Naming our feelings is powerful. That’s true even—or especially—when we’re hurting.
School has just begun, and already we’re faced with the horrifying tragedy of another school shooting. We have been bombarded with an overwhelm of news, memorials, and arguments. In order to re-establish equilibrium, we want to invite our community to join us in naming our feelings together.
What many of us are feeling right now could be called anxiety, depression, rage, sadness, or fear. Another term might be compassion fatigue, when we run low on the energy we need to express empathy for ourselves and others. This is especially common when faced with repeated trauma, even when we hear about them rather than experiencing them directly.
When anxiety and dread are high, and compassion fatigue sets in, it’s important to practice both self-care and community care. Self-care is a crucial part of finding relief, but sometimes it can add to a sense of isolation, that we are alone in our suffering, or a feeling that we have to do all the work for our own healing. And all the individual self-care in the world can’t repair what all of us are feeling. It requires us to reach out and reach back; to ask for help and offer support.
Knowing and respecting how we feel is significant because it is the foundation of taking action. When we know what we feel, we know what we want to do. When we are emotionally numb, we are left paralyzed. Conversely, when we come together in our shared emotional experience, for comfort, hugs, food, we are poised to take collective action.
We are inviting you to both name your feelings and reach out to learn what others feel. Tell a friend, family member, a fellow parent or educator, your students, your players, your girls or another trusted person in your life about how this makes you feel, and ask how they’re doing too. Who knows, you may find yourselves coming together to do something even more powerful.
Here are some resources to get you started:
All our love,
Girls Leadership
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