The Recession is Bullhonkey Christys Story - When I Grow Up

The Recession is Bullhonkey Christys Story - When I Grow Up This is part of  The Recession is Bullhonkey series, where I share stories of those who have gotten hired and/or started their own businesses (or sometimes both!) since 2008. Christy Tennery-Spalding is a current client of mine who I forced to write something for this series when she decided to quit her full-time job. Youre welcome, you guys.   I’ve always wanted to help make the world a better place. I started an “environmental club” with my sister and our friend Lizzy when I was 10. I went to my first protest at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, demanding freedom for Tibet, when I was 16. So it’s not a huge surprise that in college, I found a fabulous activist community in the San Francisco Bay Area and became an organizer, and that after college, I looked to make that my career. I’ve held a range of paid and unpaid activist gigs over the years â€" and the truth is that very little has changed since those early days. I still want to build a more just world. Just a few months ago, I made the decision to transition out of my most recent paid activist job in order to put my focus onto my yoga teaching business and (unpaid) climate justice work. While this may seem extreme, it makes more sense when I tell you that, I was working on both of these projects the whole time that I held this recent position. (I basically had three jobs!) Right now, I’ve realized, it’s about impact. In this moment, my mission is better served (and I can make a bigger impact) by being an entrepreneur, rather than an employee. I’m able to take on the projects that inspire me, and create what I know will serve others. Doing what lights me up lets me make a bigger difference. I’m able to hold the many pieces of my identity, including those of healer and teacher, and grow into those. It’s my path to hold both of those â€" to make change in all kinds of ways. Since I’m holding both of those roles, healer and activist, I’m able to see, from the inside, how necessary good self-care is for activists and caregivers. It took me a while to realize that I don’t have to have a job in the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC) in order to make a difference and claim my power. That’s part of my path also: to show people that there are many ways to create change. If you’d told me, when I was 16 and yelling outside of the Chinese Embassy, that I would “grow up” to be an entrepreneur, I would not have believed you â€" but that’s what I am. Working for myself gives me the creative fulfillment and schedule flexibility that I crave. And it allows me to be of service in all the ways I’m called to. Interestingly enough, I see working for myself as a form of self-care. Those of us who see injustice and feel compelled to act are sensitive souls. So it stands to reason that we would need extra self-care, especially when you remember that we are staring down the trauma of injustice and environmental devastation every day. Self-care is also completely possible. This lights me up because the possibilities are amazing: What if we built self-care into our work plans? What if we defended our well-being with the same kind of fervor we defend the planet? What if we brought ourselves the same compassion we bring the rest of the world? (An aside: y’all, that would be so amazing.) Taking the leap to start my own business, now in its second iteration, has taught me a lot. It’s like a yoga practice in itself â€" there’s always something new to discover about the practice and myself. I’ve learned that balance is a myth, but that focus and care are possible. I’ve also learned that this work will make us feel (and that it may be painful), but that burnout from what we love isn’t a natural byproduct. I believe that people can do what they love for their whole lives. Confession: I haven’t always been great at self-care. It is true that we often teach what we ourselves need to learn. The process of developing my own self-care has been both brutal and rewarding. After years of dedicating myself to it, I see clearly that it is a revolutionary act. The world and its injustices may try to teach us that we are insufficient, that we are disposable. I believe that reclaiming our autonomy, dignity and wellness through self-care is subversive in its message: we are whole, we are enough and we deserve love. When I started to include myself in that, it was an incredible experience. My current career configuration is about living my life in integrity with this very message: each one of us is sacred and worthy. I believe each of us is not only deserving of care, but that care is essential if we want to create truly effective and resilient movements. I love helping others discover that truth, and I love living into that truth myself. Because we are all in this together. Christy Tennery-Spalding is a yoga teacher, activist, Thai massage practitioner, Reiki master teacher, and writer. She is the author of Setting Gratitude Free, a workbook and action guide on thankfulness, and the creator of Sacred Focus, a 6-week program to de-overwhelm your life.  She lives in Oakland, California with her husband and their rescued feral cats, Dorothy Harriet. In her free time, she enjoys frolicking in the redwoods and soaking in hot springs.  She believes that you cannot build a more compassionate world if you are treating yourself like crap.