Why do boundaries matter?
Many ILR practitioners live in a boundless world in which coworkers are also your aunties, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas. The separation between what stays at work and what goes home can be non-existent. For some of us, our homes are also literally our offices. We wear ten hats and we never take any of them off. What all this lack of boundaries does, is make you tired. In the absence of boundaries, you might be walking the path to burning out as an ILR practitioner.
Burnout is physical, mental, and emotional fatigue that happens in your mind, body, and spirit. Burnout comes working too hard, from overexposure to stress, from a nervous system that is in a constant state of activation, and a long list of other ways that you can end up with an unbalanced life.
- LEXICON
Burnout
Physical, mental, and/or emotional fatigue resulting from chronic stress.
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What does setting boundaries help you do?
- LEXICON
Setting boundaries
Protecting your life force and making space for rest and recovery.
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Many ILR practitioners and have not learned how to establish limits.
It can feel like the life or death of your language rests upon your shoulders.
“No single person should feel responsible for the fate of a language.”
Setting boundaries creates space for rest and recovery. The space you need doesn’t have to be big, but it must allow you to slow down.
You can’t grow your internal awareness in high stress environments.
You can’t create emotional space between your embodied responses and how you want to be in the world without boundaries.
Setting boundaries helps lessen the impact of language revitalization upon your body, mind, and spirit.
Journaling and Reflection Exercises
Write down in a journal your reflections on these questions.
