The Most Powerful Self-Care Strategy For Activists

Last Updated on August 21, 2025

A Powerful Self-Care Strategy For Activists

The man standing in his doorway purses his lips when Jane mentions her candidate’s name. Rather than taking the brochure she offers, he shakes his head and closes his door.  Jane limps to the next house. After hours of canvassing, she wonders if she can deal with more unpleasant encounters. Some people don’t want to speak to her, and some just want to argue. A few are already interested in the candidate, and even fewer listen politely and take her literature. Jane doesn’t like conflict, so she tends to hightail it if things get salty.

She forgot to eat lunch, her stomach is starting to hurt, and she could use a tall beer. Or a scotch.

Jane can’t help but feel guilty when she is canvassing. Yesterday, her husband voiced concern about her safety. Her kids are upset when she leaves. Ironically, she feels guilty about not canvassing when she is with her family. And this isn’t even the job she wanted. Instead, she had signed up for voter registration.

But getting this candidate elected is essential, and she feels anxious about not spending more time on the work. She questions whether she is making any difference.

Activism and Stress

Activism can bring opportunities for stress. The key to staying motivated for your activism work is buffering that stress to minimize its impact.

Many volunteers surrender to the self-talk of scolding themselves for not doing more. That if they are resting, people are not getting help. Like Jane, they feel guilty.

But we are not the only people making change. Think about a chorus. If the music needs a long, sustained note, more than one person’s breath capacity, the choir takes turns leaving the music, taking a breath, and coming back in. This is a lovely way to focus on self-care and then come back into your work in an energized way.

Self-care can help you head off stress before it becomes overwhelming and potentially harmful. Proactive stress reduction means that before things get really tough, you act.

You can do that by:

• Training your brain to buffer stress.
• Recognizing the way your body reacts to stress and acting before you get overwhelmed.
• Changing your situation to one that keeps you motivated and energized.

Self-Care: Training Your Brain

Preventing stress is not possible for most activists. But, ideally, you will not let yourself get too stressed in the first place. Instead, in stressful situations, control your reactions to the circumstances.

Neuroscience research has yielded many learnings that can be used to train your brain to buffer the impact of stress. Scientists are recognizing that the brain is neuroplastic, which means we can change it for the better (or worse.)

Use a positive mindset

Jane didn’t buffer the stress of canvassing when she interpreted her progress in negative, rather than positive ways.  Control your reactions to events by training your mind to interpret them more sensibly. This self-care may include disputing negative self-talk, making your default reactions positive rather than negative, and using logic rather than emotions.

For example, Jane can reflect on the interest of neighbors in her candidate in positive or negative ways. Let’s say a man says, “No, thanks,” and closes the door.

Jane’s negative thought: “I’m doing a terrible job at canvassing.”

Jane’s positive thought: “He doesn’t seem open to my candidate yet. But he knows her name now, and that’s a start.”

[If you like this topic, you may enjoy How To Fill Your Vessel So You Can Serve.]

Activism Goals

Goals are more effective and motivating if they are specific and a little difficult. Your activism goal might be general and complicated, like “I will achieve peace in my community.” That’s a wonderful ideal, but not a motivating milestone. Changing your goal to something a little tough but specific, such as “I will start two peer mediation groups during the summer,” will keep you focused.

For Jane, instead of a goal to get every person who opens the door to support her candidate, she could set moderately difficult but achievable goals. For example, “get 15% of people who answer the door to listen to my spiel and accept a brochure.”

Self-Care: Self-Management

Now, recognize what self-care you need on this journey. Your cause is essential; ensure your self-care, so it receives the benefit of your best work.

Use self-management to deal with stress. Self-management means you keep track of your body’s reactions to stress and manage them.

Know your stress symptoms

Learn what stress symptoms appear in your body. There are several resources in the last section to guide you to find those stressors unique to you.

Once you become better at recognizing the signs in your body, you can begin to try out self-care techniques to see what works for you to alleviate that stress.

Manage Your Reactions to Stress

Physical Stress Reduction Techniques

Your body cannot be relaxed and tense at the same time. That is the focus behind techniques that use breathing and relaxation to reduce stress.

The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook includes a chart that shows which techniques help for certain symptoms. For example, exercise is one of the most effective methods for a variety of stress symptoms, including high blood pressure, headache, obesity, and physical weakness.

Another technique that works well for many stress symptoms is progressive relaxation.

Mental Stress Reduction Techniques

For many of us, our brain’s interpretation of events is what maintains high-stress levels. Even people who are good at keeping a positive mindset sometimes struggle with stressful thoughts.

Again, neuroscience researchers have found that we can train our brains to reduce those thoughts. If you are experiencing anger and irritability, The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook recommends several brain training techniques, such as stopping irrational thoughts.

Mindfulness, the act of focusing on the present moment, is a powerful method to reduce stress. Deliberating on the past or fretting about the future is fruitless.  Try mindfulness techniques to see what works for you. For example, simply taking a few deep breaths tells your body to relax and stop releasing stress hormones.

Until Jane started monitoring her body, she didn’t realize she tends to feel her stress in her stomach. She tried out several stress management techniques. Deep breathing and distraction worked well for her.

Self-Care: Change Your Situation

If training your brain and managing your stress does not help you feel in control, you might need to change your situation.

Focus on Your Life

In my book, The Happy Activist (formerly What’s On Your Sign?), I encourage new activists to take a broad, big-picture look at their life, including their goals, values, and important roles. Even their bucket list! Because having this focus means you will be more likely to choose the right activism for you. That way, it fits in seamlessly with the rest of your life.

If you are not passionate about your cause, or your activism method is stressful, consider changing your situation. Take time to step back and ponder how activism fits in with your life plan. Long-term, effective activists are clear about what motivates them and make sure it is part of their work. To be the most help with your cause, you should match your passions and motivation with your work.

Bolster your Support Network

If you work with an activist organization, evaluate how well they meet your needs. Do they help you cope? Do they coach, mentor, and train you? Are you getting the right information and tools? Do they care about helping you meet your activism goals? If your organization is not meeting your needs, find one that does.

If you don’t work within an organization, what mechanisms do you have in place for learning, feedback, growth, and support?

This sort of self-care will make it more likely that you will be an effective activist. And that means you can make the change you want to see in the world.

[More information about self-care is available on the How To Stay Motivated In Your Activism page.]

Jane Turns it Around

Jane decided to pause her activism work so she could focus on finding the cause she was most passionate about. Then she spent time planning how her activism meshed with her family life. She chose to move to a new organization that allows her to focus on motivating work. Ultimately, everyone was more satisfied. Her husband was less worried about her new role, her kids started participating with her, and Jane felt motivated even when the work was hard.

[Like Jane’s results? Use my book, too!]

READ NEXT

Is Self-care Important? How Caring for Yourself Helps You and Others

An oldie but a goodie: The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook by Martha Davis, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman, and Matthew McKay. Now in its 7th edition. This book provides easy step-by-step instructions for the gamut of stress reduction techniques, both mental and physical, and helps you create an action plan.

The Burnout Rating Scale The Change Agency. Originally from In The Tiger’s Mouth: An Empowerment Guide For Social Action by Katrina Shields.

Pacing Yourself for the Journey: How to Avoid Burnout and Thrive while Working to Change the World Chapter 15 of Grassroots and Nonprofit Leadership (1995) by Berit Lakey, George Lakey, Rod Napier, and Janice Robinson.

Resource from New Tactics in Human Rights 

The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way by Hillary Rettig

How a Chef Helps Activists With Self-Care