in the bottom of the newsletter. If you decide to stay with me, I promise it will be worth reading every single time:)

And for now, let's get to big things :)

What if we recharge ourselves as often as we charge our phones? As MyTheraBox is provocatively asking on instagram?

Isn't it a brilliant idea? It would be so great if every time my phone is off and demanding recharging, I take a break and recharge too, or I apply some energy booster. Let's go further in analysing the similarities of us and our beloved devices: we both are constantly connected, getting so much information in the background (having 3G/wi-fi turned on). And then all the alerts and notifications, buzzing and sounds! It makes your phone tired, it makes you tired as well.

This is how I got the idea of using "sleep mode" more often. It saves the phone battery, but it also saves my battery so much. Not checking the phone when writing, not checking it when reading a book or a longer article, and especially not checking it when being on a call with colleagues or friends. Being present in one place with only one intention in mind.

When I don't know what to do with my hands, I scribble, I doodle, I colour. Rather mindlessly because the purpose is to break the habit of checking the phone, not to create art. For me, checking my phone is a manual habit. Your reason might be the FOMO (fear of missing out), or it might be about something else. It's worth exploring what does it give to you. And then decide if you want to keep going or if you prefer to change it.

A friend once told me that because he used his phone so much, he had the policy of "charging on the go" - and that meant charging it everytime he could, so the phone would survive the whole day without it going completely dead. How this would look like for the human body and mind? How would your personal human power bank look like? What can be a substitute for the power bank you put in your bag or backpack knowing electricity plugs won't be available on the way?

Second thought is the fundament of my approach to coaching:

 "You are not a failure if you find it difficult to do things that others seem to take for granted and find easy. Sometimes just knowing the potential source of why we are struggling allows us to offer ourselves patience while we work to feel more resourced.".

Andrea Papin writes about the developmental trauma, but I find this notion relevant to all of us in a broader sense because we all are different. Not only it's good to know where our struggles come from, but also that humans vary and we all deserve to get the individual VIP treatment.

I believe in personal agency and building tailor-made self-care plans. One size fits all is just not the right approach here. We come from different places, we carry different baggage, we operate in different frameworks. Even only these 3 vectors create an infinite number of possibilities, and there are many more vectors we can add to this equation. Moreover, they change in time! So a one-time solution is also not enough. That is how during the coaching process we not only look for a solution but also learn about the vectors and how they influence the need for agility. Of course, there is science (for instance the psychology of motivation or of crisis or even what is burnout), and some important ingredients (like knowing what is important in life for us and being able to prioritize) to help but applying them to the individual's specific conditions is the key to building the self-care plan.

You can learn more about the factors influencing your approach to self-care with a quick self-reflection exercise, just download the gift below!

And let me share with you my wow moment from last month: the 23 seconds of pure boiling nature, courtesy of the Yellowstone National Park sharing it in Public Domain.

My name is Anna Kuliberda and as a coach, I work with individuals as well as with organizations on finding the right ways to make activism sustainable in three dimensions: personal choices; supporting communities in building anti-burnout culture of balancing passion with reasonable resources management; and with more formal non-profit organizations and other institutions on introducing anti-burnout strategies and human-friendly environment.

Contact me at: anna.kuliberda@gmail.com

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